Masters of Health Magazine May 2022 | Page 85

Treating Your Body’s Symptoms

Dr. Eric Plasker, DC

Isn’t it time you stop treating symptoms? These signals that you get from your body are frequently misunderstood. More importantly, treating symptoms without getting to the cause of a problem can lead to mismanagement of your health and more severe health problems down the road.

For example, when you get sick and your temperature goes up, your body is naturally fighting off the infection. When infected with bacteria, your body’s Innate Intelligence raises your temperature to help fight off the infection on its own. The symptoms of this elevated temperature can be muscle aches, fatigue, weakness and general malaise. At the first sign or symptom of a fever, many people will immediately panic and try to bring the temperature down with medication, treating the symptoms rather than letting the body do its job and heal itself.

The medications that are used to treat these symptoms can lead to side effects and even weaken the body’s natural immunity. The overuse of antibiotics has created an epidemic of superbugs that are untreatable and pose a serious threat to our long-term health.

The CDC states, “If antibiotics are used too often for things they can’t treat—like colds or other viral infections—they can stop working effectively.” Antibiotic resistance has been a concern for years and is considered one of the world’s most critical public health threats. Widespread overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics is fueling an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.