The Five Seasons of Health - Seasonal Symptoms You Should Know.

When I was a recent graduate, a new patient came to see me about mid July with left shoulder pain. I interviewed her as to how it started hurting. She didn’t know and denied falling or injuring her shoulder in any manner. It was very painful and hurt to move it. She was unable to hook her bra without excruciating pain. She had received many treatments and therapy for the diagnosed muscle problem in her shoulder and was considering Rotator Cuff surgery. I performed an examination and found she had a very active Occipital Fiber associated with the sixth Thoracic vertebra. This vertebra is associated with the pancreas. The pancreas refers pain to the left shoulder. I explained my findings to her.

I’ll never forget the look she gave me. She was incredulous. I’m surprised she didn’t walk out. She informed me that she was working in admissions at a major hospital and had access to the finest doctors available and none had mentioned anything about the pancreas. I then proceeded to explain to her the seasonal influences, specifically that we had just moved into pancreas/spleen/stomach season (in Eastern medicine the pancreas and spleen are considered to be one organ) and that her shoulder pain was pain referred from the pancreas. I then went on to explain that about the first week of September, we move into Lung/Colon season, then about a week after Thanksgiving we would go into Kidney/Bladder season. She was getting anxious and about ready to leave, so she allowed me to give her a treatment which included the CMRT procedure  for the pancreas. When she got up, the pain was almost gone. I didn’t expect to see her again. But the following week, she returned with the pain 90% gone. She received a treatment and left with the pain gone. Well, the story doesn’t end.

About the first week of September, she shows up with her “fall cold”. She still isn’t buying the theory but she’s back. She received the CMRT procedure for the lungs. Well, the story doesn’t end there. She shows up about the first week of December with her mother in tow, both with bladder infections. She had explained to her mother that she didn’t know what the heck I was doing but it worked previously and couldn’t see any reason not to try it again. They both received the CMRT procedure for bladder and left. Yes, you guessed it. The story doesn’t end here.

About mid – February, she shows up again. Before I can say anything, she confronts me. She wanted to know if we were in Gallbladder season and does it refer to her right shoulder. I was stunned. Yes, I replied, how did you know? She explained that she was privy to admissions diagnoses as a part of her job and that since I had originally told her about it she began observing the hospital diagnosis reflecting the seasons.  I had described to her and had been tracking it. She received the CMRT procedure for Gallbladder and continued to come in sporadically throughout the years.

Ask anyone how many seasons there are and you will hear the number four. Rather than attempting to convince you that there are five seasons throughout the year, I am going to tell you when it comes to your body there are five seasons that occur throughout the year. They are Spring, Summer, Late Summer, Autumn, Winter. Each season has a hollow and solid organ associated with it. These organs are paired and work together, i.e. the kidney and bladder. Makes sense doesn’t it, the kidney and bladder working together. These organs are associated with many other things as well, i.e. they become more active during a certain of time of day; they are associated with the 5 senses (sight, eyes/Alcohol poisoning causes blindness/Liver); emotions (I’m so afraid, I almost peed my pants; Kidney/fear); body tissue(s) (muscles/tendons/ligaments, liver).

Here is how it works. For everything there is a season. During each season a paired hollow and solid organ cleanses repairs and rejuvenates. Depending upon the state of the organ(s) during this cycle various symptoms appear, i.e. Liver/Spring/Sinus Congestion. These symptoms are then interpreted as being bad and attempts are made to suppress these symptoms. Let me use this example. Let’s say that in the spring, you decide to clean the garage. You sweep, clean and rearrange the garage which gives you discomfort. As you are sweeping out the garage, a dust cloud is created. It chokes you and the dust settles behind where you are sweeping. The old, unused items you don’t use need to be eliminated from the garage. They are moldy, bacteria covered & disgusting to touch. The dust filling the air and bacteria/mold covered items are the symptoms of getting the garage clean. Just as a runny nose, stuffy sinuses and phlegm are bacteria filled symptom of getting your body clean. Any good healthcare provider will tell you the discomfort and symptoms must be suppressed, so stop cleaning the garage. You do and the crud continues to build up over the years or you can tough it out, get the garage clean and there will be less to do next year.

Do you stop cleaning when the dust is in the air or the trash bag starts filling? Would you do more than one sweeping of the garage? Would you take out more than one load of trash before finishing? There are many people who continue cleaning until the job is done when it comes to their garage. Yet they will immediately stop any cleansing process their body is doing. Why? Because they can see the garage needs cleaning but are unable to understand what their body is attempting to do because of their understanding that all symptoms lead to a Disease Crisis.  It may take several sweepings to get the majority of the dirt out, just as it may take a couple of cleanses to get your body clean.

