disease, healing, health, wellness, and fitness

We live in a society that increasingly wants to pass the buck.  Few people understand the concept of “Personal Responsibility” anymore.  There’s no place where this can be seen more clearly than in the arena of health.  Contrary to the beliefs of many people, your health is not up to your doctor.  Nor is it up to DR. OZ or Oprah.  And despite all claims to the contrary, it’s certainly not up to the GOVERNMENT. Your health is your responsibility.  We all have a tendency to blame our lot in life on circumstances.  Or BAD GENES.  Or the fact that our life is just too darn stressful and hard. Or_______ (insert your own excuse here).  

Playing the blame game is the easy way out.  Especially when it comes to health.  But blaming things other than yourself never gets to the root causes of why you are unhealthy in the first place.   And it certainly never changes things for the better.  In order to change things, you have to have the will to change, as well as the knowledge to know how to change.  Knowledge is power.  Let me help motivate and empower you to change your life.

What is disease?  When broken down to its simplest components, all sickness and disease is really just one thing (HERE and HERE).  It is some form of abnormal cellular function.  There are essentially two reasons that cells malfunction.  On one hand, the body can have too much of something (Excess).  On the other hand, it might have too little of something (Insufficiency).   These excesses and insufficiencies could pertain to just about anything (vitamins, minerals, calories, protein, neurotransmitters, inflammatory mediators, etc, etc, etc), and either side of the equation will ultimately lead to abnormal cellular function.  What are the pathways that lead us to insufficiency or excess, eventually causing abnormal cellular function (sickness & disease)?   Follow along while I show you.  

On some level the medical community grasps the importance of this chart.  They have a basic understanding that the five things listed directly above are pathways via which various sickness and disease processes can enter and overcome the human body.  The problem is that ‘medicine’ seems to be practiced by two distinct groups —- groups that are so far apart from each other, they often seem to be on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon.  Allow me to explain.

There is a chasm between the medical research community who does the scientific research, and the average treating physician who see patients on a day-in-day-out basis.  Most of this chasm is so great that the two groups can rarely see each other (the Grand Canyon is 18 miles across at its widest part),  often going about life as though the other group doesn’t exist (HERE).  The facts about why people get sick in the first place, what it takes to get healthy, and what it takes to actually stay healthy, are frequently ignored.  How else do you explain the medical community’s continued ignorance concerning some of these pathways.  Let’s briefly look at them.

• NUTRITIONAL:  This is big.  Although everyone learns from the time they are a first grader, “You are what you eat,” the medical community seems to be the last to catch on.  If you have not yet figured out that nutrition is intimately linked to health and cellular function (or dysfunction), you are probably sick.  I have all sorts of blog posts on this topic, ranging from GLUTEN, to PALEO EATING, to WHOLE FOOD NUTRITION, to CONTROLLING BLOOD SUGAR & DIABETES NATURALLY, to TRANS FATS, to GUT HEALTH, to KETOGENIC DIETS, and a host of others.  Why does the medical community continue to largely ignore nutrition?  Easy.  Firstly, they know very little about it (HERE), and secondly; when compared to drugs, there’s is no real money in it (HERE).

 

• CHEMICAL / HORMONAL:  This one is easy to figure out.  Excesses of certain kinds of chemicals create toxicity.  Not enough of certain kinds of chemicals and you have a deficiency.  Either one can destroy your health, or even be the difference between life or death.  Our medical community understands this.  In fact, they understand it almost too well.  Because they see the “Chemical Group” as by far the biggest of the five groups, it is how they attack most diseases.  You already understand this.  Doctor’s first line of treatment for almost any given health problem is to give people chemicals in the form of drugs.  Does this work?  Certainly it does —- sometimes — at least for awhile.   And it certainly works if you are a Pharmaceutical Company.  But all too often, looking at health from strictly a chemical point of view is covering symptoms without ever addressing underlying causes.  If a hammer is the only thing a carpenter carries around in his tool box, everything starts to look like a nail.  BTW, if you want any hope of effectively dealing with this bullet, you need to get a handle on BIOTRANSFORMATION.

