Written for GreenMedInfo.com Post date:
Wednesday, March 7th 2012 at 3:00 pm by Tracy Kolenchuk
We can see that heart disease and stroke are at the top of both lists. Heart disease and stroke are, for the most part, illnesses of the circulatory system and although they are classified separately, they have virtually the same causes. Second is cancer. Chronic lower respiratory disease is a combination of degenerative illnesses, typically caused by environment or choices. Accidents are accidental.
Mental health problems are next on the list of serious illness. Followed by diabetes and then nervous system disorders (MS, Parkinsons, ALS , epilepsy, etc). Note: mental health problems are probably often nervous system disorders.
So, the top 5 medical problems are in priority sequence: circulatory system illnesses (heart attack and stroke), cancers, nervous system disorders (including mental health issues), arthritis and diabetes.
What does our medical system know about these priority illnesses? Primary cause? Best treatment? Best preventative?
We can easily figure out the main point. Inflammation. The primary indicator of circulatory illness, leading to heart attack or stroke, is inflammation. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine report Why Cancer and Inflammation? suggests that "inflammation may be an ancillary, or perhaps inseparable, aspect of tumor development." Arthritis is Greek for 'joint inflammation'. Diabetes develops when the immune system attacks cells in the pancreas - inflammation.
So what does the medical system know about inflammation? Only two things. 1. It is linked to the cause of every major illness. 2. The only medicines to treat inflammation operate by 'decreasing the inflammation'.
Note: Inflammation is not the cause. It is a symptom.
This leads us to the first myth of medicines.
Medical Myth #1: The Drug Myth
That illnesses are most effectively treated by the right drugs. The healthy facts? No-one suffers from a deficiency of drugs. All illness is the result of a deficiency, or an excess. Many of us suffer from deficiencies and excesses of nutrients. For healthy people - any amount of a drug is 'an excess', why should it change when you are ill? If you are ill, a responsible health system will first try to determine what deficiencies, and what excesses might be causing your illness, so that the illness can be removed by direct action. Drugs are indirect actions, that do not treat the cause of the illness, but instead re-direct the illness in the hope that your body can recover. Sometimes, this is an effective action, but in many cases it simply alters the symptoms, not the illness.The second myth has been under our noses for 40 years.
Medical Myth #2: The War Against Cancer
Despite 40 years of propaganda, there is no war against cancer. If there was a war against cancer, we would be prepared to pull out all the stops. To monitor all cases of cancer, all treatments, all preventatives, and all cures. But we don't. If someone cures cancer by non-conventional means, they are ignored. If a doctor or medical clinic claims to treat or cure cancers by non-conventional means, they are censored, banned and possibly jailed. No one looks seriously at the numbers. No one looks seriously at the claims. If there was a war against, for example, breast cancer, we would know, or undertake a comprehensive effort to find the best way to detect breast cancer. Unfortunately the opposite is true. I know of three standard ways to detect breast cancer. One of them is the 'gold standard' - mammogram. It has a terribly high false positive rate and only detects cancers when they are significantly advanced. Two other techniques are 'not available at our location', perhaps due to the NIH (National Institute of Heath? or was that Not Invented Here).The third medical myth is the fake cure for the primary cause of death - heart attack and stroke.
Medical Myth #3: The Cholesterol Myth
The primary cause of circulatory diseases (heart attach and stroke) is high cholesterol. The best preventative of heart attack and stroke is to reduce cholesterol, thru diet and drugs. This is a myth. It has always been known as a myth, but it is a myth that sellls drugs, and sales are more important than truth.What science has shown: when arteries are damaged, our bodies seal the damage with plaque, consisting partly of cholesterol. Like a scab. Statins are drugs that reduce cholesterol. So what happens to the damaged areas of our arteries if your body can't seal them? There is considerable evidence that the use of statin drugs has created an increase in heart disease, not a decrease.
The evidence indicates that high cholesterol may be like a warning light in your car. It tells you that something is wrong. Taking drugs to reduce your cholesterol is like cutting the wire to the light. The light stops blinking - and you have no idea what is going to happen next. But that's not all. Statin drugs also damage your muscles and nerves. A very small amount of a statin drug, 5mg per day, can kill a person.
We might hope that our government would protect us from dangerous drugs, like statins, but beware the fourth myth.
