Signs and symptoms are teachers

Jefferson Breland

(5/2025) All medical systems, Eastern, Western, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and the various indigenous healing practices use the body’s signs and symptoms to design how we are going to help you. What is interesting is what the different medical systems consider to be signs and symptoms and how they are used in treatment design.

Since most of us are familiar with Western allopathic medicine, I will mostly be writing about Chinese medicine since that is my thing.

It may be helpful to ask, "What is a sign? What is a symptom?"

In its most basic sense, a sign is an objectively observable indication of the state of a person.

This may be the result of a visual observation (like seeing someone walking with a limp or seeing a rash or other change of skin color), touch or palpation (listening to a pulse or pressing on different parts of the body), listening to the sound of a person’s voice, listening to the chest and back with a stethoscope, measuring blood pressure, checking body temperature with a thermometer, doing a blood or other lab test, or imaging using machines such as x-rays, MRIs, CT scan, PET scan, ultrasound, and the like.

While not mutually exclusive, a symptom differs from a sign in that it is a patient’s description of what they are feeling or experiencing. Symptoms are not always readily observable to someone other than the patient.

Common examples of symptoms are dizziness, pain, a stuffy head, chills, a fever, fatigue, memory, sleep issues, bladder and bowel concerns, itchiness, not feeling like one’s self, and so on.

Signs and symptoms vary in their level of expression from barely perceptible to holy moly! This is where the belief that signs and symptoms are our teachers comes in to play.

Since many signs are not readily observable without the right medical equipment lying around the house (stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers (blood pressure cuffs), MRI machines), it is very important learn our body's slightest symptoms.

I am not encouraging anyone to become a hypochondriac, just the opposite. I propose that we pay very close attention to our bodies symptoms without creating a story of illness or disease about them. Sometimes a runny nose is just a runny nose without there being a "problem."

I love the techniques and criteria Chinese medicine uses to look at signs and symptoms.

There are some similarities to Western medicine: physical examination, visual observation, and questioning/inquiry.

Where Chinese medicine differs is that we use these similar techniques to gather different information. When we listen to the pulses, look at a patient’s tongue, palpate different areas of the body, we do so to learn about the state of the person’s energy body as well as their organ systems.

We also use smell the sound of a persons’s voice, and the emotions surrounding their reason for being in seeking treatment.

Our questions about bodily functions, personal preferences, and states of being offer us different information about the body’s systems.

Sometimes the symptoms we inquire about don’t seem pertinent or consequential. I may ask patients if they prefer or crave hot or cold beverages. I may ask if they notice the slightest draft of wind or cool air and the effect it has on them. I will ask about whether they get hunger pangs. I will ask patients about the time of day their symptoms increase or decrease. I may ask, "Is there something you love to do, that you are not doing?"

These may not seem like "medical"questions. To practitioners of Chinese medicine, these and similar "non-medical" questions provide information about the patient’s relationship to their internal, emotional, and external environments.

Because Chinese medicine is based on interrelationship, we use the patient's answers to see where there may be an imbalance in their relationship to their body, mind, and spirit. To emphasize the interrelationship of these levels of being, I use the term, "bodymindspirit."

I did not invent the term. When we recognize an imbalance on any one of these levels, the other levels will also exhibit an imbalance.

The earlier we can notice the least of our symptoms, the less we have to do to feel better.

For example, my wife may notice she is a bit grumpy. She will notice she is tired as if a plug has been pulled out of her foot and her energy has drained. She may notice she is less tolerant of the way other people drive.

To her, these are symptoms that indicate a cold is coming on and she needs to take a hot, epsom salt bath, drink a glass of Alka-Seltzer Plus, and go to bed early.

When she does these things, she feels much better the next day. Does it work for everyone? I don’t know. I do know it works for her and she rarely gets sick. More importantly, she moves through the world more peacefully, happily, and helpfully.

A foundation of Chinese medicine is the philosophy of Taoism (sometimes spelled Daoism). In perhaps overly simplistic terms, Taoism tells us when we live in harmony with nature, we will be healthier, happier, and live life more fully.

A fundamental belief of Taoism is: There are no accidents; Everything happens for a reason; Everything happens for good. It is our job to see the good.

This is not a scheme to be in "denial."

It is a map to persevere no matter what happens to us.

We can use this concept of "Everything happens for good" every day of our life. This is especially true when we experience signs and symptoms that can cause great concern.

You may ask, "How can symptoms be good when they can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and sometimes terrifying?"

I declare they are good because signs and symptoms are the body’s natural way of calling us to take care of ourselves. Symptoms offer us the opportunity to take action to help ourselves.

Like the "check engine" light in our car, symptoms point to subtle and sometimes profound ways that something in our bodies or in our lives is out of balance and needs attention.

We can ignore the "check engine" light in our car, put tape over it so we can’t see it. We can turn up the music in the car when the engine makes a funny noise so we can’t hear it. As many of us know, if we ignore our cars’ warning lights, rather than needing a simple oil change, we might need a new transmission or a new engine. Which would you rather pay for?

In general, if we know that these "lesser" symptoms are here to help us and take the opportunity to make small, sustainable changes in lifestyle, diet, our relationship to the world, we could avoid much unnecessary suffering.

These modifications don’t mean that we have to give up foods we love or activities that help us enjoy life. Modifications help us learn what supports and what does not support us on the bodymindspirit levels.

Please consider making simple changes. If you ignore or suppress symptoms, you take the chance that the root cause of those symptoms will surface somewhere else in our body in a more severe form. You could think of it as a mortal game of "Whack-a-Mole."

Another way of looking at suppressing minor symptoms with pain relievers, antacids, and other over-the-counter medicines, is that when we take them, we are denying our body the opportunity to heal itself. Our ability to heal ourselves is one of the greatest gifts human beings have been given.

Please note I am not saying to ignore your symptoms. I hope that you understand that I am asking you to think of symptoms as teachers.

If certain symptoms persist, I recommend scheduling an appointment with your primary care physician or your local acupuncturist to gain some insight about how you can help yourself.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.

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