The human species is no stranger to disease, as it has witnessed all of the pain, despair, and agony which accompanies disease as it has spread across the world over the millennia. Since the dawn of our species, we have suffered under the relentless claws of infectious disease and physical trauma – that is, until very recently when the advancements of our population have, to a very great extent, allowed us to overcome these burdens. Through recent medical advancements, we have managed to effectively treat those individuals inflicted by such medical issues, allowing us to take down the very ailments that so easily wiped us out just decades ago. This is something that should absolutely be celebrated, or at the very minimum, greatly respected.
However, as we emerge triumphant out of this past age burdened by acute, infectious disease, we stand victorious only to find ourselves slammed with another dismal medical crisis.
Today we are faced with a novel category of disease, one that has little resemblance to the diseases of the past. These novel diseases do not arise suddenly when a foreign pathogen happens to infect our bodies or when a random event results in severe trauma. Instead, this form of disease arises from the slow deterioration of our very own bodies. This disease seeps in slowly as the body gradually breaks down, until the day we find ourselves in a position where we can no longer ignore the signs as the symptoms are just too great. At this point we call it a disease. We give it a name and seek out a treatment.
The different form that modern disease takes has significant implications for how these diseases need to be handled. As the infectious diseases of the past had one precise cause (e.g. a virus or bacteria), there was always one clear way to address the disease (e.g. antibiotics or vaccines). On the other hand, these modern diseases, the ones that arise due to the slow breakdown of the systems that make up our bodies, have no one specific cause, and therefore, they generally have no one specific treatment.*
Unfortunately, our current medical system, the one designed in a paradigm of acute, infectious disease, operates via practices that are unaligned with addressing the needs of modern disease. As is clear to see with our consistent rise in disease rates, growing number of those dealing with chronic symptoms, that ever-expanding list of prescriptions, and all of the complete and utter frustrations with the healthcare system, this method of addressing medical problems is not working.
The good news is that change is on the way. Many individuals have noticed the severe lack when it comes to current healthcare practice, and as a result people are hard at work making the necessary changes required to effectively address modern disease. We can see it in the clinical field with the increase in availability of functional medicine clinics. We see it in hospitals with a number of doctors learning multi-factorial approaches to treating these complex, multi-factorial diseases. We can see it in the medical device industry with a shift to technology that helps the patient him/herself manage his/her own disease, directly. There are moves in place and the shift is beginning to happen.
But to be honest, at this point in time, the tangible results aren’t so good. While certain individuals are fortunate to have access to progressive healthcare, the rest of the world is sort of out of luck for the meantime. And for me, that’s not good enough.
Personally, I don’t want to spend my life waiting for the seemingly inevitable breakdown of my own body, or of those I know and care for. I don’t want to wait for the day I hear that diagnosis. I don’t want to live in a country collapsing under a trillion dollar healthcare burden.
The good news is that we don’t have to because there is a third option. We don’t have to suffer under the deficiencies of the modern medical field and we don’t have to wait until this trillion-dollar mega-industry makes its upgrades. Instead, we can take our health in our own hands and make choices that will help us remain free of this healthcare system altogether.
Chronic, noncommunicable diseases are most often a result of the slow breakdown of the systems that make up the human body. The answer then is quite simple – if you take care of your body, giving it the signals and resources it needs to properly function, then the body does not break down, disease does not arise, and we become free to live out long, healthy lives filled with energy and free from the burden that comes with managing chronic disease.*
We can help ourselves. We can put forth the effort necessary to live our lives out in strong, healthy bodies.
You can prevent the breakdown of your own body. And I can help you do it.
Get started with the Reprogrammed Systems Approach
*The Reprogrammed Model defines Modern Disease as the elevated rate of chronic, noncommunicable disease in the modern, industrialized world. This is in contrast to the low rates of noncommunicable, progressive diseases throughout human history. Although not all chronic disease is caused by novel factors of the industrial world (e.g. diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors), most cases of chronic disease can be accounted for by the novel factors that are central to an industrialized world, and thus it is to these factors that we can look to address the vast majority of cases.