Join us on a journey looking at how to achieve whole-person health, naturally.
Today, we’re introducing a new series called Healing from the Ground Up. This series will demonstrate a different model of healthcare in which drugs and surgery are the last line of defense, rather than the first and only option. This model will provide you with the essential building blocks to regenerate and optimize your health using safe and effective natural strategies. For too long, healthcare has been about treating sick people rather than maintaining high levels of health and resilience. It expands the concepts of “health” and “medicine” to go beyond clinics, doctors’ offices, and hospitals to include our homes, schools, and workplaces.
Think of your health as a pyramid. At the base is your genetic and epigenetic background; the health of your mother at your birth; your environment and the toxins you’re exposed to; the health of your gut and your dental health; your mental health; and the impact of trauma. These provide the foundation for your health.
Moving up the pyramid, you will learn how to use natural medicine to attack the root cause of weakened systems: immune function, oxidative stress, endocrine function, circulatory function, psychological health, emotional well-being, and more.
Finally, we will look at how other healing traditions such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and energy medicine can be incorporated into your life to promote optimum health.
Why are we doing this?
Something is deeply wrong with how healthcare is structured in this country. We are being decimated by an epidemic of chronic disease, and the conventional medical paradigm is failing miserably to address this challenge. The statistics tell a bleak story:
- Obesity rates have increased almost 40 percent since 2000.
- More people are taking statins than ever before, yet one in every four deaths is from heart disease.
- Rates of autoimmunity have risen 45 percent since 1988.
- In 2018, 52 percent of US adults had at least one chronic condition, and almost 30 percent had multiple chronic conditions.
- Chronic disease is responsible for seven of 10 deaths each year; 90 percent of the $4.1 trillion we spend on healthcare each year goes to treating chronic disease and mental health conditions.
- More than 60 percent of US adults take prescription drugs; 40 percent of the elderly take more than five medications.
Is it any surprise that US life expectancy dropped by about six months in 2021, after falling by two years in 2020? COVID obviously played a part in this decrease, but why were we so susceptible to COVID in the first place? It is because we were such a profoundly unhealthy nation to begin with. According to the CDC, there were comorbidities or other conditions listed on the death certificates of as many as 95 percent of all COVID-19 deaths.
How did we get here? Conventional medicine focuses on symptoms and treating sick people, not root causes and creating healthy people. Conventional medicine is great for emergencies like blunt force trauma and traffic accidents. It is not equipped to address the chronic disease epidemic because it has failed to address root causes. If you go to the doctor with high blood pressure or high cholesterol, you are often prescribed a drug to treat the symptoms. The underlying reasons for your high blood pressure or cholesterol are not addressed; how could they be when the average doctor visit is a little over 15 minutes?
Conventional medicine is way behind in recognizing the environmental drivers of disease. According to a World Health Organization report, an estimated 23 percent of all premature deaths can be attributed to environmental factors that are modifiable and preventable. We have reported on research estimating that as many as 90 percent of diabetes cases are attributable to one’s toxic load.
To us, it seems abundantly clear that the answer to the chronic disease epidemic lies not in some magic pill developed by a drug company, but in holistic, whole-person health; in removing the barriers to health by addressing contaminants in your environment; in learning how to optimize the genetic hand you were dealt through proper lifestyle and nutrition; and learning natural strategies for addressing and preventing chronic disease.
Look out in the coming weeks for our first article in this series looking at genetics and epigenetics.
