Revealing the Layers of Illness

If you look at the human body you will notice an interesting repeating theme … layers. Every one of our organs, glands, bones, nerves, pathways and even memories are in layers. So when symptoms begin we don’t always realize the truth … that every illness emerges from layers of unresolved issues that have burdened our body to the point of literally screaming. The fact is that we have conditions and imbalances that have gone on for days, weeks, months and even years silently with no symptoms until the proverbial straw breaks the proverbial camel’s back. And all of these issues have to do with the layers that our body uses in both structure and function.

Almost every single symptom you could ever possibly have occurs because the body does not have the resources to manage the process that is driving the symptom. As we go through our life, we frequently have illnesses, traumas, injuries that we simply put away and forget. We don’t actually resolve everything. It’s rather like opening the drawer, throwing something in and saying we’ll deal with it later. At least in the drawer it can’t bother us … or can it? Most of our symptoms emerge from being ignored in the drawer for too long and we don’t realize the stress and worry it can cause just sitting in the drawer, not to mention the possible results of our procrastination on our lives especially if it’s a bill or a Final Warning from the IRS. We are actually talking about the fact that you are set up to develop symptoms when a body process, organ, gland or function has been ignored and the burden on the rest of our body has become too much.

Things have been hanging on by a thread for a while. So let’s take that literally and let’s take a tour of a clothing factory. There are various people that handle and work on any garment. Designers, Samplers, Layers, Markers, Cutters, Sewers, Checkers, Pressers, Packagers. The production of a garment depends on each person doing what they are supposed to do. If a Marker is out with the flu, then another Marker may try to step in, but they won’t be exactly the same as the first Marker. They may be less organized or be used to marking their garments in a different way. Or worse would be if a Layer takes over the Marker’s job which will be slapdash at best. What if the Designer tried to step in for the Sewer? It might get the garment out the door, but it won’t look the same, it won’t be in the same amount of time and this haphazard approach can only go on for so long, particularly as the Layer is getting fed up and wants a raise if they are going to have to continue also doing the Marking or they may just walk out.

Another problem we notice during our factory tour is that there may not be enough equipment or resources or time. The Sewers may be required to sew their garment in too short a time to do a good job or even complete the job. Miss Mabel, a Cutter, may have to keep borrowing Miss Esther’s scissors because she took hers home against the rules and her husband Cecil who is a compulsive tidier has tidied them into a hidden spot that he can’t recall. This creates a burden to both Miss Mabel and Miss Esther and it won’t be able to go on for long. There is a strike in Thailand and the gorgeous fabric that was purchased for a particularly attractive blouse is arriving in dribs and drabs which is not helped by the fact that the delivery truck is not maintained properly and keeps breaking down creating delays in receiving the fabric at the factory. Then there was the time that Harry the security guard took a bit too heartily to the bottle and reset the automatic doors to lock at 5 AM instead of to open for the early shift. No one could get in and the night shift couldn’t get out. I don’t have to tell you the outcome of 3 days of that! It sounds a bit constipated don’t you think?

Too much to think about? Well luckily you don’t have to because your body does all of this switch-hitting without even breaking a fingernail. It tries to manage with deficiencies by cannibalizing your own tissues such as breaking down bone to get calcium for the muscles. It breaks down tissue structures to get amino acids to build other proteins that are more critical. It robs the central nerves of their myelin sheath because it contains much-needed essential fat. Many structures try to carry on with their function by making due with what they have. It’s quite literally like starvation - trying to create a sea of healthy stomach digestive juices with just a few drops of water. Sleep is when we are supposed to be restoring ourselves, but if you don’t have enough choline in the liver, you can’t sleep.

Over time, these deficiencies, loss of functions, imbalances and dysregulations can’t be sustained and the body begins to show symptoms. It’s rather like a failing relationship. You can put on a brave face for only so long and then one day you break down and can’t even put a sentence together. Everyone assumes this is a recent problem, but you know it’s been going on for two years and you just kept plugging along bravely.

All of this means that when you have symptoms, it isn’t often a simple fix. It is often more of an investigation into all the possibilities and all the likely scenarios before coming to an understanding of the processes that have taken place to create the symptoms. Sometimes it even requires one step at a time without really knowing what the next step will be.

It’s realizing that the migraines began shortly after a viral infection which erupted during finals at school which you barely got through because you hadn’t been sleeping for 4 years which was when the alopecia started because you chose to dye your hair purple for a concert which was also during your party phase that led to the chronic hives that kept happening which you had also had in high school during the year you were on the swim team swimming daily in a chlorinated pool which you have now come to realize is the reason you were diagnosed as hypothyroid in college (chlorine prevents iodine absorption) which is why you started taking the No-Doze pills daily to stay awake and then couldn’t sleep at all but you also realized that you really hadn’t slept as a child because you kept having night terrors which made you so fearful of sleeping and you now realize was due to a mineral deficiency and now after traveling through all of these events in your history, you begin to supplement your mineral load and improve your diet with more nutrient dense foods.

Voilà, migraines are gone, permanently.

As I said, layers. Take a moment, think about your life and your health history because it is from this wealth of information that your answer will appear.