Treat the Causes of Chronic Disease, Not the Symptoms

Rajan Chatterjee, a young GP advocating that we need to holistically assess the long term causes of chronic diseases such as diabetes, dementia and depression in order to successfully rid ourselves of those illnesses often without the need for medication. As a GP he has realised that there are a collection of contributory causes of many chronic diseases  (diet, stress, sleep, physical activity, environment, infections, gut health) that we can each address and once we have ruled out or changed our personal practices or circumstances many chronic diseases can resolve. There can be no further need for some medical interventions that are commonplace at the moment. 

We are not all the same, we all have different genetics but we also have differing lifestyles and environments. Rajan argues that doctors need to learn to treat symptoms less and think about long terms causes more. Similarly the patient needs to realise that the dozen harmful things that they do every day harm their health, and it is much better to tackle those things personally than go to a doctor for a medication to ‘cover up’ the resultant symptoms.

Is this the future of medicine?