What is a Symptom?

What exactly is a symptom? According to Merriam-Webster a symptom is subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance; broadly: something that indicates the presence of bodily disorder. So what does that mean? To make it simple, a symptom is when you feel or see something is wrong with your body; this can be seen visually, like a rash or it can be something you feel, like pain or dizziness. Your body is sending you a message that something isn't right with it when you have symptoms. The symptoms are not the culprit or cause, they are the expression of the problem. To give you an example, you eat something and within five minutes you notice your lips are swelling up and it is becoming difficult to breath; your swollen lips and difficulty breathing are the expression that you just ate something that you are highly allergic to and you are now having an anaphylactic reaction. Another example is that you wake up in the middle of the night with a fever and have sinus congestion. The fever and sinus congestion are the symptoms and the culprit is the virus that you have contracted. I want to express how important it is to understand that if you are experiencing symptoms, the symptoms are not the problem and it is extremely important to find the cause of the symptoms. So often we want to just get rid of these symptoms instead of hunting for the culprit. Medical tests can be expensive, painful, and frustrating. Even after getting testing there are plenty of times physicians can't seem to find the culprit and tell you everything "looks" normal. Until the culprit is found your body can not function at optimal level. I discuss this topic because with celiac disease it takes an average of four to six years for someone to be diagnosed because the symptoms often are not related to the gastrointestinal tract.

I have done a video called "Symptoms of the Unknown," its purpose is to discuss the multitude of different symptoms that can be presented from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Understanding that your symptoms are the direct result of a culprit is the first step to getting well.