Philosophy
THE "PATHWAY OF LIFE"
Life can be thought of as the passage down a pathway. At birth, you enter the forest at one end of the path and at death you exit the forest at the other end. Certain health stages tend to happen along the way.
Although it is not always the case, most of the time one is born in optimal "Health and Balance". No negative symptoms are present and one enjoys the positive signs of health (abundant energy, positive emotional state, enthusiasm for life, restorative sleep, positive interpersonal relationships, life seems fun and interesting, etc.). The momentum of this balanced health carries us for many years and sustains itself in spite of the many challenges placed upon the system. The leaves in the forest here are green.
At some point, the challenges of life (poor lifestyle, injuries, improper diet, lack of exercise, insufficient rest, stress, overwork, illness, etc.) begin to take their toll on us and we move into a state of "Imbalance". In this stage, one is still free from negative symptoms but progressively looses the positive signs of health mentioned above (energy, enthusiasm, positive emotions, etc.). Nothing seems seriously wrong but things are not as right as they were. You just don't have the old get up and go. The leaves on the trees are turning yellow.
If the state of "Imbalance" persists, it eventually leads to the stage of "Dysfunction". In "Dysfunction", the positive signs of health are absent and negative symptoms (pain, improper internal organ function, etc.) are present. Something is definitely wrong. The leaves have turned orange.
If no remedial measures are taken, the "Dysfunction" stage progresses and tissues begin to be damaged. In the "Pathology/Disease" stage, the positive signs of health are absent, negative symptoms are present, and damaged tissues are evident. The leaves on the trees are now red.
Eventually, some pathology will progress to a point where life can no longer be sustained and the final stage, death, ensues. The trees are bare of leaves.
Everyone progresses down the "Pathway of Life" uniquely. Some may skip stages altogether, as in the case of a child (Health/Balance) sustaining a serious injury (Pathology/Disease), but most of us slowly go through the above stages in sequence.
I want to emphasize that one does not have to move only in the direction of degeneration. If the health challenges are removed or corrected, one can move towards greater health, in the direction of regeneration. The body can heal itself even of pathology if the causative health challenges are adequately addressed. In the "Pathology/Disease" stage, it may be necessary to repair/replace/remove/restore pathological tissues and counteract dangerous symptoms to prevent serious injury or death. But relying solely on these means, without correcting what caused the condition in the first place, will not result in health. The untreated cause will eventually express itself in some other disease.
Understanding this philosophy is vital to enjoying life optimally. It doesn't matter how much you have if you aren't healthy. Most people spend their lives on the cusp between "Imbalance" and "Dysfunction". Our culture teaches us to wait until negative symptoms are present and then treat until these symptoms are gone and then stop treatment. Because we stop treatment before reaching the "Health/Balance" stage, we never enjoy the positive signs of health and intermittently suffer from painful symptoms. We do not consciously choose this. We were programmed to believe this was what health care was about.
We all know what we need to do to be healthy. We need to get enough sleep, exercise regularly, avoid junk food, think positively, avoid stress, avoid pollutants, etc. Many of the things we should avoid are quite pleasant and many of the things we need to embrace are not so pleasant in the short term. In my own experience, the promise of the non-experience of negative symptoms was not enough to motivate me to give up those harmful lifestyle habits that brought me short-term pleasure. I was fortunate to have been exposed to the above understanding and decided to see if it was true. I lived a healthy lifestyle based upon faith in this philosophy and persisted until I gained the "Health/Balance" stage. Once I regained the positive symptoms of health, I realized that these positive symptoms were much more enjoyable than the short term pleasures of negative health habits. The positive symptoms were not only more fulfilling, they were present continuously, unlike the short-term pleasures that persisted briefly but left ill health in their wake. Upon attaining this state as an adult, I remembered feeling this way as a child. I thought that losing this positive state was part of growing up. My cultural conditioning told me this was the case. In reality, it was the effect of mistaking the state of "Imbalance” for health. This demonstrates how important it is to have the proper understanding about health and how detrimental it is to have an improper understanding. How you think about health and disease makes a huge difference in whether you achieve health or not.
The Big Ideas
Health/Balance
1) Health is a positive experience of abundant energy, restful sleep, emotional positivity, a heightened sense of well-being, a peaceful/contented mind, and enthusiasm for life. It is not merely an absence of painful symptoms.
2) The positive signs of health are as noticeable and intense as are the negative symptoms of dysfunction and disease. They include a pleasant physical sensation (tingly, alive feeling); a delightful, joyful emotion; a peaceful contented mind; a sense of well being independent of environmental circumstances; and an appreciation of how amazing it is to have conscious existence in this infinitely varied universe.
3) One must consistently avoid things that harm health and perform things that promote health to continue to enjoy health. Significant lapses in healthful lifestyle habits will result in loss of health. Health is not just a goal, it is an ongoing process.
4) Once you attain the state of health, the experience is so wonderful that it is easy to stay motivated to the healthful lifestyle. It seems like a bargain.
