DAVID WELLS BSc. (Hons) Ost., cert. ICAK
Osteopathy • Applied Kinesiology • Bio-Resonance • Live Blood Analysis
The Importance of Diagnosis.
From the perspective of a conscientious practitioner, who likes to understand the cause of illnesses before making recommendations to fix them, a recent article printed in UK newspaper ‘The Guardian’ is a poignant example of the importance of diagnosis.
It is heartening to know the lady in question did eventually receive surgery to remove a piece of plastic ketchup sachet from her bowel, but it is sadly yet another all too common example of misdiagnosis. In this case it is reported to have taken six years before someone said “this actually doesn’t really look like Crohn’s”; the diagnosis given previously, clearly without solid proof. How many people go much longer than six years, even the rest of their lives, hopping from one doctor to another, before cause is demonstrated? In my experience, many many people are in this category; at the hands of practitioners who to all intents and purposes are just guessing, writing prescriptions and failing to give adequate thought to the complaint or the solution.
In practice, diagnosis as a process involves fitting symptoms (what the patient feels) and signs (what the doctor sees) into well established pathology patterns providing the physician with a strong element of suspicion you are suffering from X,Y or Z. Rarely is it categoric. When symptoms, signs and case history don’t make sense, or our suspicion and recommendations fail to return improvements, then we look further afield; run different tests, consider less common causes until something makes sense, and can be proved, and treatment works. We do not, or at least should not, just clutch at straws because we couldn’t find anything else.
The number of clients I have seen who have been through the seemingly ever-repeating cycle of symptoms-medication-symptoms-medication without ever having a confirmed diagnosis is disturbingly high. And yet, without diagnosis, how can we ever really know how to treat?
Western medicine often pooh-poohs diagnostic processes such as Applied Kinesiology (AK), mostly through a lack of understanding, rather than empirical evidence indicating ineffective method. I have found however, that AK usually prevents this unnecessary cycle and reliance on long-term medication, by providing answers to the important questions in double-quick time. Finding plastic objects inside the bowel is not common, and doctors can be forgiven for not considering this early on. Crohn’s disease is more common, and there are tests which can help in its diagnosis (although it has to be said that I am always skeptical of a Crohn’s diagnosis, for reasons we don’t need to get into here). The point is, it does not take six years to diagnose Crohn’s disease, and in fact it can be done clinically within a week. So having crossed that off the list, we have another 5 years and 358 days to think of something else, so our clients don’t have to suffer for so long!
If you find yourself in this familiar cycle, either go back to your doctor until there is a diagnosis that makes sense, or see an Applied Kinesiologist.
This Article written by David Wells, Osteopath & Applied Kinesiologist.
Follow the link to the Guardian News Page for the original article here:
The perspective shared in this article comes not just from medical training but from symptoms and treatment protocols observed over more than 20 years of clinical experience.
If you found this article interesting, this topic and many more are explained in depth in the book, 'Finding Awesome: Proven Steps to Extraordinary Health'. Read more about it here.