Suppression

Suppression means stopping or limiting an action. Frequently we limit the vital energy in our bodies by the use of conventional ‘cures’. These are designed to make the external symptoms ‘disappear’ but do nothing to heal the factors which caused those symptoms in the first place.

How often do we use a cream to ‘remove’ a rash, a pill to take away a pain, or a medicine to calm our nerves? The main action of these medicines is to palliate an inconvenient symptom, rather than to address the underlying cause behind it. This rarely constitutes a long-term cure.

If we keep suppressing a symptom long enough the body may not be able to continue to externalise the illness. As a result, toxins are pushed inward and the body is forced to locate another available outlet in an attempt to regain balance. For example, repeatedly suppressing flu symptoms might eventually lead to acne as the body tries to push toxins out through the skin. However the outlet may not always be physical – it can be anywhere on the mental or emotional level too. A simple example of this is when someone has been taking remedies to suppress a cold, and then becomes irrationally bad-tempered as the discharge dries up.

There are some circumstances where suppression may be beneficial and even life-saving, however in many cases, conventional medicine suppresses non-life threatening symptoms instead of treating the underlying cause.

In contrast, natural health practitioners seek to understand and correct the underlying imbalance that has caused a symptom. For example treatment of a cold would involve strengthening the immune system while acne could be corrected by rebalancing the hormonal system. This approach can be unpopular in today’s quick fix society; however the upside is that by treating the underlying cause the problem has been corrected, rather than simply ‘papering over the cracks’, and this in turn results in a better outlook for long term health.