Beyond Medicine

The Sixth Caveat: When You Hear Hoof Beats, Look for Horses
This caveat suggests that when a patient is experiencing a physical symptom, a physical examination is indicated as the initial effort in establishing the source of their concerns. But once again, it stops there. The goal of this conventional assessment is to identify a structure that is tentatively associated with the experience of the physical symptoms, resulting in a physical diagnosis. Conversely, the use of the hoof beats caveat merely represents a starting point for ruling out potential causes and serves as a compass for guiding one through the maze of probabilities. With the other caveats as tools for refining a direction, the ultimate destination may reside in an entirely different realm than the one in which the symptoms exist.

Before these caveats became a formal part of my routine evaluation, a paradigm shift occurred that would forever alter the way I approached these seemingly unsolvable mysteries. The paradigm shift occurred when I decided to look at these concerns in a different way. This led me to the first step of integrating the caveats into a new understanding and approach.

The first step was simply a realization. The realization was, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” I had heard self-help “guru” Wayne Dyer say this many times. But this time it really made an impact. I immediately recognized that I was onto something, but I had no idea what it was. So I began to look at things differently. I began to think for myself, perhaps for the first time since before grade school.

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