As a society, we make sure to assign a name to every ailment we come across. Asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Herniated Disc Disease, Allergies, Depression, Bipolar Disorder–we make sure there is a name for everything. The list of names is endless. But how does having a name for an ailment help you get better?
Let’s look at an everyday scenario. You feel sick. You have aches, pain, and a burning sensation in your chest. These symptoms change the way you go about your day. Now, because of the aches and pain, you can’t bend over. Because of the burning in your chest, you can no longer eat spicy food. You try to take a few over-the-counter drugs, but none of it helps. You realize it’s time to take a trip down to a Health Professional and get a name for what you’ve been going through.
The Health Professional diagnosis’ your symptoms as Asthma—great! You’ve named your disease. But how did you get it? You never had Asthma before. You can’t just “catch” Asthma, like you catch the flu. But Asthma isn’t the only thing you now have to deal with. Along with the Asthma, concomitant problems exist, which are problems that are seemingly unassociated with the disease Asthma. Your shoulder hurts, you’re constipated, and light hurts your eyes. The Health Professional gave you the diagnosis “Asthma,” but how can that be correct with all these extra symptoms that don’t fit into the box the Health Professional made for you?
The fact that each symptom you have gets its own separate name, and its own separate treatment is the core issue with this everyday scenario we experienced above. There is an inherent flaw in the assumption that each symptom is a separate disease, when in reality, you are one human being, one unit. So shouldn’t your symptoms be treated as a unit, too?
Well, let’s get back to your Health Professional. After the diagnosis for Asthma is made, ignoring the concomitant problems, what is the Health Professional’s treatment solution? You are put on a prescription drug to battle the disease or symptom, in the hopes that the disease will be suppressed enough for you to continue your everyday life. And every diagnosis from the Health Professional has the same ending.
Look how disease is marketed to us from this commercial transcript:
WOMAN
I had intense pain all over. My Doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia, thought to be from overactive nerves. Lyrica calms those nerves.
This commercial leads you to think, “Hey, I should get some of that. I’m suffering”. Think about the transcript. You are being advised not to become well—merely to take a prescription for the rest of your life.
But what is disease? What do you mean I have fibromyalgia, or migraine headaches? People talk about their problems as if these symptoms weren’t a part of them. In fact, we are taught that these symptoms are not a part of us, and to battle with the disease in an effort to force the disease out of out body. The fight against MS or cancer is an everyday mantra, because disease is perceived as an outsider, not as a part of you. The treatment is then designed to overwhelm your chemistry therefore side effects and toxic effects are possible. Nothing about the treatment is designed to enhance your body’s ability to heal itself. You have allergies; therefore you must take an antihistamine. You have heartburn; stop the acid. All these treatments are called Antipathic, or against the body. None of which ever solve the disease, it just masked over and over.
Have you ever asked your prescribing Health Professional, when will this cure my problem? The answer is “NO”, the treatment cannot cure you! Can it make me sicker over the long term? “YES”, the treatment can make you sicker!
With these answers, does it make sense to continue to take a substance that does not solve your problem and may potentially hurt you more in the long run? Even if the drug takes away some of the pain or some of the inflammation—the disease is still there. Even worse, now you have to deal with the drug’s side effects. Your prescription could affect your digestion, your mood, how well you sleep, and much more. Imagine that your prescription may have as high as a 2% chance to give you serious depression, but people still swallow that pill every day. Those are amazing odds that you will get hurt! Let me give you this same example in another scenario. Imagine your child wanted to ride a roller coaster, but the manager warned you that there was a 2% chance that the ride would malfunction, which would result in your child being paralyzed. Would you let your child on the ride? Would you take that chance?
To re-cap; you are having uncomfortable symptoms. Your Doctor responds by giving you a name for each of your symptoms. Then, your Doctor gives you a drug based off the diagnosis of each disease, not you as a person. You begin to take the drugs prescribed, and while you may feel that your symptoms are managed, you will never be cured. You will have to take the drug for the rest of your life, and hope that you never experience any of the drug’s negative side effects. Is this really a solution?
I say that it’s not. But before I get to the solution, I want to define the word Health. How does one become healthy after being sick?
To me, there are three components to the word, Health: Power, Creation, and Connection.
Power is to have enough energy to do things, to heal your body, to think clearly, and so on. What good is that Tylenol for your headache if it makes you groggy, tired, and sick?
Creation is the ability to make life; to generate new cells in your body, to build a successful business, and to create and nourish happy relationships.
Finally, Connection is an emotional tie to a higher power, to other human beings, or to both.
Wellness is when these three components improve, while the distressing symptoms that make you feel sick lessen. For example, I just treated a young man for folliculitis. On his head, the hair follicles had become inflamed and infected (pustules). He also had digestion problems, depression and anxiety. The first homeopathic prescription I gave him made his folliculitis and digestion better, but not his mood. So I re-prescribed the medicine. Soon after, the young man’s symptoms were noticeably less, and the three components of Health were starting to show.
Folliculitis, anxiety, and depression are all different names, that all come with their own unique drug. However, when I prescribed my medicine, I treated these symptoms as part of a whole. This is because humans are only one physiology. You are only one physiology. When you are sick, it is not evil outside forces at work; it is a deviation from your normal, healthy self, and it takes treating the whole body, not just piecemeal problems that will get you back on track to being well.
I hope from this article, you have come to understand that diseases and problems are not merely names to throw drugs at, nor do they stand alone as outside individuals looking to invade your body. Your diseases are merely one part of the whole that makes up you as a person. And it’s only by treating you as a whole that you will begin to become well. Look forward to my next article, where I will talk about what Homeopathy is, how it has been tested for over 200 years, how it does not fit the modern medical model we’ve grown accustomed to, and why Homeopathy should not be judged in the same light as prescription drugs. This and many more articles to come.
