It was 2 AM, and I was staring at another prescription pad. The patient in front of me—exhausted, in pain, desperate for answers—had been through five specialists already. Each one had ordered tests, written scripts, and sent her on her way. And now she was in my office, hoping I’d be different.
But I wasn’t. Not yet.
I wrote her another referral, added another medication to her list, and watched her leave with that same defeated look I’d seen a thousand times before. That night, I couldn’t sleep. Because I knew the truth: I was perpetuating a broken system.The Problem: Medicine Has Become a Band-Aid Factory
Modern medicine is brilliant at crisis intervention. Heart attack? We’ll save your life. Broken bone? We’ll set it perfectly. Acute infection? Antibiotics will clear it in days.
But when it comes to chronic disease—the conditions that actually define health in 2025—we’re failing. Miserably.
Consider the numbers:
- 60% of American adults have at least one chronic disease
- 40% have two or more
- Healthcare spending has tripled in the last 30 years, yet we’re sicker than ever
- The average 65-year-old takes 14 prescription medications
We’re not treating disease. We’re managing symptoms. And there’s a critical difference.
When a patient presents with hypertension, we prescribe an ACE inhibitor. When they develop diabetes, we add metformin. When their cholesterol climbs, statins join the regimen. Each medication addresses a number on a lab report, but none of them ask the fundamental question:
Why is this happening?
That’s not medicine. That’s maintenance.The Clinical Lens: What Root-Cause Medicine Actually Looks Like
Root-cause medicine isn’t alternative. It isn’t fringe. It’s what medicine should have been all along.
It starts with a simple premise: every symptom is a signal. Your body is speaking. Are you listening?
Let me give you a real example from my practice.
A 42-year-old executive came to see me with “resistant hypertension.” She’d been on three blood pressure medications for five years, yet her numbers stayed stubbornly high. Her cardiologist wanted to add a fourth drug.
Instead of reaching for the prescription pad, I asked different questions:
- How’s your sleep?
- What does stress look like in your life?
- Walk me through what you eat in a typical day.
- When was the last time you felt truly rested?
Within 20 minutes, the picture became clear:
- She was sleeping 4-5 hours a night
- Her cortisol was chronically elevated from work stress
- She was eating processed foods on the run, spiking her insulin
- She hadn’t exercised in months
- Her vitamin D was critically low
- Her gut microbiome was destroyed from years of antibiotics
Her hypertension wasn’t a blood pressure problem. It was a life problem.
Six months later, after addressing sleep, stress management, nutrition, and targeted supplementation, she was off two of her three medications and her blood pressure was better than it had been in a decade.
That’s root-cause medicine. We don’t ignore the symptom—we honor it as a clue to the deeper dysfunction.The Deeper Truth: Healing Is About Wholeness
But here’s where conventional medicine—and even some functional medicine—falls short: healing isn’t just about fixing what’s broken. It’s about remembering what’s whole.
Your body isn’t a machine with interchangeable parts. It’s an intelligent, self-regulating system that’s constantly working toward balance. When we see symptoms as enemies to be suppressed rather than messengers to be heard, we miss the profound wisdom of the healing process.
I’ve sat with enough patients to know: chronic illness is rarely just physical. It’s the body’s way of saying, “Something in your life is out of alignment.”
Maybe it’s:
- A career that drains your soul
- Relationships that deplete your energy
- A disconnection from purpose
- Years of putting everyone else first
- Unprocessed trauma living in your tissues
Root-cause medicine acknowledges this. We don’t just treat labs and scans. We treat humans—complex beings with emotions, histories, dreams, and spiritual needs.
When a patient’s inflammation finally resolves, it’s rarely just because we optimized their omega-3:omega-6 ratio. It’s because they finally left the toxic job. Started saying no. Began moving their body with joy instead of punishment. Reconnected with what matters.
That’s not woo-woo. That’s medicine that actually works.
How I Practice Medicine Now
After years of internal medicine and wound care, I had a realization: I could keep treating the consequences of poor health, or I could help people build health from the ground up.
So I built Prime Vitality Total Wellness & Medical Spa—a practice where we actually have time to listen. Where we don’t just run the standard labs; we dig deeper into hormones, nutrients, inflammation markers, and metabolic function. Where we combine conventional medicine’s best tools with functional medicine’s root-cause approach.
This is what medicine looks like when you remove the constraints:
- 60-minute initial consultations (not 15)
- Comprehensive testing that reveals the full picture
- Treatment plans that address nutrition, sleep, stress, movement, and supplementation—not just prescriptions
- Follow-up that’s actually frequent enough to matter
- Telehealth access so geography doesn’t limit healing
I still use medications when appropriate. I still refer to specialists when needed. But now, medications are a tool in the toolkit—not the only tool.
And the results? Patients who’ve been sick for decades finally feel like themselves again.If You’re Ready for Medicine That Actually Addresses the Root Cause
If you’re tired of being told “your labs are normal” while you feel terrible…
If you’re done collecting diagnoses and prescriptions without getting better…
If you want a doctor who will actually listen and dig deeper…
Then root-cause medicine might be exactly what you need.
At Prime Vitality Total Wellness & Medical Spa, we practice medicine the way it should be: comprehensive, personalized, and focused on helping you thrive—not just survive.
Whether you’re dealing with hormone imbalances, metabolic dysfunction, chronic inflammation, or you simply want to optimize your health and longevity, we offer:
- Functional Medicine Evaluations that uncover the root causes of your symptoms
- Telehealth Consultations for patients anywhere in the country
- Personalized treatment plans that address your unique biology
Because you deserve medicine that sees you as a whole person—not just a collection of symptoms.
Ready to start?Schedule your consultation and let’s figure out what your body has been trying to tell you.
Dr. Shiv Kumar Goel is a board-certified internal medicine physician, wound care specialist, and founder of Prime Vitality Total Wellness & Medical Spa. After years practicing conventional medicine, he now focuses on root-cause, functional approaches that help patients achieve lasting health transformations.