Disease
Dis-ease and Dis-order: lacking ease and order
Disease? Disorder? Condition? Syndrome?
Disease, disorder, condition, and syndrome are all words for “the body is out of wack,” meaning that the body is in a state of “dis-ease” or “dis-order.” It means that something is disrupting the healthful functioning of the body. It does not mean that your body is broken – when the body is “broken,” it is dead. The fact that you are alive is clear evidence that your body is not broken, but is rather functioning as a human and responding according to natural order (see Omega-3’s and Iron Dumping). And if your disease condition is your body’s natural response to an unnatural environment, then a change in environment can begin to reverse your disease condition. But there must be a change.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting a different result.
-attributed to Albert Einstein
If you want to heal your disease, you must change your metabolic state – meaning change your lifestyle, especially your diet. The diet is the most significant aspect of the body’s environment because food and drink are what the body is exposed to the most.
"Disease Genes" and Nutrigenomics
“Disease genes” are our inherited predispositions to certain disease conditions. But genetics do not determine whether or not you will actually develop these conditions. Nutrition is the single most significant affecter of the expression of our genes. We may inherit “disease genes” which can predispose us to (meaning, cause us to more easily develop) certain conditions, but the way we eat – the foods and drinks which we continually feed our bodies – literally turns “disease genes” on, or off.
Because nutrition alters the expression of our genes, the “disease genes” we inherit are often an accumulation of our progenitors’ (parents’, grandparents’, etc.) unhealthful diets. With that said, it’s important to note that not all “family history” diseases are actually “genetic.” Many disease conditions labeled “genetic” run in families simply because families tend to make similar dietary choices, whether because they currently live together or because they maintain dietary habits from their common background.
If you have a family history of a certain disease, or if you’ve been told that a disease is “in your genes,” know that you are still far more in control than not. The effect of our “disease genes” pales in comparison to that of our daily diet. It is nutrition – the foods and drinks we take into our bodies – that most significantly impacts the expression of our genes, for health or for disease. No matter our current condition or predisposition, our own personal health is largely within our own control and agency. At any time, that family history chain of disease can be broken by one person choosing to change their lifestyle, and teaching their family to do the same. Let that chain-breaker be you.
Why doesn’t everyone get the same disease?
All the plethora of diseases that have become so common are just different faces of one great plague. Why, then, does it manifest differently in different people? Why do some have cancer, some have diabetes, and others have cardiovascular disease? Consider that:
- Diseases are linked by comorbidities
- Different nutritional imbalances result in different prevailing problems
If the table is really messy, you may not immediately notice that the floor also needs to be swept. Likewise, someone who is struggling with diabetes may not be paying much attention to their progressing osteoporosis. The different diseases are hardly different diseases at all since they progress together, or are different manifestations of the same underlying problem. The different ways that disease manifests – whether diabetes or cancer or cardiovascular disease or whatever else – depends on the type and amount of nutritional damage (including inherited predispositions), as well as the complexity of the body’s adaptive strategies. The body prioritizes the most pressing problem and allocates its resources (nutrition) accordingly. This is called triage.
Consider the example of Calcium-Magnesium imbalance, a common result of consuming dairy. Bones need a balance of magnesium and calcium for a strong, slightly flexible structure, and the body will allocate the needed magnesium to the bones for proper bone growth and strength.
BUT if there is a more pressing problem of a high calcium-magnesium ratio in the blood (resulting in muscular twitches and cramps), the body will pull magnesium from the bones to balance the blood and deliver magnesium to the muscles.
BUT if there is an even more pressing problem of a high calcium-magnesium ratio in the heart muscle (resulting in heart palpitations and arrhythmias), the body will first deliver magnesium to the heart at the expense of the other muscles.
Triage is prioritizing the more immediate problems over long-term problems. Thus, the development of different diseases depends on the variation in nutritional imbalances, both acute (from recent diet) and chronic (long-term dietary problems and inherited predispositions). We do not know exactly why different people develop different diseases because we cannot trace everything to which every person has been exposed, especially their and their progenitors’ diets. But really, it doesn’t matter. Rather than worry about which problem will manifest most prominently, let’s focus on preventing disease in the first place – by eating those foods that promote health, and eliminating those “foods” that do not.
“I Can Eat Whatever I Want and Never Get Fat”
NO ONE can eat “whatever they want” (implying indulgent foods) without negative consequences. Unhealthful foods do not disappear after we swallow. Bad food (or drink) always harms the body, even if the consequences are not immediately or obviously apparent. For example,
- Alzheimer’s is not clinically evident until 80% of the brain is destroyed, at which point the person suddenly “gets” Alzheimer’s Disease (although they often lose mental capacity and memory over time before that)
- People who do not store body fat under their skin (where it is more obvious) are more likely to deposit fat around their organs and in their heart and blood vessels (where it is more pathological, meaning disease-causing)
- Bone dissolution progresses over time until it becomes evident as osteoporosis
- Kidney stone formation doesn’t become evident until they begin to pass through the ureters (an extremely painful process)
- Insulin “resistance” increases over time until the person suddenly “gets” diabetes
- The first sign of cardiovascular disease is often a heart attack
Of course, there are those people who live long lives eating indulgently and apparently suffering no sign of disease. A bad diet always puts us in inferior health than what we could otherwise have. We must also be careful not to judge from outward appearances, because some of the most outwardly good-looking suffer from some of the most debilitating disease conditions. In addition, it is the unfortunate truth that we are not the only ones that suffer the consequences of our bad choices. We pass our diseased states, apparent or not, on to our children, who start where we leave off. We are never better off for eating badly, and our bodies (and those of our children) will surely be inferior to what they could be were we to eat healthfully.
You Are Your Best Healthcare Provider
The only person who can truly manage your healthcare is YOU. You have by far the greatest control over your health because, most significantly, you choose what to eat. No doctor or pharmaceutical can replace, negate, make up for, nor supersede your daily decisions. It is our consistent daily decisions of choosing our body’s nutritional environment – the foods and drinks we take in – that determine our health. The best a doctor can do is teach you how to care for your body, but the care of your body is your own.
The true definition of a doctor should be a teacher,
not a prescriber
-Dr. Ed Group
We must not allow ourselves to be prey to the myth of “fate victimization,” that we are a victim of our pre-determined fate. We don’t “get” a disease any more than we “fall” in love. We build our health day by day through our consistent choices of what to take into our bodies.
Virtually all diseases (leaving space for exception, although there has not yet one been presented) are but different faces of the same plague. This is proven simply by the enormous evidence that all these diseases are resolved, or at least significantly improved, by the same treatment. Although the details may differ, the prescription is the same: clean the body’s dietary environment, and the body will heal itself.