Health vs. Disease
by Marc Percival
There are two principal orientations when we relate to disease. One is combative, the other preventive. While a growing number of progressive physicians are on their own initiative, learning to work more and more in a preventive model, the approach to medicine in our colleges and medical academies is almost entirely along combative lines. Conventional medical procedure focuses the majority of its attention and resources on the killing of ‘germs’ and the management of symptoms. The usual practice is to become more involved with the patient after acute or chronic disease has developed to an overt and recognizable state. Then an attempt is made to diagnose the disease and to subdue its effect by the administration of drugs, surgical operations, radiation and/or by the utilization of the products of disease in the form of serums, antitoxins, vaccines, etc.
The preventive method concentrates its attention and resources on preventing the development of disease. The body’s ‘homeostatic’ mechanisms are always seeking to balance our systems. This approach focuses on lifestyle issues and natural methods of reinforcing the body’s inherent ability to resist dysfunction and remain vital, strong and efficient even when challenged by dysfunctional stress. Rather than waiting until diseases have developed and gained ascendancy in the body, the preventive method endeavors to inform, encourage and assist individuals in maintaining the body in an optimally healthy state, minimizing dysfunction and thus greatly enhancing natural resistance to disease of any kind. Prevention focuses on how a person is or might be a susceptible host for a given condition or disease.
When Louis Pasteur and his colleagues began discovering various ‘germs’ (bacteria and microbes) and linking them to specific disease states, medical research began to focus more and more on developing various means of destroying these ‘germs’. While billions of dollars have been spent and billions of dollars earned by drug production companies in the pursuit of miraculous ‘cures’ for ill health, insufficient attention has been directed to determining why any disease only affects certain members of the population.
The fundamental question that is attracting increasing attention worldwide, is based on the investigation of the possibility that ‘germs’ are not the primary cause of disease. Are some diseases, or even all diseases, the secondary manifestations of altered or abnormal states of health? An analogy here is: does the swamp exist first, and various pests such as mosquitoes find it to be a good habitat for their propagation; or do such pests pick a random landscape and then set about to create a swamp to support them?
When an individuals’ vitality is lowered (weakened health state) and their tissues become appropriate ‘soil’ for ‘germs’, then we have an ideal host for the onset and development of disease. One who conscientiously maintains superior health and vitality by developing an understanding of healthcare and the effective management of dysfunctional stress, greatly reduces the likelihood of their tissues providing an appropriate ‘soil’ for the propagation of disease.
Do the incredible mechanisms with their endless checks and balances which allow for the function, support and regeneration of all the body’s trillions of cells, day in and day out, really need manipulation? Or perhaps is our time and effort better focused on the lifestyle and environmental factors which have already been shown to interfere with our body’s natural regulatory and maintenance mechanisms?
Most holistic health practices are dedicated to the education and support of those who choose the preventive approach wherever possible and those ‘combative’ methods which are non-invasive and which recognize disease as the body’s attempt to restore function when ‘distressed’, rather than an abnormality of nature. This is in stark contrast to a medical system which too frequently treats disease as though it were an abnormality of nature, requiring suppression via potentially toxic chemical agents.
It must be noted that there are unfortunately those cases where prevention has been neglected or traumatic injury has occurred, which necessitate ‘combative’ intervention with whatever means possible. It is at such times of crisis that one is able to fully appreciate the remarkable emergency medical care available to us today. May we soon see the day where people seeking solutions to their healthcare challenges will be able to attend a healthcare center and receive the benefits and wisdom of both of these essential approaches, ‘preventive’ and ‘combative’, under the same rood, and within spirit of mutual admiration and respect. For this to become a reality, both ‘camps’ will require a great deal more wisdom and humility than is commonly displayed today.
Healing Innovations | Penny | 
July 7, 2010 9:15 am
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