After several years researching and writing about the concepts of health and healthiness, as opposed to illness, I have consolidated many of the concepts from this site PersonalHealthFreedom, and the sister site: (Healthicine.org), into two books that provide a foundation for the concepts of healthicine.
The latest book Introduction to Healthicine: Theories of Health, Healthiness, Illness, and Aging is now available in my CreateSpace store in print and also Kindle format on Amazon. This book is a summary of the concepts introduced in Healthicine, the Arts and Sciences of Health and Healthiness. However, as it was written some time later - it also contains some new concepts of healthicine.
Healthicine: the Arts and Sciences of Health and Healthicine is the book that lays the foundation for exploration of the concepts of healthicine. It is available on Kindle, as well as in traditional paper format. The Kindle version has colour illustrations - and links to larger versions of the illustrations. The paper format has illustrations in black and white. Click here to view full size colour versions of the book illustrations.
Here is a preview of what you can find in the book, chapter by chapter:
1 On Health - what is health? We normally study healthiness only through our attempts to fight illness. As a result we are, in a sense, blind to the actual concepts of health and healthiness. We meet Alice and Zizi, two friends who have no illnesses - but are not sure who is 'healthiest'.
2. The Foundations of Healthicine - the concepts of health flow from the concepts of life, from genetics through body, mind, and spirit - to communities. The study of health requires a 'health' perspective, and health goals, as opposed to an illness persective - and illness goals.
3. Hierarchies of Function and Process - healthiness is not about balance, it is about balancing. Every component of our healthiness is continually working to find health through balancing.
4. Signs and Symptoms - what are the signs of healthiness? What are the symptoms? We normally study signs and symptoms as if they were only indications of illness.
5. Measuring Healthiness - how might we learn to measure healthiness? What can we learn from measuring healthiness?
6. Aging and Infirmity - what are the differences between unhealthiness, illness and aging? Is aging a disease? Is it an unhealthiness? How can we tell?
7. Illness - what is illness? What are the causes of illness? What are the relationships between healthiness and illness?
8. Diagnosis - why is diagnosis so difficult? What types of illness are most difficult to diagnose? What is the fundamental error, or omission, in many medical diagnoses?
9. Preventing Illness - what is the most effective technique to prevent illness? Does red wine make us healthier? How can prevention help us to better health, as opposed to 'better illness'?
10.How to Create and Improve Healthiness - what are the fundamental techniques we can use to create and improve healthiness?
11.The Failing Edge of Modern Medicine - modern medicine works wonders and saves many lives, but there are situations where it fails miserably. What can we learn from this?
12. The Arts and Sciences of Healthicine - where do we go from here? What do we need to do to develop the arts and sciences of healthicine?
The back cover of the book provides more information:
This is a book about Healthicine, a new field of study. It raises more questions than it answers. As we seek the answers to these questions, I hope we can raise our understanding to new levels, to find newer, more important questions.
The medical view, limited by illness, has difficulty understanding healthiness and Healthicine.
Medicine is blind to health.
Medical professionals, both conventional and alternative, suffer from the same blindness.
Health is whole. Health is honest. Health is true. It cannot be 'tricked' by medicines, nor medical sorcery. The most powerful, the most effective tool to fight illness is health. When health is improved, many illnesses simply fade away. Health can be improved before illness is diagnosed, it can be improved after illness is diagnosed, and it can be improved after illness has gone.
The road to health is wide enough for all of us. I have done my best, in this book, to understand and communicate the depth and breadth, from the source to the surface, past illness, past wellness, to healthiness. This book is a first step down that road.
to your health, tracy www.healthicine.org
ps. This is not a 'self-help book'. The objectives of this book are to initiate an understanding of health and healthiness. I hope and believe this will serve to make our health systems and our medical systems more effective, and our battles against illness more clear, direct, honest, and frankly, less commercial.