The Top 3 Roadblocks to Overcoming Digestive Disease

It's difficult to eat well, exercise regularly, and not become stressed each and every day. Pile on the weight of an intestinal disease and it seems like you might as well not even try. While the odds are stacked against you there is hope if you can get past the 3 roadblocks that sabotage efforts for change. Here they are.

1. Relying only on your doctor's advice
2. Focusing on the symptoms and not the root cause
3. Forgetting to turn knowledge into action

Let's talk about them in more detail...

Roadblock #1 - Relying only on your doctor's advice
Now this doesn't mean you should dump the meds down the toilet, leave your doctor a breakup voicemail, and tell your family you are now a health "freak".

Instead ask your doctor questions about your disease and his prescribed treatments. Most doctors are exceptionally busy so they may brush off the questions with a short answer. But go ahead and keep asking. Because, you need to understand their plan of attack and ultimately it's your health on the line.

In addition, educate yourself about your disease. For Crohn's and Colitis patients the CCFA and the about.com IBD section is a good place to learn the basics.

This brings me to the next obstacle.

Roadblock #2 - Focusing only on the symptoms and not the root cause
It's common sense really but so often we forget the truth: for every action there is a reaction. There is a reason why your Crohn's is flaring up, why you feel worse some days than others, and especially why you have the sickness in the first place. For many digestive diseases allopathic (modern) medicine only treats the symptoms because the cause is still "unknown".

Research suggests (and personal experience supports) environmental factors play a big role in the cause. Basically, anything that you breathe, touch, or put in your mouth can be considered environmental factors. It's a big list and it's up to you to figure out which ones are making you sick. Thankfully, we will be talking much more about causes and how to overcome them naturally.


Roadblock #3 - Forgetting to turn knowledge into action
A recent Consumer Reports article started me thinking on this point. The article shared a common occurrence in our society. We have abundant sources of knowledge at our fingertips, but it means nothing if not acted on.

Why is this so common?

Because new health changes are not convenient and are always time consuming - at first. I have heard it said that it takes up to 30 days to master a new habit but only 4-5 days to lose it. Whatever the statistic, the fact is, they take time to learn. As we practice these habits the faster we become, the easier they are adopted into our daily lives, and the more consistent we become. And the more consistent our health habits - the healthier we will be.

If these 3 obstacles are overcome much of our health will simply fall into place.

Are there other obstacles that I missed? Chime in below.


Photo courtesy of website rockstars.