Medical Myth #4: The FDA uses RISK Analysis to Protect Your Health
Although the FDA often claims that their actions are 'to protect you from risk', nothing could be farther from the truth. Protection from risk requires a scientific risk analysis. We need protection from the FDA! Protection from the FDA requires a published risk analysis process with processes for review as required and procedures for challenges. A true scientific risk analysis needs to measure two things: the risk of action vs the risk of inaction. If the FDA is considering whether or not to approve a treatment, product, chemical, etc. , there is the risk that approval will harm the public - and the risk that disapproval or delay will harm the public.
It is perfectly clear that the FDA only examines risk from one side when we read their standard protocol, which states clearly All health products are forbidden, unless specifically approved. The FDA creates risk, without measuring risk, when they banning ingredients and products without analysis.
But enough about drugs. If you are not on drugs, or if you are, you have undoubtedly heard discussions of the fifth medical myth.
Medical Myth #5: Flu vaccine protects you and your family
There are several issues to consider here. First of all, there is considerable scientific disagreement as to whether any vaccines work at all. There is no overwhelming evidence that vaccines work - and considerable evidence that they do not work as suggested. It is clearly understood by the scientific community that if vaccines do work, they absolutely do NOT work for everyone. Second, several prior years history with the Flu vaccine have demonstrated that the vaccine has not provided protection against the flu. The scientific analysis shows who is LEAST LIKELY to be helped by the flu virus? The elderly - the primary target of flu virus marketing campaigns.Third, vaccines are dangerous proteins, injected into your body. As such, you must be protected against the possibility of contamination with other micro-organisms. So, flu vaccines are prepared with a high concentration of toxins to ensure no dangerous microbes can survive. No one adequately measures the effects of these toxins on people (guinea pigs) who take the flu vaccine.
There have been several cases where flu vaccines were found to have dangerous chemicals or organisms that were not intended, possibly due to the desire to create a large amount of flu vaccine in a short amount of time. Last, but by no means least, every flu vaccine is designed based on "last year's flu virus". Flu evolves every year, so a vaccine against last year's flu can easily be totally ineffective for this year's flu. The result is that a flu vaccine is un-tested against the flu that is coming, contains toxic chemicals that are untested on humans, and has not been evaluated by the FDA before it is released on the public. As noted in Myth #3, the FDA does not evaluate the risk of the vaccine, and it does not evaluate the risk of non-vaccination. In fact, the FDA makes this perfectly clear in their policy that NO CLAIMS can be made against vaccine manufacturers for damage caused.
We need to replace our medical paradigm with a health paradigm. A health paradigm will replace medicines with healthicines.
Healthicine - The art and science of creating and improving healthiness
Medicine is a thoroughly studied field, perhaps excessively studied. Healthicine is not even a word in most dictionaries.Healthicine is the art and science of creating and optimizing healthiness. Medicine is small subset of healthicine. Medicine only applies when you are ill. Healthicine applies when you are healthy and when you are ill.
Healthicine #1: Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness
The FDA does not know what is good for your health. Their current rules ban everything that is not explicitly approved, clearly an unhealthy situation. The same situation exists in Canada and Europe. No one knows what is best for your health - you are an individual, living in individual circumstances. Only you can decide what is good for your health - and you have a right to make those decisions.
Healthicine #2: Your doctor doesn't know what's best for your health
Doctors don't study healthiness. There is no 'doctorate of healthiness' in any university. "Doctors of Health Sciences" don't study health - they study medical administration. Remember that fifty-percent of doctors are below average. And fifty-percent of doctors are above average. But even those who are above average have not studied healthiness - they are above average in their studies of illness.
Doctors disagree. Which doctor disagrees with your doctor? Who decides? Only you can decide. When you are 'not sick', your doctor has nothing to say. Doctors are trained in diagnosing illness as a first step. This is so ingrained in their training that, even if you are healthy - they will look for signs of illness, not signs of healthiness. If you are ill, your doctor has no resource to compare various medical and health alternatives and make a solid guiding decision. Your doctor can only make a recommendation based on limited, often out of date, information and propaganda. Medical alternatives are seldom compared to each other except in so called 'clinical studies', which are designed to market a specific product.
When you are healthy, and when you are sick, only you can decide what's best for your health. You have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness. You make the final decisions. It's your life. It's your right.