Why is bacteria & mold covering the old unused stuff? The bacteria and mold only attack old decaying matter in the garage. Just as the bacteria, fungus, yeast and Candida are breaking down old decaying matter in your body that is not being eliminated. The amount of decaying matter present will be in proportion to the amount of bacteria, fungus, yeast and Candida present.

There is also daily house cleaning that occurs in the body. If a symptom occurs daily at a specific time of day, i.e. Liver/1-3AM/you wake up after going to sleep. It is your body being overworked while doing its daily housekeeping associated with a specific organ.

Let me use this example. When you wash your dishes, a couple of things occur. First the amount of work needed is proportional to the amount of waste on the dishes and how hard it is stuck. Secondly, the water will become dirty from the elimination of waste remaining on the dishes. The elbow grease you use is the physical discomfort you feel and the water becoming dirty is a symptom of getting the dishes clean. Any good healthcare provider will tell you the discomfort must be eliminated and the symptoms must be suppressed, so stop washing the dishes. But you still have to use the dishes on a daily basis. Are you going to choose to cook and eat off these dirty dishes for many years?

There is another way of viewing these symptoms. The cleaning of the garage and dishes is defensive in nature, keeping your house in good working order. Everything the body does is defensive in nature. Defensive in that a tight muscle will occur to protect you from falling apart structurally. Move wrong and you strain this muscle. Defensive in that your body maintains itself on a daily and seasonal schedule of repair and rejuvenation, through “biologic clocks”, which regulate metabolism and hormone levels, the menstrual cycles, growth in children, the onset of puberty, etc.

Dr. DeJarnette proposed the following “Working Laws of Health”:

	Movement is life and life is movement.
	The body is alive so it is moving totally and continuously.
	This movement is synchronized throughout the body and is reciprocal from one part to another.
	When a part loses its synchronization and reciprocation, it continues to move but that movement is inappropriate to the state of the rest of the body.
	No single part can be understood except in relation to the whole.
	No part of the body can be isolated from its relationship to the other parts of the body.
	No part can exist only in and of itself.
	After the primary lesion (dysfunction), everything the body does is defensive in nature.
	The defensive measure continues until the primary lesion (dysfunction) is corrected.

Optimal Health
If you are reasonably healthy your body will express symptoms associated with the seasonal organs. A healthcare provider utilizing functional indicators will readily observe this, i.e. Occipital Fibers in Sacro Occipital Technique, pulse diagnosis in acupuncture. That is as long as the healthcare provider is free of any preconceived notions about what they will find. Dr. Wayne Dyer often speaks of purchasing bewilderment. That is to be free of any preconceived notion when diagnosing the cause of a person’s ailment. But too often alternative healthcare providers, who recognize lungs and colon as being paired in Eastern healthcare, default back to the Western healthcare model, i.e. bronchitis is a lung problem corrected by treating the lungs. Functional Healthcare providers would recognize the presence of Dysbiosis resulting in fermentation and putrification causing gas in the colon. The gas is absorbed into the blood stream (which increases blood pressure because gas will increase fluid pressure) before being released into the lungs, irritating the lining of lungs, causing lung irritation.

If a person is reasonably healthy, their body will be synchronized with the seasons. With each change of season they will have mild symptoms associated with the specific organs involved. Treatment may consist of taking supplements or taking a SOT treatment or both. I am amazed when patients come in telling me there is a change in the season and felt the need to come in to receive a treatment. Even more so when they come in telling me which season it is.

During each season depending upon the state of the organ, a person may experience more or less symptoms. The symptom is the result of the body’s inability to adapt and compensate. The symptom is often removed two to three layers away from the original problem.

It is common for people to initially come in the office out of synch. If you are not synchronized with the seasons, you may wonder how long it will take and what do you have to do to get there. It has been my experience that a person will go through one year of seasonal treatment before they will observe they are Seasonal Synchronous. During the initial six to eight weeks, treatment will be more frequent. At this point a person will usually observe a noticeable difference in how they feel overall and their treatments will become less frequent.

Those that are two or three seasons out of synch often become frustrated because as their body corrects itself different symptoms appear frequently and are uncomfortable. In fact, my patients have coined phrases for it. I was unaware of this until a patient came in asking me if she was going to go through PPA. “What is PPA? I asked? “Post Peterson Aches”, she replied. Another came in reporting she had been “Daved”. What they were experiencing is a Herxheimer Reaction.

