What IF You are NOT Your Diagnosis

What IF You are NOT Your Diagnosis

Cellular Health

February 03, 2026•9 min read

Allopathic Medicine chases symptoms. It's actually a great way to train doctors. Memorize, categorize, diagnose, repeat. In our Western medical paradigm, the framework centers around perscribing pills to fix your ills. We have over simplified, and created cookie cutter recipes for managing symptoms.

What IF your symptoms were just the tip of the iceberg?

Most of us live in our bodies day to day--fairly disconnected from how we feel. I blame the socialization that is necessary for order--particularly in schools, and at work. We are told not to squirm in our seats, to wait to eat until lunchtime, to wait to go to the bathroom until recess, or a coffee break at work. We stop listening to our bodies at a very young age.

When symptoms crop up, and something is bothering us, we seek professional care. We go to the doctor, or to urgent care, often we put off going to get care--until things feel scary.

Truth is, our bodies are magnificent. There are processes going on all the time, trying to bring us back to center. Neurons are firing, chemical messengers trigger a cascade of events, cells are being born, cells are dying off, cells are cleaning out the organs and tissues, bringing in nutrients, and ushering the garbage out. When symptoms crop up--often something has gone awry inside our body--for a very long time. It's like when the garbage piles up and get stinky--or when you open the fridge and you know instantly something has gone bad in there... seemingly unnoticed, until the rancid smell hits you. Our bodies are the same. Symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg.

We are made up of trillions of cells, a vast network of communication, and efficiencies. I think of us a a living coral reef. We have bacteria and microbes living on us, and in us, in symbiotic relationship, helping things run in different systems of our body. Thank goodness we don't have to be in charge of all the signaling and routines that keep us in good health. We don't have to think about breathing, digesting, or producing hormones.

When something goes wrong, our Western paradigm does a great job categorizing our symptoms. For many, you know something is wrong, and often things haven't felt right for some time. We are challenged when the doctor--or many doctors can't quite put their finger on what all is--or has happened, until the list of symptoms, and our blood work align for a diagnosis. For some it is an exhaustive number of years searching for answers. Often when a diagnosis comes it is a double edged sword--it is both a relief to finally have a name for what we have been experiencing, because now we know. AND it may be so far down the cellular disfunction cascade that there isn't much that can be done. Western physicians prescribe a pill to manage your symptoms, or offer surgery--to cut into you. AND many doctors tell you there's no root cause resolution--because honestly, most have not been trained to help get you well.

SO, What IF You are NOT your Diagnosis? That's an interesting conundrum. I've seen many who wear their diagnosis like a badge of honor, happy to take the pill, and glad to finally know what's "wrong with me." A diagnosis is not the end game. It is a culmination of symptomology--what you explain, your symptoms at the time you see the doctor, and how you describe what you've been experiencing. Ultimately your diagnosis is a way of categorizing these symptoms in conjunction with your bloodwork.

Bloodwork is interesting in itself. Your physician requests a blood draw and analyzes the numbers--of that moment in time. When the doctor tells you your numbers "look fine" they mean your numbers are with a range of normalcy, unless your numbers dip into the "bad range" which are generally a disease state. There is very little look at minor shifts, especially if you aren't displaying the "bad range" --even if you've been feeling off.

Our bodies have trillions of blood cells. This was hard for me to conceptualize. We are generally made up of 30 trillion cells (I'm simplifying here). 80% of these are blood cells--so 24 trillion cells. That's crazy right? We think of our selves as skin, and bones, and muscle, and tissue--all that solid stuff. Yep, 80% blood cells--doing the work on the super highway of vessels and microvessels, traveling to organs and tissues, repairing, and renewing. Every second we make 2-3 million red blood cells, or an average of 200 billion red blood cells--every day. We also loose about 1% of these each day--generally 240 billion cells die off. That's staggering. The average life cycle of a red blood cell is 120 days--4 months. That means that every 4 months (I'm generalizing here again) ALL of our blood cells are completely new.

This is what is so incredible about our bodies. We were designed to heal, and come back into homeostaisis--balance. So IF Your diagnosis is a moment in time, a look at your bloodwork and symptoms--at the specific time--AND IF Western medicine is managing symptoms, not seeking root cause resolution, doesn't it seem like there might be something You can do--to affect change--to potentially shift your health outcomes for the better? I think so.

