Today I cut the Gordian knot.
At least that's how one of my patients, Klári (I've changed her name), summed up our conversation after the first consultation. She already knew a lot about nutrition and her illness, but it was only after a good two and a half hour consultation that she really understood what had made her ill and the connection between her childhood symptoms and her very serious illness today.
For me, this is a huge compliment. However, I am extremely saddened that she came to me at the age of 54 with a problem that, if recognised at the age of five, would have been fine today. That no doctor has been able to identify her real problem. And it's not because they don't know their profession, it's because they don't learn about the importance of nutrition at university.
I remember the Gordian knot effect well. I phrased it slightly differently, but the point was the same.
I was waiting for my children in a library in Germany, looking through books on allergies. Purely out of professional interest, because not long before I'd heard of an eczema diet that worked, and it was a complete novelty to me.
There in the library I came across a book by Dr. M. O. Bruker: Allergien müßen nicht sein. After I read the book, I slapped my forehead: this is what they didn't tell me in pharmacy school. The book was logical, understandable, scientifically correct.. No purple fog, no muddles, no logical fumbles. It described how the diseases of our modern civilization develop, and what we can do to prevent them, and what we can do once they have developed. It gave me a whole new approach to health promotion and medicine, more than 25 years ago.
I then applied for training at the institute run by Dr. Bruker in Lahnstein and trained as a health counsellor.
To this day I prefer you to come to me when you are not yet ill...