“Are you sure you didn’t suffer traumatic brain injury?” That was the question I was asked a few years back from both an associate professor and the academic dean from the optometry school at a prestigious university. The fact that they asked me that question should have set off alarms, but I was, at the time, still under the impression that conventional doctors could solve my problem.

Looking back at my history of medical professional interactions, I am amazed at how fast they try to pin the symptoms on you when they realize that your condition falls within their knowledge gap. Whether it’s arrogance or an inability to articulate, I have experienced a plague in the medical community: the incapacity to admit they don’t know.

Even though they may never explicitly admit that they don’t know what it wrong with you, the way they treat you reads loud and clear:

• Specialists: They may send you to specialists in other fields to try and help them with their diagnosis. This is not a bad thing and may very well help you in the long run. The problem I have found is that not a single specialist referred me to a colleague in their same field. This screams of overconfidence and a refusal to admit that they don’t know everything in their own specialization.
• Psychology: Some will try to convince you that your issue is all in your head, and refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist. If your insurance covers it, or money is not an issue, I see no problem talking to someone to role out the possibility of a psychological manifestation. Please keep in mind that this is a common tactic used by doctors, so don’t be surprised when the psychologist or psychiatrist informs you that your issue is not psychological.
• Repeat Customer: They were never able to successfully treat you, but want you to continue to schedule visits at a set interval for monitoring purposes. At this point, not only have they been unsuccessful at helping you, they also want you to continue paying them for nothing.

Why is it that many doctors seem incapable of admitting their ignorance? Is it to protect the image of medical professionals as great problem solvers? Do they feel the need to protect their egos? Maybe they are afraid that those who received poor customer service would demand a refund. Whatever the reason, it is unacceptable, expensive and potentially dangerous.

On a side note: Freakonomics published a great podcast episode titled “The Three Hardest Words in the English Language” where they discuss our unwillingness to say the words “I don’t know.” It’s worth a listen, even if it doesn’t focus on medical professionals’ elusive ways to avoid admitting ignorance.

With 37 million U.S. citizens — roughly 11.7% of the population — suffering from migraines, why is it that the diagnosis ends at the symptoms? I cannot imagine anyone would be fine with their doctor diagnosing them with “hand pain” if their hand hurt; they would want to know the underlying cause of the problem. But with migraines, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to diagnose at the symptom level and treat the symptom not the cause.

The truth is that the conventional medical practitioners most likely don’t know the cause. Unless your migraines were brought on by an event, such as physical trauma, expecting a doctor to diagnose the true cause of your debilitating condition is almost nil. They may ask about family history to help with the general diagnosis, but at the end of the day, you are still being diagnosed with a symptom.

Even worse is the standard protocol for treatment: symptom suppression. Since they don’t understand the problem, they’re solution is to try a myriad of different prescription medications in an attempt to suppress your agony. For some patients, calcium channel blockers will help, while others may benefit from beta blockers. Some may see positive results with antidepressants while others react favorably to anticonvulsants. And then there are those of us that responded negatively — or not at all — to all of the above.

If you’ve done your homework you may have heard about migraine triggers. The most common ones fall under the foods category. There are many people that have been able to better control their migraines by simply avoiding certain foods that are known to have caused migraine episodes in the past. It’s too bad that over half the doctors I visited told me that triggers were hog-wash. I actually had a neuro-otologist tell me I was wasting my time with an elimination diet, only to find that his technician had better luck suppressing her migraines by removing certain foods from her diet than with any medications. You would think he would have talked with her first.

My journey through conventional medicine practitioners can be summized as such:

1. If a doctor cannot tell you the underlying cause of migraines, it’s because they are not knowledgeable in that topic
2. If they tell you that migraine triggers are hog-wash, they are not knowledgeable in that topic
3. If their solution is to treat you as a lab rat, cycling through medications in hopes that one will work, they are not knowledgeable in that topic
4. If they tell you “it’s all in your head” because their inadequate treatment protocol fails, they are not knowledgeable in that topic

In every case, I (eventually) decided to leave that doctor and continue my search for the answer.

The fact that I was fine until my early thirties tells me that magic wasn’t the cause of my symptoms. Either an external element (virus, bacteria, etc…) infiltrated my body and wreaked havoc, or a slow breakdown of my internal systems over a prolonged period of time finally sent out the distress signal when it could no longer function properly. With either scenario, the migraine was merely a symptom and if I could address the underlying cause then the symptom should respond accordingly.

There are doctors that believe they understand the true cause of migraines. Dr Max Gerson was one such doctor. He was a migraine sufferer who aimed to find the cause of his condition. His research pointed to a toxic body unable to rid itself of harmful toxins. The solution he derived was simple: saturate the body with nutrients found in organic fruits and vegetables while assisting the body in the removal of toxins. He was known as the migraine doctor while practicing in Germany and found that his treatment was also effective with other ailments.

One common thread I have found with people who help others to overcome migraines via unconventional methods is that they focus on nutrition and detox. The amazing thing is how this approach has helped many who were not able to find relief following conventional medicine’s protocol. What I find sad is that this approach is shunned — sometimes ridiculed — by conventional medicine.

Since becoming sick I can say that I am happy that conventional medicine was able to rule out some serious conditions through testing. This has helped me understand what’s not wrong with me so that I can concentrate on what is. But there lies the problem: They cannot tell me what is wrong with me, they can only tell me that I suffer from symptoms, and that the origin of those symptoms is unknown. This is where modern medicine has failed me. It has forced me to look at unconventional — and often ridiculed — treatment options in hopes to find a cure. This has opened my eyes to something conventional medicine doesn’t want to admit: many of our ailments may be caused by increased toxin exposure and a body not equipped to handle it. It would be pretty hard to peddle prescription drugs that only help with symptoms when dietary changes and nutritional supplements could prevent the ailments from ever manifesting.