Imbalance
1) The positive symptoms of health are lost. This is not the state of health, even though there are no negative symptoms! Most people make the mistake of stopping natural remedies when the negative symptoms are gone. They don’t persist until the positive symptoms of health return and, thus, never attain true health.
2) Loss of the positive signs of health is not the result of aging. The state of “Balance” usually can sustain itself until adolescence before one has encountered enough health challenges to move one into “Imbalance”. If one were to live healthfully in youth, one would not loose health in the first place. If an adult returns to healthful living, the positive signs of health can be regained.
Dysfunction
1) The positive symptoms of health are lost. Negative symptoms are present.
2) Pain is your body’s early warning system. Pain medicines only numb you to your body’s cry for help. To rely on painkillers long term without looking for, finding, and correcting the cause of the pain is like turning off your smoke detector and returning to bed without looking for what set it off. Painkillers are often addictive and long-term use is always harmful to the liver and kidneys. Short-term use of painkillers is all right for comfort if one persists in locating and eliminating the cause of the pain.
3) Natural balancing remedies (like acupuncture, chiropractic, herbs, etc.), along with a return to a healthful lifestyle, can correct the causes of the pain and dysfunction resulting in the disappearance of negative symptoms and the appearance of the positive signs of health.
Pathology/Disease
1) Pathology (damaged or deranged tissues) in chronic diseases, like heart disease and cancer, is like the tip of an iceberg. What you can see is a small fraction of all that is wrong. Merely removing, replacing, or repairing the pathological tissues does nothing to correct the cause/s of the pathology. Restoring the function of these tissues artificially (e.g. insulin for diabetics, thyroid hormone for hypothyroidism, etc.), while necessary, does not address the cause/s of the problem. These causes will continue to degrade one’s health and well-being until they are corrected.
2) The body can often heal pathology if the causes are removed (e.g. positive lifestyle habits replace negative lifestyle habits). Natural balancing remedies like acupuncture and chiropractic can facilitate this process. The body requires time to make these changes.
The Differences Between Approaches
Orthodox medicine and natural healing are very different approaches to health- care. Each has its own constellation of strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, each is ideally suited to treating a different type of problem, making them complimentary.
The two types of health conditions are “Acute Disease”(AD) and “Chronic Degenerative Disease”(CDD). “Acute Diseases” are sudden in onset and are often immediately life threatening. Examples of Acute Disease are infections and trauma. Their life-threatening symptoms must be removed immediately to save the person’s life. Infections are treated with antibiotics, which address the cause of the problem. Trauma and the serious symptoms of the end stages of CDD (heart attack, stroke, etc.) are treated by counteracting the dangerous symptoms with surgery and/or powerful drugs. Acute Diseases are caused by a single exposure, and once it has occurred, the dangerous symptoms are present and remain after the causal event is gone. Treating the cause is ineffective as it either no longer exists or the patient will die before the body has time to heal itself. Chronic Degenerative Diseases are slow in onset and develop over the course of years or even decades before they become dangerous. They are caused by faulty lifestyle choices (e.g., poor diet, lack of exercise, and/or stress in the case of high blood pressure). If the lifestyle is corrected, the symptoms will resolve towards health. In CDD, the best treatment of choice is to replace the faults with healthy lifestyle choices.
Pain and other symptoms are your body’s early warning system. They are like a smoke detector going off. You would not turn the alarm off and go back to sleep without checking to see what set it off. Nor should you counteract a symptom and assume everything is OK without finding its cause and correcting it. Once you have put out the fire, you can turn the alarm off. Once you have begun addressing the lifestyle faults, you may manage the symptoms for comfort, but I encourage you to use natural remedies that do not poison the body and make it even less healthy.
Practically speaking, if you feel you may have an acute infection, physical trauma, or significant symptoms, see a medical doctor. If nothing serious is found, determine what lifestyle indiscretions you are entertaining, correct them, and let your body heal itself. If you need help, I can assess your lifestyle and suggest the appropriate changes you need to make to get well. I can also provide natural relief that will improve your health. In the next part of the “Pathway of Life” series, I will show you how to minimize your dependence on doctors of all types and show you how to utilize the talents of both orthodox MDs and various natural doctors to your best advantage.
TREATMENT BASED ON “THE PATHWAY OF LIFE”
At what point in the Pathway of life you decide to seek treatment determines what type of treatment you’ll get and where in the Pathway of Life you will spend most of your time.
Before going any further, I must make it clear that pain relievers (Aspirin, Aleve, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Nicodin, Oxycotin, narcotics) are not a curative treatment. They do nothing other than numb you to the pain caused by your condition. They do not fix anything on any level. Take them if you must, for relief, but do not delude yourself into thinking that you are fixing anything by taking them.
