There is an old saying:
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.”
After more than 25 years of practicing medicine, it breaks my heart to see patients arrive after years of struggling with chronic illness—fatigue, brain fog, digestive problems, pain, inflammation, and so much more.
When I meet a patient, I try not to see them only as they are today. I try to see their potential—the possibility of becoming more vibrant, resilient, and well.
We can make tremendous progress in healing, but one of the most important questions is: How do we build resilience so the body is better equipped to handle whatever comes next?
At Suma Medicine, I look at health through the lens of mitochondrial health and resilience in our Groundwork Sessions. Our mitochondria are the energy-producing structures within our cells, and supporting their optimal function is a fundamental part of creating a body that can heal and adapt.
This means looking beyond a diagnosis or a single treatment. Chronic infections such as Lyme, Bartonella, or viral illness may need to be addressed. Environmental exposures may need to be identified and reduced. But we also need to consider the fundamentals that support cellular health every day:
Air. Light. Water. Food. Movement. Sleep. Connection. And emotional safety.
These are not always the most exciting interventions, but they are the groundwork upon which mitochondrial resilience is built. And when employed, they can be incredibly restorative.
The nervous system is part of this foundation, too. For some people, healing may require limbic or nervous system retraining, somatic therapies, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, or other approaches that help the body experience greater safety. A body that continually receives signals of threat has a harder time moving toward repair and restoration.
This is the philosophy behind our Groundwork Sessions for Healing at Suma Medicine: before we ask the body to do more, we work to create the conditions that allow it to heal.
And this brings us back to the tree.
We cannot go back 20 years and plant the tree. But we can plant it today.
The food we eat, the light we receive, the air we breathe, the quality of our sleep, the environments we live in, and the way we care for our nervous system are all investments in our future resilience.
The work you put in today may become the strength you rely on years from now.
So if you are struggling with your health, don’t think of the work ahead as punishment for what happened in the past. Think of it as planting your tree.
You may not see the full benefit tomorrow.
But keep tending to the roots.
Twenty years from now, you may be very grateful that you started today.
In health and love, Dr. Mary
Photo Credit: Magnific