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Are you ready for a new approach to you and your family's health care?
Americans have a sense that something is missing in the health care they're receiving today.
Despite technological advances, high-quality medical care and up-to-the-minute research and development, people often feel dissatisfied or even angry when
faced with medical treatment. We often feel we're treated like commodities, objects at the hands of physicians we don't know, and who don't know us or even listen to us.
People are looking for a common-sense, natural approach to health care. According to one of the nation's most respected medical journals, The
New England Journal of Medicine (Jan.
1993), in the early 1990's, 1 in 3 Americans used alternative therapies. TIME, Newsweek, and Bill Moyers have all featured the explosion of new and resurrected ideas
about getting well and staying well. Today, 60% of Americans use alternative and complementary therapies.
People are beginning to realize that illness does not just appear at random and that maintaining good health is an ongoing process.
The old medical paradigm looks at good health as merely the absence of disease or disability. Its primary focus is on killing germs and managing symptoms, rather than
identifying and treating the deeper causes of disease. When the root of disease is neglected, people tend to get sicker over time. To a large degree, this accounts for the surge
in recent years of chronic
degenerative diseases such as arthritis, breast cancer, MS, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
For many people, the old paradigm of crisis management through pharmaceutical and surgical intervention is being replaced by a new model. This new paradigm emphasizes
prevention and health restoration first and foremost, using drugs and surgery only when necessary for traumatic injury or when prevention has been ignored.
Getting well and staying well in the new paradigm is a twofold process. It involves:
1. Supporting the body's self-healing abilities.
2. Reducing the stressors that lead to health imbalance.
True health is a state of mind, body, and spirit, which allows the body to repair, regenerate, and function normally.
It was Louis Pasteur who popularized "germ theory", the supposition that germs cause disease. Yet, in the later years of his life, Pasteur realized that
it was not the germ itself, but rather the conditions in the body that foster the growth of germs. When vitality is lowered, tissues become appropriate "soil" for microbes.
This new paradigm advocates proactive prevention, which focuses on keeping a person from becoming a susceptible host for a given condition or disease.
Our health is governed by natural principles. Although there are many ways to suppress symptoms, to attain true health it is necessary to understand and act upon the following principles:
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Within the body, the most powerful healing force is constantly at work.
The body naturally senses imbalances and adapts, even without conscious effort. Our healing forces are vast; the body is constantly striving to maintain balance and stability (homeostasis). |
PRINCIPLE 2 |
All symptoms are communications by the body that signal imbalance.
Symptoms are our body's attempt to signal imbalance. They serve as a catalyst that can move us to take action. The symptoms do not arise because the body has forgotten
what to do, but because it is attempting to cope with the current situation. Our symptoms provide the opportunity to learn the true nature of our imbalances.
Symptoms can be compared to a smoke alarm sounding in our home. You don't just turn off the alarm, you look for the cause. Symptoms should not be masked but heeded
as a clue to the underlying distress.
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PRINCIPLE 3 |
The state of your health is determined by your daily choices.
Daily choices can optimize healthy functioning – or limit it. Choice, not chance, determines health. The state of health is a function of stress loads and lifestyle
choices in four areas of wellness: Chemical (nutritional), Mental/Emotional, Electromagnetic (energetic), and Structural (physical body).
A partnership with a physician knowledgeable in these areas can help in developing the best healing strategy. Your physician will conduct a comprehensive review of your
unique and specific stressors (including your genetic background and lifestyle patterns) and then coach you on how to optimize your health. You can then make informed choices.
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In this new paradigm, methods of treatment are significantly different than the old ways. Chronic and degenerative disease such as cancer and hart disease are, to some degree, preventable
catastrophes. Even after illness develops, a change in habits can return a person to better health.
Most acute and chronic conditions are greatly improved
through the use of the following model:
1. Identify and remove the obstacles to cure.
2. Support the restorative functions of stressed organs and systems.
3. Develop ongoing habits and strategies for maintaining a healthy body.
In the old paradigm, when 3-year old Eric had an earache, he was treated with antibiotics to kill the infection. His earache occurred again and again, and
repeated doses of antibiotics were given. When these were unsuccessful, ear tubes were implanted to allow for the drainage of fluid from behind the eardrum.
In contrast, a physician practicing the new paradigm first looked for what was
interfering with Eric's natural self-healing mechanisms. The specific obstacles to Eric's cure were sensitivity to dairy products and sugar, which were removed from his diet. Additionally, herbal ear drops and therapeutic vitamins aided in restoring
the stressed organs and immune system. Eric's parents helped him maintain his dairy-free and sugar-free diet by offering tasty alternatives. They now had a strategy for maintaining his health.
As a result, Eric would experience far fewer side effects and painful episodes, and less eardrum scarring when treatment is approached using this model.
Teresa suffered a heart attack and was determined to do whatever she could to prevent further heart problems. She chose a physician who identified
the specific causes of her imbalances, and who encouraged and assisted her in making changes that could proactively prevent further problems.
She changed her intake of unhealthy fats, exercise habits and attitude (removing the obstacles to cure). She consistently took her prescribed nutritional and biological medicines
(restoring stressed systems). She included rest and relaxation time every day (developing habits for maintenance).
Teresa has adopted an integrated approach to maintain her health, an approach which is paying big dividends in renewed self-confidence and an enhanced
quality of life.
The principles of the new paradigm are effective. By removing the obstacles or interferences, you can access your own powerful, innate healing force. By listening to symptoms, you can find out
where to take action to help rebalance your body's health.
More and more physicians are educating themselves on how to coach patients in restoring health using the self-healing mechanisms already present within the body. For
example, renowned cardiologist Dean Ornish discusses an integrated approach to health care in his book, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease. By making choices based on healthful principles, you can maintain your vitality. Using this process, along with the guidance of a skilled health care provider, you can begin to experience a truly
healthy state of mind, body and spirit!
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