When my kids were little, we were learning math together—I was re-learning it, and they were learning it for the first time, and there was a frequent, almost daily, always annoying phrase I had to use.
The kids would look at the math problem, copy the math problem into their notebook, and work the solution—over and over, all day, every day….and would frequently get many answers wrong, despite having mastered the math skill required to answer the problem correctly.
I would repeat, “Look at the problem,” and the kids would do it over, and get it wrong again…, resulting in my, “Look at the problem, again,”…and eventually the kids would look at the Book, rather than their notebook, and realize they had written the problem down wrong…
When you use the wrong model, you get the wrong answer every. single. time.
For the last few decades, we have all become accustomed to the “acute-care model” or “sick-care” model of medicine
This model works VERY WELL in acute disease—truly—and many lives have been saved because of it. The advances in sick care have been dramatic and profound over the last 100 years, and I am grateful to have been a part of it!
Some examples:
If I have a leg infection called “Cellulitis,” >> My doctor prescribes antibiotics, and the infection resolves. WIN!
- Allergic Reaction >> anti-histamines
- Pneumonia >> antibiotics.
- Heart attack >> Open the blood vessel
- Diarrhea >> antibiotics.
- Pain >> Pain pill
- Fracture >> cast or surgery
This model is being applied inappropriately to every chronic medical problem, and the “Diagnosis >> treatment model” does not work at all when there are multiple, sometimes obscure, and longstanding causal factors contributing to chronic, complex illness.
We need a new model….
There are only 2 “root causes” for all diseases.
- Deficiency—Everything I need that I don’t have
- Toxicity—Everything I Have that I don’t need
These 2 primary causes, for which there are billions of potential combinations of outcomes, express themselves differently in complex people and often demand personalized, functional assessment and treatment.
In addition, Rarely does one “thing” act alone in a complex illness. The 2 causes of disease always work together, and they work together within 2 predispositions:
—Genetics—the code we’re born with and can’t change,
and
—Environment—which is every single thing we have experienced from the womb to today–everywhere we’ve been and everything we’ve seen, smelled, or consumed. Everything we’ve thought or dreamed or heard or remembered. Every outside influence for each single moment of our life.
All of us are a product of our own unique genetics and our own unique environment, and there are no two people on the planet that are exactly alike! Even identical twins, sharing the same “genetics” have different genetic expression and different environments—even if only because our environment is affected by our own perfectly individualized, subjective experience!
Understanding the 2 causes and the 2 predispositions is the first step in a long process that can lead toward healing….a process which requires a lot of thought, effort, and time for those with chronic illness, but one which can offer true hope for healing, or at least for “better.”
I’ve said all of this a lot over the last many years, and I always seem to get the same response…
It seems to me that people are expecting either something much more profound or much less profound than this,…
Like, “it can’t be that simple!?” or, “that doesn’t seem like it would work at all—if it would, it would’ve already been done!?”
It would sometimes take what seemed like forever for my kids to look at their math book to see the correct math problem and recognize how simple it could be to calculate the right answer…
Our problem is much more difficult than that, because to get this one right, we must first consider that we are looking at the wrong book for guidance.
Then, we’ve got to write a new book.
