| There is a Better Way
Our bodies are extremely complex systems consisting of billions of human
cells, probably as many non human cells (bacteria, fungal, parasites),
coordinated by multiple, overlapping control systems, and existing in an
even more complex context of individual consciousness, interpersonal
relationships and mass society. I once ran across a book on diagnosis
entitled "Anything can cause anything." And I think that is very close
to the truth.
On the other hand I believe in the principle of an orderly, ultimately
lawful and knowable universe. "God does not play dice," said Einstein.
But there is a large enough gap between our ability to know and the
level of complexity of the body, and the univese in which it exists,
that things may appear arbitrary.
The conventional model of disease is that it is either caused by a
specific disease organism, like pneumonia or tuberculosis, or "we don't
know" -- the causes are diffuse and statistical. For example cancer,
high blood pressure, heart attack.
Airline crash investigators have what they call the "rule of three." An
airplane, pilot and air traffic control constitute a highly complex
system with a great deal of built in error correction and redundancy
which is why crashes are relatively rare. Whenever there is a crash is
often due to more than one thing going wrong. In fact there are usually
at least three.
Chronic diseases, like the autoimmune diseases such as multiple
sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, the neurodegenerative diseases
including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and the autism spectrum, the diabetic
spectrum, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, allergies, obesity -- none
of these has a single known cause. Many of them have many causes.
For this reason medical treatment tends to address symptoms or apply
treatments to improve lab findings, without a comprehensive
understanding.
I think there is alway a greater likelihood of success if we look at the
whole patient. Bodies, like air transport, have many error correction
systems and much redundancy. When things go wrong with some basic
control system the likelihood is there is more than one cause.
For example, I saw a patient who had rheumatoid arthritis. She had
grown up in an extremely high stres household. She had significant gut
and systemic fungal overgrowth. She was highly allergic to wheat. And
she had a major cervical disc herniation. Over time, each of these
issues was addressed successfully and she has shown no progression of
symptoms at all. What "fixed" her? My answer is that her whole system
was out of balance and placing unusual stress on her immune system. Her
treatment included doing emotional work, cleaning up her diet,
chiropractic, clearing out the fungal overgrowth and gradually returning
to exercise.
"For acute health problems: Western medicine,
for chronic health problems: alternative medicine."
What is important is to find a practitioner or group of practitioners
who have enough vision and skills to cross traditional boundaries. This
patent's problems did not belong to any one specialty. It took a
coordinated approach and one that took into account her ability to
comply, her motivation, her resources and moved her through this process
one step at a time.
I see minor miracles every day. But chronic conditions generally take
time. It's like peeling away the layers of the onion. Layers and
layers of compensation as the body has attempted to keep going despite
major compromise with one organ or system working harder and often
failing under the strain. So the endocrine system, the emotional
system, the neurotransmitters, joints, digestion, all are under stress
and all become compromised. In the words of Lawrence Leshan , it is the path of the gardener rather than the mechanic.
We can still use rational thought and the tools of science. But in many
cases the tools that would be necessary to make a clear diagnosis have
not been developed, are unavailable or simply cost too much.
Stealth infections: There is considerable evidence that there are
many fairly common infections that become chronic and undermine health
without manifesting full blown disease. A common example is
helicobacter pylori. This bacteria is known to cause gastritis,
inflammation of the stomach, and ulcers. But antibodies to helicobacter
pylori, along with antibodies to another stealth infection, Chalymidia
pneumoniae, are much more closely correlated to heart attack than any
other laboratory finding including elevated cholesterol. Many of the
tick borne illnesses are extremely difficult to detect using normal
laboratory procedures. I had a patient who had all the symptoms of Lyme
disease, a tick borne illness, but her blood work was negative. She
eventually had a spinal tap which tested positive for Lyme antigens. I
am convinced that there is a wide spectrum of responses to infections
like Lyme. Some people are infected and fight it off. Some fight it
off but carry the infection which can appear when their system is
stressed. Some become infected but do not show any infection in lab
tests. The lab tests are based on immune reaction to the organism. The
sickest patients have so little immune response that they show
negative. There are many new and emerging or only recently suspected
disease entities, such as mycoplasmas and nanobacteria. Many of these
infections may be endemic, that is a large percentage of the population
may be infected "carriers" who will not show symptoms until their system
is compromised by stress, toxins, another infection, surgery, an injury
or some other stress to the system.
The body is a self-repairing system.
Remove the blocks to healing.
Supply missing nutrients,
And the body will heal,
Within the limits of physical matter.
Toxins: It is no secret that we live in a soup of toxins. If you
are in a modern home or office, there is probably nowhere you can look
about you without seeing plastic. These plastics all leach out
chemicals that are hormone disruptors. They sit on receptor sites
normally occupied by hormones and either block normal hormone messaging
or turn on cells inappropriately. Heavy metals are also everywhere in
our environmental. Heavy metals in the body are like throwing a monkey
wrench in the gears of a fine machine. They bind irreversibly to
vitamin and enzyme compounds. They block transmission of hormone and
nerve signals. They shut down cellular energy systems. Mercury is in
our food, air and water and, for many of us, in our mouth. Flame
retardants and anti-stain finishes, body care products, paints,
carpeting, food all contain hidden and invisible toxins. You can't
avoid them all but you can limit your exposure and support the natural
detoxification processes of the body.
Electromagnetic pollution: This is one of those things that is
even more difficult to connect directly to symptoms and syndromes. I
once saw a patient who had moved into a house directly across from a
cell phone tower. He started having headaches and moved out as soon as
he could but ever since he has had headaches when passing cell towers
(everywhere now) or when close to a cell phone. He is truly a canary in
the coal mine. Years ago coal miners used to take canaries into the
mines. The canaries were much more sensitive than the miners to
poisonous gases and when the canary stopped singing it was time to get
out of the mine! My patient was just more sensitive. There was a study
in England in which the researchers advertised for people who were
sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. They recruited about 200
people. In about half of them, the researchers could reliably find a
specific frequency that would cause symptoms. The subjects couldn't see
the dial so the researchers coudl verify that they were actually
sensing something. In the second half of the experiment, the
researchers found that for most of these subjects, they could find a
second frequency which would negate the effects of the first. The point
is, electromagnetic fields do affect us and they affect different
people differently and at this point entirely unpredictably. This is a
serious issue because with chronic disease it is so difficult to sort
out all the possible contributing causes. There are techniques for
measuring some electromagnetic fields. I have what is called a Trifield
Meter which I can loan to patients. And there are a number of
strategies for dealing with the negative effects of electromagnetic
fields, other than moving to an isolated mountain hollow.
The key is to promote health in every system. Improve the diet. Remove
dysbiosis in the gut. Improve digestion. Heal compromised
intestines. Fill in missing nutrients. Handle stress at the emotional
and biochemical level. Reduce inflammation. Restore hormonal balance.
Support neurotransmitter function. In other words, fix what is broken,
one step at a time.
|
Dr. Manlove