Getting to the Root Cause: Why Your Symptoms Aren’t Random
The phrase “root cause resolution” gets thrown around a lot these days—and for good reason. It’s not just a buzzword in functional medicine, but a fundamental shift in how we understand chronic symptoms and disease.
Alzheimer’s researcher Dr. Dale Bredesen once described chronic illness as “36 holes in the roof.” In other words, you’re not just dealing with one cause of your suffering. Imagine your health is like a house, and the roof is leaking. Not because of one big hole, but because there are 36 smaller holes. If you only fix one, you're still getting water damage. In the same way, if your health is suffering and we only address one contributing factor (like diet, or hormones, or sleep), you won’t truly get better — the “leaks” will keep coming.
So here’s what that means in real-life terms:
You might be dealing with…
Nutrient deficiencies
Chronic stress
Poor sleep
Gut imbalances
Environmental toxins
Unresolved trauma
Food sensitivities
Blood sugar issues
Hormonal imbalances
And more…
Each one of these is a hole in the roof. On its own, it may not be enough to cause full-blown disease. But together, they overwhelm your body and lead to symptoms — like brain fog, fatigue, inflammation, anxiety, and eventually, chronic illness. With a functional and holistic approach, we can work together to find your holes… and patch them one by one.
Roots and Rivers: What’s Really Causing Your Symptoms?
Let’s stretch some metaphors for a moment.
In functional nutrition, we talk a lot about “roots”—as in the root causes of illness—and also “upstream” factors. I know it’s mixing metaphors (trees and rivers!), but both are important because they point to the same truth: your symptoms didn’t appear out of nowhere.
They were planted, watered, and nourished over time by the soil of your life.
Here are just a few of the factors that can shape your internal terrain:
Your living environment
Your birth story and order
Genetics and epigenetics
Nutrition and diet history
Lifestyle and stress
Occupation and sleep
Community and social support
Past trauma, mindset, and more
All these elements go into your unique “body pot.” Then, life’s stressors—emotional, physical, environmental—get stirred in. The result? Symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, bloating, joint pain, skin conditions, and eventually… diagnoses.
Misconceptions About “Root Cause Resolution”
Let’s be honest. Many practitioners aren’t addressing the terrain.
They may do specialty testing and prescribe targeted treatments, which can be valuable. But if they’re not thinking about the terrain—the internal environment in which those root causes took hold—then they’re missing the soil and the trees.
True root cause resolution means we ask:
“Why is this happening?” Not just “What is happening?”
It means clearing the muddy water so we can see clearly. It means nurturing the soil before digging up the roots. Because sick roots don’t heal in toxic soil.
That’s where holistic, functional nutrition comes in. Our job isn’t just to diagnose or suppress. It’s to understand the deeper patterns at play in your body—and to create the conditions where health can thrive.
Your Symptoms Are Speaking—Are You Listening?
Symptoms are messengers. They’re not the enemy—they’re the signal.
When ignored or suppressed with pills and quick fixes, they don’t go away. They just find another way to scream louder.
This is the failure of the conventional medicine model: it slaps band-aids on symptoms without addressing what’s causing them. It’s like mopping up a leak while the leaky faucet is still running.
But there’s a better way.
With functional nutrition, I can help you get to the real reasons behind your symptoms. We look at your story, your lifestyle, your biochemistry, and your terrain. We work to identify and resolve the root causes—before your symptoms turn into something more serious.
Because your body is always talking.
Our job is to listen—and respond with wisdom, not pharmaceuticals and band-aids.
