Why is diagnosis important?

“Don’t just treat from Where does it hurt? but from Why does it hurt?”​

​The origin of pain
Symptoms always have origins. If we understand the origin of the current situation, we can apply techniques to correct the root of the problem, making it is possible to return to one’s natural constitution.  However, identifying the cause of the problem is not as simple as just thinking about it. Take knee pain for example. Outside of injury, there are four causes and paired solutions most practitioners consider:

1. Excessive weight -> Lose Weight
2. Overuse (fatigue) -> Rest
3. Weakness (Muscular problem) -> Strengthening the tendons and muscles
4. Aging -> give up or get a knee replacement

The body isn’t that simple, however. There are cases where someone can lose weight, avoid overuse, and apply appropriate physical therapy and still not see any improvement in their condition. This is because the origin of the pain was incorrectly identified. Likewise, plenty of people have similar conditions (body weight, exercise and work regimens, muscle strength, and age), but pain levels vary dramatically. Such disparity of outcomes must come from somewhere, and it isn’t related to the four causes above. Naturally, they might be related and implicated, but the actual pain must be related to some other origin.
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There are three necessities for good health: nutrition, brain health, and maintenance of physical structure. Most people say you can achieve health by balancing this triangle, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Nutrition, for example, includes the process of intake and elimination (related to supplementation and detoxing). Brain health involves both memory and forgetfulness, and structural health is determined not only by exercise but also rest. If we start to look deeply at the axes represented by each corner of the triangle, we can create health that is gyroscopically balanced—all sides in perfect harmony. The balance between these aspects in an individual is one’s condition.  When all of the three fundamentals are off and need to flow or move back to homeostasis, this is called “conditioning.”  If we return to the knee pain example, the reason for the disparity of outcomes is born from the difference between each person’s total condition.
 
The assessment dictates the treatment
Just because the knee hurts doesn’t mean the origin of the pain is around the knee, and there are cases where pain won’t be resolved by simply assuming it is caused by weight, fatigue, or muscle strength. Alternately, the pain will resolve and the pathology won’t become troublesome, meaning daily life can proceed without hindrance. This is why proper diagnosis is important. If you do various muscle and movement tests along the entire body, you can properly assess the origin of the pain and find the specific location causing the condition, even though it might not be obvious at first. 


From “Kinesio Taping Method Pro Skills: Diagnostic-Based Taping” by Dr. Kenzo Kase and Dr. Tomoki Okane
Translated by Eric Michaelsen, DOM