Chronic illnesses develop slowly over a period of time. Symptoms come and go, leaving patients wondering if something is really wrong or if it’s all in their head. When these patients finally do report symptoms to their doctors, the disease has usually been present for some time. By the time a patient gets in to see the doctor, the symptoms may have subsided, leaving the doctor wondering if it’s all in the patient’s head.
It’s like the car owner who notices a strange noise in the car, only to have it disappear when the car is taken to the mechanic, or like the toothache that disappears when you walk into the dentist’s office. Medications may have been prescribed that masked the symptoms without ever getting to the root cause of the disease.
By the time both the patient and the doctor are convinced that something is wrong, permanent damage may have already occurred. People who have one chronic condition usually have others, making diagnosis even more difficult. For example, a patient with a bad lipid profile probably also suffers from obesity, diabetes, and hyper-tension. Coming to a diagnosis is even more difficult in diseases where there are no definitive lab tests to identify the disease. In these cases, doctors may arrive at a diagnosis by process of elimination.
Most doctors are trained in acute care. They see the problem, name it, fix it, and send you on your way. According to David Jones, MD, of the Institute for Functional Medicine, medical students are taught to quickly diagnose an illness and provide acute care for the symptoms; medical schools train future physicians for what will be about 20% of their practices, but 78% of today’s patients present with at least one chronic illness.