How I Make A Natural Health Assessment (Part Two)

   Picking up from where we left off in part one, a natural health assessment is NOT to diagnose disease. It is for looking at imbalances that cause symptoms. If you get migrain headaches it is because there is some cause that is creating an effect. That effect hurts but the hurt is NOT the problem, the CAUSE is the problem. So you may have to find out if there are certain things that trigger those headaches and eliminate them from your life. I might suggest an herb like Feverfew to help but the best thing is to find out if the cause is a toxin, or if it's an allergic reaction, or some exterior influence. We'd have to find out if those migrains are vasodilative or vasoconstrictive. Usually there is a liver problem or there may be a need for blood cleansing. My point is that there are lots of things that can cause a symptom and one size does not fit all.

   First thing you will do is fill out a Body Systems Questionaire that has a series of symptoms listed and a reference to the body systems I listed in part one. From this we will determine which is your weakest body system. We will probably give consideration to the next weakest system as well.

   I will be looking at facial features to see if, for instance, there is puffiness under the eyes, or perhaps a darkish color there, or I might look for certain creases, or redness. I will also have you stick out your tongue so I can look at shape, color, covering, whether it's wet or dry, or even if it's shaky. There are regions on the tongue that can tell me more and if I find that the tongue tells me the same thing the Body Systems Questionaire tells me, then I have TWO indications regarding that body system.

The tongue pictured here is called a geographic tongue. That's because it has patches of moss that look like a map. The person who owns this tongue probably has severe heat or inflammation in the digestive tract. (I got this picture off the internet; it is not one of my clients).

Of course there are all kinds of colors and shapes. Tongues with cracks in them, tongues with heavy coating, some are red, some are pink, and if one is anemic it can be almost white. But as I look at the tongue I can make a determination about, not only the condition of the tongue, but the various organs such as kidneys, liver, heart, stomach, intestines, and so on.

   From there I may choose to do a response muscle test where I will use your own electrical system to find out where weakness may lie. IF I find that you are weak in the same body system as with the Body Systems Questionaire and the tongue, then I will have THREE indications which is pretty good.

   One of my favorite methods of detection is with Iridology. I am NOT a master iridologist or even a certified iridologist, but I have had training in Iridology as part of my Herbal Consultant certification. It is the most enjoyable of all detection methods for me. BUT it has more to do with finding the basic constitution of a client than it has to do with finding a present pathology. Iridologists cannot study your iris and find a cancer someplace. What we can do is tell certain things about your physical and emotional constitution. I won't get into the emotional aspects here except to say that pupil tonis and size can tell a lot. Circular signs can tell whether you've been stressed or are even presently under stress. Again, I'm not going to get into the various signs with the collorette, or lagunas, psories, etc. But I will share with you just the simplest things that I can tell about you just by looking at your eyes.

  This eye is blue.Though I can see some other things about this eye, the main thing is the color. That's the first thing I will look at and I know that this color eye (as well as hazel, grey, green) is inclined towards respiratory and urinary problems. It is called a Blue Eyed Lymphatic because this person has a propensity towards a slow moving lymph system that can result in sinus problems and earaches, sore throats, more than with another color. Does this mean that this person definately has those problems? No! But it does provide a place to start and I would most likely find out that this person has had problems in that area and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it matched the other investigative tools.

This is NOT a true brown eye. This is an eye that has a brownish color over that blue or grey eye. This is called a Billary eye and this person has inclinations towards hepatic and digestive problems. This person may have come in complaining about discomfort on the right side of the body, or digestive issues. As soon as I look into this eye I will know what the tendency is. There's some other markings I can see which I won't get into today but with deeper investigation I can find a lot!

This is a brown eye. Its called a Hematogenic Eye and this person has a propensity toward circulatory problems. This does NOT mean that there is circulatory problems, but that she may have a tendencytoward circulatory problems including anemia, venous congestion,heart problems, hardening of the arteries, and so forth.

NOW, of course there can be cross-over problems with any of these colors but when I look at your eye color it gives me a clue about your general constitution. If I study the eye closer I can find out a lot more. So what is the CONCLUSION?

  By putting all of these things together we can get a pretty good idea of which body system is the weakest. Then we can make recommendations to address that system. We are built so that when energy is lacking in one area it will affect the whole. So, if that system is corrected the whole will be happy! You may have to make some lifestyle choices, changes in diet, perhaps some herbal supplement will be suggested, exercise, etc. But we don't diagnose, we don't do surgery, we don't (most of the time) address individual symptoms. We try to correct imbalances which in turn will take care of symptoms. As I said in part one, every natural healer has his/her own way of doing things.

But I believe the natural way is God's way, first!