Perception of their condition often determines whether the person will continue on through the Herxheimer Reaction.  If a person seeks social proof and follows the public perception of symptoms being bad they will stop the treatment.  Justifying their decision as the inevitable process of getting old and there is nothing to be done about it.  Others seek different social proof from those who have gone through PPA and have seen how much better their friends feel.  They understand it may be uncomfortable and realize there is an end to the Herxheimer Reaction.  They don't accept the premise of aging dictating their health.  Those with a healthy skepticism seem to fair best.

Holistic Approach
It is the following principles that distinguish Functional Healthcare from other traditional medical approaches:

"The holistic philosophy of medicine is based on the premise that the whole person, not simply the symptoms of disease, must be treated.  Illness is not conceived as a single disease with a specific cure, but rather as an expression of disharmony with the natural world." - David Perlmutter, MD, Lifeguide. Pg. 7

• Work with the body's natural healing ability by recognizing.
  Herxheimer Reactions
  Herings Law of Cure
  Working Laws of Health

• The highest form of treatment is that which enables the patient to then go out and heal themselves.  The lesser form of treatment treats the patient's problem.  The lowest form of treatment addresses the patient's symptomatology.

• Indicators, signs and symptoms are search for and organized into a "Pattern of Disharmony".
  Sacro Occipital Technique recognizes patterns of disharmony and has designated specific names for them.  i.e. Categories I, II, III.
  Names for patterns of disharmony are convenient labels used to describe how the parts of the body function in relation to each other and the whole and how best to achieve correction.

When I entered Chiropractic school, I was under the illusion that all Chiropractic was the same and that all chiropractors found the same things and did the same treatment.  Was I ever confused when I found out they didn't.

Pain can be a great motivator.  As you may have read previously in my story, I hurt badly for thirteen years and went through three years of standard treatment and received some relief but overall felt worse.  I began to call it Chironol; relief lasts four hours then get it again.  But one SOT treatment gave me hope of getting relief.  I not only got relief but after five weeks of SOT treatment have been pain free since November of 1991.

I had to question what the difference was between types of chiropractic treatment.  I know chiropractic treatment is effective but some types are more effective than others.  I believe the primary difference is in the way the body is viewed.  The more complete the view of the body, the greater the effectiveness.  Chiropractors talk about subluxations occurring causing pain and discomfort.  As a new student I asked the question, "How does a subluxation occur?"  The answer, "Take my word for it son, it does."  I was incredulous when further questioning was ignored.  I was also incredulous when attending my first SOT seminar, it was explained in simple anatomic, neurological and physiological terms the means in which a subluxation occurs.

I began to be aware of other differences.  Very few talked about the Healing Crisis.  Even fewer talked about referred pain from organs.  Most will talk about a twist in your hips but never speak about what happens to the organs attached on the inside to your hip bones.

What makes Sacro Occipital Technique different?  Recognizing that no part can be excluded from the whole, SOT utilizes specific procedures to correct the most prevalent Pattern of Disharmony.  The procedures used affect the entire body and are used judiciously because often the least amount of input can create the greatest amount of change in the body.  This is the reason why many other problems resolve with SOT.  After the primary lesion (dysfunction) is corrected, the defensive measures, i.e. muscle spasm, altered joint movement, have no further need to exist and spontaneously resolve.

Treatment should always be determined by a preponderance of indicators, which reveal the pattern of disharmony.  In Sacro Occipital Technique, the eighteen trigger points of Fibromyalgia are in the same location as the indicators used to diagnose a Category II - Sacroiliac Slip Separation.  Dr. DeJarnette wrote that many books could be filled with the multitude of symptoms caused by a Category II problem.

Doctors should be free of preconceived notions about the nature of a patients condition.  Symptoms are generally not good indicators of how to treat a patient.  However, symptoms often give indication as to how well the treatment is progressing.  The inherent nature of the human body is to heal itself.  Therefore, the highest form of treatment empowers the human body toward self-healing.  Further, the least input (treatment) utilized to effect the appropriate change in the indicators allows the human body to take the most active role in the healing process.

In Sacro Occipital Technique, the priority system of treatment is utilized to determine the most likely effective treatment.  Therefore, an individual that has Acid Reflux and Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms and exhibits Category II, Category I indicators would likely receive a Category II treatment.  This treatment may well result in positive alterations of some or all of their Category I indicators and of their digestive tract symptoms.

Back to the top