 

• MECHANICAL AND / OR ELECTRICAL:   Although I PROVIDE LARGE AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION for my patients concerning the other bullets, this is where I spend the majority of my practice life.  Many people have deficiencies (or excesses) in joint motion and / or nerve function.  Whether their problem was the result of a SPORTS INJURY, a CAR CRASH, SCAR TISSUE, SUBLUXATION, or any number of others, they frequently end up with mechanical problems that can ultimately lead to a whole host of CHRONIC PAIN SYNDROMES.    This always creates a vicious cycle based on inflammation, with an end-result of some sort of DEGENERATION.  This category would also cover things like too little or too much exercise, POOR POSTURE, as well as a host of others.  It is very important to be aware that the body’s Electrical System is intimately linked to its mechanical system (musculoskeletal system).  Nerve interference and various sorts of BRAIN DYSFUNCTIONS cause untold amounts of sickness, disease, and health problems (HERE is a crazy example of this).  Furthermore, there is a growing number of elite physicians and scientists who believe that this dysfunction is the root of all disease (HERE).  I’ll throw SYMPATHETIC DOMINANCE here, as science continues to show this as an underlying feature in most chronic disease processes.

 

• MENTAL:  If you are not aware of the mind – body connection in health and disease, you may need to take a bit of time and research this topic.  This can be almost anything from stress to DEPRESSION, to worry, to any number of others.  Science has told us that the mind-body relationship is a major factor in as much of 70% of all disease processes.  We also know that things like TV, VIDEO GAMES & PORN (not to mention a lack of exercise) will rot your mental capacity as well. 

 

• GENETIC:  This is one that despite having billions of dollars thrown at it, is proving to be less and less important all the time.  Much of this has to do with the field of epigenetics (first link in the post).  EPIGENETICS is a rapidly expanding field within genetics saying that genes do not matter nearly as much as we have been led to believe.  The real question we need to find out is whether a specific gene has been turned on or not.  What turns genes on and allows them to express ill health?  Although it can be a variety of different things, they are usually the same things that we associate with an unhealthy lifestyle.  

I could have included another category and called it something like “Germs“.  The truth of the matter is that germs can cause disease.  But they also maintain health (HERE).  In the same way that genes get too much credit for sickness and disease, bacteria and viruses sometimes get too much credit as well — at least when talking about acute illnesses. Taking a cue from FDR’s “New Deal”, in the 1960’s LBJ created his “Great Society”.  He declared war on poverty, ignorance, and yes, disease.  How has that worked out?  Just look around you. 

We have more stupidity (particularly in Washington), more people sponging off the American taxpayer, and more people struggling with CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEGENERATIVE DISEASES than at any time in the history of our country.  Despite the explosion of technology (as well as UNCONTROLLED MEDICAL SPENDING), “MEDICINE” has not panned out like it was supposed to (unless, of course, you are part of “The Pharm”). And simply giving people ANTIBIOTICS and huge numbers of VACCINATIONS has proved to be a double-edged sword that is permanently destroying the health of as many people as they save.   What is the answer?  How about following the advice of the inventor of the light bulb.

Back in 1903, the January 2 edition of the Newark Advocate ran a story appropriately called Wizard Edison, which quoted him as saying, The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.  What do you think?  Good advice?  Although I am prejudice in the matter, I certainly think so.  In fact, I believe in this concept enough that I created you a generic template for getting your health back.

That GENERIC TEMPLATE can be found (free of charge) simply by clicking the link.  Be aware that while it will certainly help most of you (it only makes sense considering the commonality of sickness and disease), it won’t help everyone.  In fact, I know that some of you are already doing at least most of the things I suggest.  What about the people who are doing these things already, have given it ample time, and still aren’t seeing improvement?   This is where it starts getting tougher.  It may require some advanced testing from someone versed not only in FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE, but FUNCTIONAL NEUROLOGY as well.  I’m one of those crazy people who believes that short of rigor mortis, there is a solution out there for just about everyone.  It’s just a matter of finding it.  If I can either be that person (HERE), or at least point you in the right direction (HERE), I am fulfilling an important part of my life’s mission.