Your symptoms aren't random

And we don't treat them like a collection of unrelated inconveniences.

You have acne.

You're exhausted.

Your periods are horrendous.

You're constipated.

You're getting headaches.

You're anxious before your period.

You're bloated by dinner.

And somehow you've ended up with seven different products for seven different symptoms.

This is where we zoom out.

One of the biggest parts of our job at Tonic Co. is pattern recognition.

Not assuming that every symptom has one magical underlying “root cause”.

And definitely not blaming absolutely everything on your hormones.

But asking whether some of these things might be connected.

When did they start?

What changed?

Are they cyclical?

What happens around your period?

How are you sleeping?

Are you eating enough?

How's your iron?

What does your thyroid testing show?

Are your bowels moving properly?

What medications are you taking?

What happens when you're stressed?

What has already been investigated?

What hasn't?

Sometimes the pattern points us towards something relatively straightforward.

Sometimes it tells us we need more information.

And sometimes the most important thing we can do is recognise that a symptom needs medical investigation and refer you back to your GP or another practitioner.

That's good naturopathy too.

We don't need to invent an exotic diagnosis to make your symptoms valid.

We need to listen properly, gather the right information and work out what deserves attention first.

Because your acne might not just need another serum.

Your exhaustion might not need another coffee.

And your PMS might deserve more investigation than being told, “That's just periods.”

Your symptoms are information.

Our job is to work out what they're telling us.