Pathology/Disease (Worst Doctor)
If you wait for a condition to become pathological before addressing it, you will likely require surgery to repair, remove, or replace the pathological (damaged or deranged) tissues or you will have to restore their lost function from the outside with medication. This can prolong your life, and it may reduce or remove the original symptoms. These approaches do not correct the cause of the condition. If the cause was an incident limited in time (as an accident, wound, or poisoning) then it does not need to be addressed, as it no longer exists. If, on the other hand, the cause is ongoing (as in the case of degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, etc.) then these treatments will not produce lasting results. It is all too common that the new arteries in bypass surgery become clogged in relatively short time if the lifestyle causes of the original condition are not corrected. The treatment of choice for pathology is medical treatment, but if the underlying causes are not addressed, further pathology will result. Those who wait for treatment until this stage will usually have continuous symptoms either from their pathology, or other sickness related to the lifestyle causes, or side effects from the prescription drugs. In ancient China, only the worst doctors treated in this manner.
Dysfunction (Poor Doctor)
If you seek treatment as soon as a symptom appears, you have more options. You may need medical treatment to control the symptoms if they are dangerous. If the symptom is not immediately dangerous, there are likely natural ways to manage it. These include things like chiropractic, acupuncture, herbs, etc. If at the same time you correct the lifestyle causes, you will get better even faster. Those who do not seek treatment until symptoms appear will alternate between dysfunction (symptoms) and imbalance (no symptoms and no positive signs of health) but will not regain the state of health. The ancient Chinese felt that the doctor that did not treat until symptoms appeared was of poor quality.
Imbalance (Mediocre Doctor)
Those who get treatment from natural doctors regularly (at least monthly) are taking a preventative approach, taking action to prevent symptoms from occurring. They will experience much less pain and suffering from symptoms than they would were they to wait for symptoms to occur. Ironically, they often end up spending less money for treatment than those who wait for symptoms to appear. By the time symptoms appear the condition has progressed to the point where it will probably take a few treatments to correct. For example, if you wait for your back to hurt before seeing a chiropractor or acupuncturist, it may take four to five treatments to get better. If this happens twice a year, you are spending as much or more money for care, and have to endure the suffering whereas, if you sought monthly preventative treatment, you would have spent no more money or maybe even less money and had no pain to endure. Factor in the lost recreation time or loss of work and it becomes even worse. Overall, it is more cost effective to see your natural doctor (chiropractor, acupuncturist, nutritionist, etc.) for preventative treatment than to wait for symptoms to come and than treat to remove them. If you also embrace a healthful lifestyle, you will fare even better. The Chinese of old felt the mediocre quality of doctor treated patients in this way.
Health/Balance (Best Doctor)
To attain the state of health and enjoy the positive signs of health (increased sense of well-being, abundant energy, positive emotions, enthusiasm for life, etc.) one must embrace a healthful lifestyle. No doctor can do for a patient what they refuse to do for themselves. Just seeing a natural doctor (chiropractor, acupuncturist, nutritionist, herbalist) preventably can keep you from developing symptoms and may even give to the positive signs of health temporarily. If you want to spend most of your time enjoying the positive signs of health, you must avoid those lifestyle actions that degrade health and embrace those lifestyle actions that increase health. In the state of health, life really becomes fun and magical and spending most of your time there is well worth the lifestyle changes required to attain and maintain it. Besides, you only like the unhealthful lifestyle because you are used to it. It’s a habit. Once you get used to the healthful lifestyle, it becomes what you prefer. This is the best bargain. You minimize the suffering you will experience, have fewer symptoms of dysfunction and pathology and you optimize the enjoyment of the positive signs of health. This is why the ancient Chinese felt the best doctors never treat their patients. They don’t have to because their patients stay healthy. The role of the best doctor was to educate his/her patients on how to live healthfully.
Optimizing This Understanding
There is a place, a role for every type of health professional. Everyone becomes old and pathology will eventually kill him or her. Medicine can prolong life at that point. The trick is to avoid this as long as possible. Those who neglect their health until they reach this stage usually arrive early in mid-life and spend the remainder of their shortened life in this undesirable quality of life.
Medical treatment may also be required in the state of dysfunction if the symptoms are dangerous. If the symptoms do not place the patient in immediate danger, natural doctors can often provide relief from symptoms as quickly as medical treatment and without the side effects of medical treatment.
Natural doctors that can access balance, like chiropractors, acupuncturists, and nutritionist, can assess you and provide treatment to restore balance without you having to experience painful symptoms. Monthly treatment is best for this.
If you want to enjoy the state of health/balance, you will need to visit a natural health counselor who can assess your unique individual constitution, assess your current lifestyle, and counsel you on what lifestyle factors you will need to adopt to attain and maintain health. Once you have adopted this lifestyle, they can coach and encourage you to maintain it. You should probably visit them yearly to assess your health status and make any necessary changes.
To sum up, I will give you my best advice regarding how to best utilize the various healthcare professionals. Most importantly – visit a natural doctor that specializes in natural health counseling/coaching to assess where you are and provide you with the lifestyle you need to be healthy. Visit them until you have succeeded in making these changes. Then visit them yearly to keep current. Next, visit your chiropractor and/or acupuncturist monthly as they can detect and correct subtle imbalances before your body dysfunctions and causes symptoms. Should a symptom appear, see a doctor immediately. The longer you wait, the longer it will take to get better.
I accept patients wherever they are on the pathway of life. I offer natural treatments and lifestyle assessment and counseling to remove suffering and optimize health and happiness in life.
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