Modern Cures For Modern Diseases

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This isn't 1914... obviously. The health problems people face today are so much different than what people had to deal with 100 years ago. In the past we were plagued by pathogen-induced diseases like measles, mumps, polio, and small pox. These types of diseases are caused by different types of bacteria or viral infections and possibly coupled with hygiene issues, and as a society we have done a pretty good job of managing these types of diseases. Let's fast-forward to present. The diseases and health problems that have embedded themselves into our society, and only seem to be getting worse, are culture-style diseases (if you will) like fibromyalgia, type II diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disorders. Notice none of these are caused by bacteria or viruses.

We have left the age of "anti" medicine. What I mean by this is that for the modern diseases and health problems we face, simply finding an antagonistic pill won't work. For example, we know that bacteria can cause disease. So it makes sense that if we think there might be bacteria on a counter top or door knob to wipe it down with a disinfectant to kill the bacteria. Let's take it one step further; if a person has a sickness due to a bacterial infection, it makes sense why someone might be given an antibiotic (even though it may have some harmful side effects). Medicine was very successful with this approach. That is why the discovery of penicillin was such a monumental breakthrough because it gave doctors the ability to give an ill patient something that was somewhat designed to eliminate the cause of the problem.

Ever since their success, medicine has been riding this approach ever since. The problem is modern diseases and conditions are not pathogen-induced; there is no fibromyalgia bacteria or diabetes virus. So the idea that there will be a drug that will be discovered to eliminate the cause of modern diseases is virtually impossible. At least taking antibiotics aims to eliminate the cause of an infection, as opposed to most modern medicine that is created to only help people cope by suppressing their symptoms.

So the first step of modern cures for modern diseases is modern diagnosis. There needs to be a shift in the way disease is classified. Right now, a doctor looks at a patient's set of symptoms and labels them with a certain disease. Here is the problem, five different patients could all be diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but all five cases could have different causes. So does it make sense to treat everyone the same if their problems do not have the same cause? I don't think so. In actuality there is only one cause of disease and that is the body's inability to adapt to itself and/or its environment. To simplify it: all disease is caused by too much or too little of something or a combination of both. Diseases need to be classified by the toxicity and/or the deficiency that is present, not by symptoms.

The second step of modern cures for modern diseases is to aid the body in expressing health, by eliminating the cause, as opposed to suppressing it. I totally understand why people are on symptom-suppressing medications. Symptoms can be unbearable to live with and many people rely on medications to make it through the day, but it really isn't a viable long-term solution. Most people I talk with who have to take these types of medications hate being on them because they don't like the way they feel, but would rather deal with side effects than deal with the symptoms.

The cure is always in isolating a cause and providing a means of correction. Whenever there is an underlying dysfunction that is not corrected, it will eventually manifest itself as a disease and symptoms will be expressed. For modern diseases, long-term care and treatment should not be focused on symptom suppression, but rather the focus should be on restoring the body's normal function.

At the end of the day, the most complex and sophisticated disease fighting piece of equipment is the human body. So maybe the best cure for modern diseases is actually primitive. You see our bodies desire to be healthy, it's in our DNA to be self-regulating and self-healing. Maybe the cure for modern disease it to eliminate the harm of modern living so our bodies can actually function properly and heal the way they were designed. What is the harm of modern living? Well, living with high levels of stress, living off caffeine, eating nutrient deprived diets (click here to read my article of the effects of a low fat diet), consuming toxins, and a lifetime of over the counter and prescription drugs slowly causes health to be expressed at lower levels everyday. For this reason, the paradigm of having no symptoms equals health is wrong...way wrong. Just look at conditions like heart disease, cancer, and kidney stones. Do you feel the initial onset of each disease? Nope. A person only feels symptoms when the underlying dysfunction has been allowed to grow and the body is no longer able to compensate for it.

With all that being said, the biggest factor in overcoming modern disease is an individual's desire to restore their health. Problems like autoimmune disorders, type II diabetes, and fibromyalgia don't start overnight. A toxicity, a deficiency, or a combination of both occur, and when left unchecked dysfunction can grow for years until finally symptoms appear. So modern diseases take time to develop and will take time heal, and in our "I want it now" society that can be very difficult. The good news is I have seen many people overcome modern diseases by living primitive. By that I mean they change their lifestyle and start doing things like going for walks in the sun for exercise and vitamin D, eating fruits and vegetables, cutting out sugars and artificial sweeteners, and avoiding processed foods and this makes a HUGE difference. So the last way to overcome modern diseases to change your lifestyle. Is it hard? Yea, but I have yet to meet anyone who has overcome their obesity, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disorder, or diabetes that regrets it.