Symptoms, of course, are simply the manifestation of the body out of balance. When we lose the ability to regulate ourselves, symptoms show up. Often, our bodies adapt to a regulatory problem for months or years without us knowing we have a problem. (Consider people who suddenly die of a heart attack, having never experienced any other warning signs. Obviously these people had a problem in regulating functions in their body for some time.)

With complementary and holistic medicine, the focus is on the symptoms as a cue or clue, but more importantly looking directly into the body's regulatory systems to see what might be out of balance. The endocrine, immune, digestion and elimination, pH balance, and cell respiration. These functions in the body are all interrelated and require proper nutrition, rest, water, and exercise for there to be balance.

For so many of us, it is impossible to get adequate nutrition from the foods we buy in the grocery store. The fruits and vegetables are mostly harvested green, thus eliminating the valuable, disease-preventing phytochemicals that are in abundance in vine-ripened produce. Next, we live and breathe in a highly toxic environment, filled with pollutants and pesticides that throw off our body's ability to regulate itself. Particularly critical are the chemicals which act as hormone and nervous system disrupters to our bodies. These may confuse the way our bodies send messages that trigger sexual, neurological, and behavioral development. An excellent book on this subject is Our Stolen Future by zoologist Theo Colbern (Dutton, $24.95). Billions of pounds of DDT, PCBs, dioxins, alkyphenols and other compounds are making their way into packaging, linings of cans, cosmetics, paints, furniture, and pesticides. And of course, the residues are in our water, soil, and air.