Continued from The Descent Into Illness 1.
Divide and rule
Even the terms used in allopathic medicine betray confusion.
You can, for instance, be diseased without being ill as in the case of someone who drops dead of a heart attack without any prior intimation of illness. Sometimes even hours or days after having been given a clean bill of health by a doctor!
Conversely, you can be ill without being diseased as is the case with that old chestnut – the psychosomatic disorder – where allopathic medicine cannot identify a disease, but the patient feels ill.
Even the division of illness into mental and physical disorders is a construct because there is only the whole – bodymind.
Then there is the division of care and maintenance of the body into dentistry, podiatry, osteopathy and medicine. The division of medical care into surgery and medicine and the subdivisions into an ever-growing number of different specialities which are all so focussed upon detail they will never see the bigger picture.
When they don’t understand or can’t identify the cause of an illness, the tendency is to blame the patient in some way. What is interesting is that many patients are more than willing to go along with this!
For example, until the bacterial cause of tuberculosis was discovered in 1882, experts put the disease down to laziness, depression and excessive indulgence in sex, food and alcohol.
Multiple sclerosis too was seen as a disease of laziness – as chronic fatigue syndrome is today. A lot of people also willingly go along with the argument that the growing obesity epidemic is caused by laziness and overeating rather than having underlying causes in endocrine system poisoning from a variety of sources.
So confused is allopathic medicine that it even labels the symptoms of detoxification as being disease and medicates them.
The many nails in your coffin
Allopathic medicine assumes that someone suddenly becomes ill and that if only they could identify the causative factor, they would be able to remedy it in some way.
But what if that is not the model at all?
What if the vast majority of illnesses are caused by incremental increases in toxicity until the adaptive capacity of the body is exceeded and all mechanisms start to fail? These opposing models are depicted in the diagrams below.
THE ALLOPATHIC AND NATUROPATHIC MODELS OF ILLNESS RESPECTIVELY
The power of the naturopathic model is that when you understand that it was dozens or hundreds of factors that acted as nails in your coffin, you can pull them out one by one if you can identify them. It puts you back in the driving seat and means that you are no longer a helpless victim waiting for a medical breakthrough.
The fact is that every one of us is toxic and no one is truly healthy. We all live in an electromagnetic smog and are exposed to toxins, microbes, a nutritionally deficient diet and stresses of one sort or another.
There are apparently 4,000 genetic defects in the human gene pool and the average person has about 50. Some may have more or less than others and some may have combined traits from both their parents which means that they fundamentally have a weaker constitution than others.
The fact that there may be multiple causes of your illness that need addressing can be overwhelming news for some, and many people prefer to think that taking a pill will fix their ills. In truth, tackling the real causes of illness does require that you take full adult responsibility for what brought you to your knees and also for your recovery.
See if, by drawing a time line or graph like the one on the right above you can identify exposures to the following factors that may have significantly adversely affected your health.
Dental work
- Having amalgam fillings placed or removed
- Placement of a crown or bridge (especially in a mouth with amalgam fillings)
- Placement of implants
- Extraction(s) either of wisdom teeth, teeth for orthodontic alignment or teeth requiring extraction for other reasons – particularly lower molar teeth and especially if you got a infected or ‘dry’ socket afterwards
- Any oral surgery
- Orthodontic treatment
- The construction of a metal-based partial denture or any prosthesis containing metal(s)
- Root fillings
Exposure to radiation
- X-rays
- Dirty electricity in the home or workplace
- Exposure to radioactivity through occupation or medical therapy
- Exposure to microwave radiation
- Proximity to telephone masts or power lines
- Exposure to magnetic fields
- Exposure to mobile phone radiation and/or wifi
Exposure to toxins
- Childhood vaccinations
- Vaccinations required for your occupation
- Vaccinations required for foreign travel
- Seasonal flu vaccinations
- The contraceptive pill and/or HRT
- Any pharmaceuticals
- Environmental toxicity from nearby industry
- Exposure to chlorinated and/or fluoridated water
- Occupational exposure to toxic chemicals
- Exposure to the toxins in personal care products
- Exposure to the toxins in house and garden maintenance products especially any fumigation treatments of wood, etc.
- The flame retardants used to treat new carpets and upholstery
- Paints, especially oil-based wood and metal paints
- Exposure to food additives such as MSG, aspartame and food colourings and additives
- Recreational drugs
- Excessive consumption of alcohol
- Smoking
Physical stress and trauma
- Any traumas or procedures whilst in the womb
- Being born (for some) and treatment immediately after birth
- Any physical assault
- Any rape or sexual assault
- Any accident or injury
- Miscarriage(s)
- Giving birth (for some)
- Operations and some other procedures
- Shift work or frequent occupational travel
- Working in hot or cold conditions eg: cold meat storage, street markets, kitchens, blacksmith, etc.
- Doing a physically strenuous job eg: roofer, scaffolder, etc.
- Having a physically strenuous hobby such as marathon running
Infections
- Childhood illnesses such as measles, etc.
- Any parasitic infections eg: malaria or worms
- Food poisoning
- Dental infections
- Gum disease
- Viral, fungal or bacterial infections
Deficiencies
- Eating refined, processed foods
- Inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables
- Inadequate intake of fibre
- Inadequate intake of protein
- Dehydration
Emotional stresses
- Marriage, separation, divorce or marital reconciliation
- Loss of a job through dismissal or retirement
- Being involved in legal action
- Stress at work or school
- Change in health of a family member
- Pregnancy and birth
- Sexual difficulties
- Financial worries, change in financial status, foreclosure of a mortgage or loan or bankruptcy
- Change in work or change in responsibilities at work
- Changes in family dynamics such as children leaving home or gaining a new family member
- Arguments or fights within the family
- Taking on a large debt or mortgage
- Any change in school, residence, status or working hours – even if for the better
- Moving house
You get the idea! If you can identify the main factors contributing to your fatigue syndrome you are in with a fighting chance of remedying them with the techniques outlined in The Natural Recovery Plan book and on the associated website.