Healthicine #3: The Food Myth
The food myth is the myth, touted by many so called 'health professionals', doctors, dieticians and other apologists, that the way to perfect health is a healthy diet, and, if you are not healthy, it's your fault, because your diet is unhealthy. This is one of the most common health myths - and most absurd. Fact: Eating the right foods is an excellent start to meeting your nutritional needs. However, it is insufficient and eating the wrong foods can be dangerous. The New York times Q&A recently answered the following question:
With this, appropriate response: "Probably not, on both counts." Of course they are a bit careful in their answer, but the truth is, if you want to optimize your healthiness - you need supplements. An optimal healthy diet is not possible. And if it was - we would probably not be able consume it every day due to normal societal constraints.
Healthicine #4: The Theory of Illness
The primary causes of every illness is an imbalance. Either a deficiency or an excess. Under normal circumstances, an imbalance is simply an unhealthiness - when it is too severe, or carries on for too long, it can develop into an illness.
This concept may seem trivial. It is trivial. But once we accept it, understand it, and apply it to our search for healthiness - we gain important insights into illness and healthiness that are otherwise not visible.
There might be an imbalance of nutrients, a deficiency or an excess. Or it might be a toxin, which has a balance point of zero and can only be zero or in excess. Drugs are normally toxic - and any amount is an excess unless they are used to treat an illness. There might also be an imbalance of exercise, stress, process, and senses. We know that exercise is generally healthy - and can be deficient. It can also be excessive, resulting in stress illnesses. Too little stress, or too much stress is an imbalance. A pulse rate that is too slow, a breath rate that is too fast, or too irregular are imbalances. Excessive sensitivity of hearing, vision, touch are also unhealthy imbalances.
In many cases, if an imbalance is detected and adjusted at an early stage, a healthy body can recover completely. However, in some cases, at some point, an imbalance, an unhealthiness or illness, can become so severe that it causes permanent damage or disability. Some illnesses can be cured and healed completely. Some are so severe that the patient can never recover completely.
A single imbalance or illness can be simple, not connected to any other illness. Or several primary illnesses can combine or chain together to create more complex illnesses. This is more likely the longer an illness exists without being addressed.
Healthicine #5: Cleaner is healthier
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. And it's true. But it is possible to be too clean. We learn this as our environment becomes 'cleaner and cleaner' and we all become sicker and sicker. Is that so strange? Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. We came from the earth. Our bodies are living, breathing, walking, talking clumps of dirt. We need to keep clean to protect our bodies from foreign invaders. But too clean? Too clean and we kill the many cooperative organisms that help us to live, breath, digest and survive. Too clean and we risk illness and early death.
We nuke our foods. We cook them, we microwave them, we treat them with radioactivity, we pasteurize them and UHT them. There is a small movement to consume raw foods, but many people think they are 'not clean' enough. The FDA thinks they are not 'clean enough'. So they pass laws against raw foods. Raw milk is one example. GreenMedInfo reminds us of the amazing healing properties of fermented foods. Fermented foods are not just healing when you are sick. They are healthicines when you are sick and when you are healthy.
Healthicine #6: Myth: There are medicines, and alternative medicines
There are healthicines - things that make you healthier when you are healthy and healthier when you are sick. And there are medicines - things that manipulate your symptoms, or your illness, in the hope that your body can more easily recover. There is no difference between a medicine and an alternative medicine. Both are foreign to your body. Both are designed to create an abnormal reaction to an illness. The only difference is in the advertising.
I'm not saying medicines are not effective. Many medicines are remarkably effective. Many 'conventional medicines' are remarkably effective, and many so called 'alternative medicines' are remarkably effective. I wish we had a 'medical system', that could help us choose the most effective medicine for specific illnesses. It is an unfortunate circumstance that our medical profession is, for the most part, not interested in the truth - and as a result it dismisses a large number of potentially effective treatments as 'alternative' treatments. GreenMedInfo is a valuable source of information about the value of alternative treatments. It is a shame that our so called 'medical system' often ignores, devalues or dismisses this information. In doing so, our medical systems diminish our health and our choices. When we realize that alternative medicines an conventional medicines are both medicines, that need to be treated and studied as equals, we will have a healthier society. GreenMedInfo is helping us to work towards that goal.
How you can you tell the difference between a healthicine and a medicine? A medicine is designed to help you when you are sick. A healthicine makes you healthier - even when you are healthy. Are medicines toxic? Are healthicines toxic? Everything is toxic in excess. Water is toxic. Calories are toxic. Too much exercise is toxic. Too much sleep is toxic. Most medicines are toxic by nature. eg. The smallest amount is toxic, when you are healthy. There is no 'healthy amount' of a medicine - if you are not sick.
Healthicines are healthy by nature and only toxic when consumed in excess.
to your health, tracy
Tracy is the author of two book about healthicine: