I Am Feeling Unhealthy - Who Should I See?

If you haven't felt yourself for a while, finding a professional to help should be easy. Millions of people who have tried to do so have found that the process can be a minefield. First of all, what type of professional should you go to? And how do you know that they will be able to help you?

The first step for many is speaking to their local doctor. A consultation with the GP is convenient, free and is also familiar territory. However, if your ailment requires more than anti-biotics, anti-inflammatories or anti-depressants, you may be out of luck. The older generation of doctors received just seven hours schooling on nutrition. The younger sect spend seven years learning to be doctors, but are given just over 20 hours to study nutrition; unless it is a personal interest of theirs and they choose to spend their own time educating themselves, mainstream doctors will only be able to offer mainstream treatment. This equates to selecting a drug to suppress the symptoms.

Unfortunately, for most individuals, this will not make them feel any better. You can make a rash less angry, take the edge of a headache or even lower cholesterol levels with drugs, but none of these interventions improves the conditions that made you feel so bad in the first place. Hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue or intestinal dysbiosis; holistic treatment from the NHS is but a dream for these issues. More and more people are turning to complementary healthcare.

So do you see a nutritionist, acupuncturist, reflexologist, allergist? Or any of the other more alternative options? At least with a mainstream doctor, you know what to expect. The world of complementary medicine is marked by its strong variation in venues, standard of care and the knowledge of the practitioner involved.

It is here where the individual needs to do a little research. One nutritionist may have spent years developing their knowledge of a complex disorder and pioneering their approach to take into account all the many factors involved; another may have mentioned it in an essay they wrote for their BSc. One acupuncture practitioner may have spent five years in training for a degree in TCM before spending years in China refining their skills; another may have just the basic skills from a foundation course. There may be wealth of difference between practitioners of the same art and, whether you like it or not, it is up to you to select which practitioner is most likely to help you. It also shows why you cannot write off a particular approach on the basis of an ineffectual therapist – you wouldn't dismiss the idea of learning to drive a car on the basis of one bad driving instructor!

Of course, the problem remains as to which therapeutic approach to explore first. My personal view is to worth through a solid foundation of physical intervention, and use meta-physical intervention as an addition to it. This means dealing with your nutrition first, providing your body's cells with sufficient vitamins, minerals and nutrients that they require to function optimally, and making use of the additional treatments like acupuncture to provide additional support. I accept that, as a nutritional therapist, my views are likely to be somewhat biased. However, if your body needs magnesium then no amount of energy medicine can create it; once provided, though, it can help your body to use it resources better.

In any case, it is important that you seek out the most appropriate professional to help you achieve the changes that you want to achieve. This should be someone who has suitable qualifications, someone who has a public presence and is happy to discuss his/her approach openly, someone who has a track record of consistently making a difference and someone who is happy to refer to other practitioners when indicated. Your common sense, intuition and little bit of research should help you find this someone.