The Iceberg Principle

Recently my youngest boy came in the house and was proud to show me that he had helped weed the dandelions out of our front yard. He showed me a handful of yellow flowers that he had snapped off at the head. I explained that just pulling off the top does not solve the problem, since you have to remove the roots if you want to be free of weeds  long term.

Failing to address the root of a problem is a common problem our society faces. When it comes to our health, we are frequently guilty of merely treating symptoms, as opposed to correcting the source of the problem. This is known as the iceberg principle.

It is natural for us to focus our attention on the obvious problems that are visible to us on the surface, but the "tip of the iceberg" is just a small portion of the problem. Doing so may cause some immediate relief, but we are still oblivious to the cause of the problem and, thus, unable to solve it. 

Our health can be likened to the iceberg principal in that many underlying problems occurring at the subconscious level physically manifest themselves as disease in our bodies. You temporarily treat a headache with aspirin, allergies with an antihistamine, or depression with anti-depressants, but if you don't address what is causing those problems, then you are only masking symptoms and not getting to the root of them.