Maybe I'm just an optimist. I admit there is a lot I don't know about my body's inner workings. AND I know there is a LOT that is still to be figured out--even in modern medicine. Often there are findings that happen--in the world, that don't make it to the physicians--they are busy working, in a system that has them categorizing and prescribing. Most studies, and revolutionary science take 25 years to make it into the text books, and into schools. Many European countries have socialized medicine, and they don't want their residents to be sick--as it costs the system more. Our Western system is focused on sick-care, and the pharmaceutical giants don't want you to know about how to eat right for better health--that's not a pill they can prescribe. There is no money in it--for them--in You getting better.

When COVID hit, and we were shut down for months, people afraid of breathing on each other. We were masking, sititing outside, driving in the car together with the windows open, and wiping down our groceries as we entered the house. We were doing our best to mitigate exposure to a virus that was literally killing us, and we didn't know how or where it was most dangerous to be. We did our best. Many of us lost loved ones, and some were hit repeatedly by this virus--that took a heavy toll. But there was not a public campaign, no bill boards telling us to eat right, and exercise to reduce inflammatory responses in our bodies--to make ourselves more resilient. (Hmmm)

Today we are also facing a healthcare crisis--world wide, we see a staggering amount of auto-immune disfunction, disease rates are climbing. Autism, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and dementia are all on the rise. Why? What is happening inside our bodies that can't be identified. What are the physicians missing? Many point to nutrition, and cellular health. Our soil, and oceans, and food quality is not what it once was. I can see it. In my lifetime alone--in 55 years, from 1970 to today the health of Americans has never been worse. People used to be skinny. When I was in high school--seriously, every one was trim. Now we expect to fatten up, and get a poor health diagnosis--as we age. We think this is normal.

Yet, in areas in the world, there are people that are healthy, that live long, active lives, with relatively little disease--in the "Blue Zones." These people are not affected by the "life style diseases" we see in the West. It is theorized that they eat differently, have a better sense of purpose, and are connected in community--and that these factors play a role in their health. People in these regions generally eat seasonally, from the land, or seas. They live a slower lifestyle--walk more, maybe laugh more, and worry less. It's an interesting supposition. When we study these regions what stands out is they generally get more Omega 3's in their diet.

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are substances that our bodies need, that we don't produce, that we must get from food, or supplementation. Studies are show that there is a direct correlation to poor health outcomes and disease states in conjunction to an imbalance in the Omega 6:3 Ratio in our blood. That's right. What we eat--affects our blood health. We generally think we eat, and it magically gets broken down into carbs, fat, or protein. In addition, nutrients like the Essential Fatty Acids support our cellular health. Omega 6's are inflammatory--they help us bring cells to wounds or injury--to swell up--to aid healing. Omega 3's are anti-inflammatory--they signal the cells things are ok, and we are on the mend.

The trouble is that our diets have changed, we are eating more processed foods, and not eating from healthy soil or seas. We have an increasing number of Omega 6's in our food supply, and not enough Omega 3's. When this happens, our cells have a build up of too much of the wrong kind of fat. Cellular walls become impermeable, and cannot absorb nutrients, or get rid of wastes--and they become less responsive to chemical messengers--like hormones, and signaling gets slowed or delayed. Guess what--this is when symptoms crop up. This is like a traffic jam on all the major highways, and side streets, with a garbage strike at the same time.

Interestingly, most doctors think there is nothing we can do. Remember those millions and billions of cells are dying and being born each day. To me--that is hope. Hope in our body's magnificient system. What IF we can support our new cells--to be healthier. What if we can learn to balance our Omega 6:3 Ratio, and we can create a supportive environment for our cells to thrive? What IF we can heal a portion of our inner coral reef, so that the next section has a fighting chance to rebuild and restore? When cells are supported, they function better, then our organs function better, and our systems function better, and the whole body works together synergistically, doing all the magical signaling and cellular repair--and voila, our symptoms reduce and subside.

So what IF You are not Your Diagnosis? What IF your Diagnosis is just a moment in time. What IF you could support your cells, and improve your health outcomes? I think you can. I think we can. I think that bringing our bodies back into Balance with nutritional understanding, and support, and that balancing our Omega 6:3 Ration--may just be the Keystone.

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Thanks for tuning in. I'm Monika Adams, M.Ed. Mastery Certified Health Coach, Functional Nutrition Counsellor. Researcher, Health Educator my goal is to Simplify Science and Enhance our Knowledge so that we can heal--one person, and their trillions of cells at a time--to move the dial on public health.

diagnosiscellular functioncellular disfunctionroot cause resolutionessential fatty acidsomega 6:3 ratio

Monika Adams, M.Ed.

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