CAN WE HEAL OURSELVES? (PART 1 of 3)

Introduction

Can we heal ourselves or do we need the aid of doctors, holistic practitioners, and drugs to be able to do it? Is it genetics, the environment, our way of life, and what we eat making us sick or is it us the ones that are making ourselves sick? Are we able to manifest wellness in our own body or do we need a doctor and drugs to do it? Do we have the power to make ourselves sick? If so, do we also have the power to make ourselves well? These and many other questions that we hear, and have been coming up, more and more lately all around us on TV, magazines, social media, etc.; are being asked today and are very relevant to the current evolution of the times, ourselves, medicine, and knowledge. In this article, which will be published in three parts, I will try briefly to answer many of these questions.

Let’s start with the basics by defining health, disease, and the types or categories of diseases. In English, the word “disease” comes from old French, then to Middle English, and means "lack of ease." In Spanish, the word “enfermedad” comes from the Latin “Infirmitas,” and means "Lack of firmness." The World Health Organization defines health as a “state of complete physical, psychological and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity;” and disease as the "alteration or deviation of the physiological state in one or more parts of the body, for generally known causes, manifested by characteristic symptoms and signs, and whose evolution is more or less predictable."

“A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not due to any immediate external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific symptoms and signs. In humans, disease is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person.

Diseases can be classified in multiple ways depending on: the type: infectious or communicable and non-infectious or non-communicable, which depends on whether the disease is transmittable or not; the duration: acute, semi acute and chronic; the distribution: sporadic, endemic, epidemic and pandemic; the etiopathogenesis, which is the cause and development of a disease or abnormal condition: endogenous diseases (having an internal cause or origin), exogenous diseases (having an external cause or origin), environmental diseases (having an environment cause or origin), and diseases of multifactorial etiology (having multiple causes); and the mind: mental disorders.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Regardless of the source of the definition and classification and classification and for the purpose of this document, we can easily come to two simple conclusions: (1.) That the lack of disease is basically what we normally call “health”, or ease; and that the lack of ease is basically what we call “dis-ease”, or what Western medicine call “disease.” And (2.) that with exception of the first category, infectious or communicable diseases, where the dis-ease is caused by external pathogens (micro-organisms like bacteria, viruses, protists (amoeba, plasmodium, etc.), fungi, parasitic worms (flatworms and roundworms), and prions); all the other categories are non-infectious or non-communicable diseases, where the dis-ease is caused by internal dysfunctions.

In the past, the majority of the deaths were attributed to infectious diseases compared to non-infectious diseases. Although this pattern still remains in under-developed countries, it is estimated that around 56 million people died in 2017, according to Global Burden of Disease, a major global study on the causes of death and disease published in the medical journal The Lancet. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) caused 71% of deaths globally, ranging from 37% in low-income countries to 88% in high-income countries. In developed countries, the diseases that cause the most sickness overall are neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety. For instance, in the United States, almost half of adults (46.4 percent) will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, one in every 5 adults experience mental illness each year, and one in every 10 adults takes an antidepressant. All but one of the 10 leading causes of death in high-income countries were NCDs, including cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, lower respiratory, dementia, digestive, diabetes, liver, kidney, etc., as depicted in the next chart.

Note: Although these numbers are for 2017, when the new numbers for 2018 or 2019 are published, the numbers may change a little but the categories will not.

Due to the fact that infectious or communicable diseases are originated by some type of pathogens, or outside natural causes where nature is taking care of its own business, we are going to put them aside and ignore them for now. But, what about the non-infectious or non-communicable diseases? Where do they come from? Is it natural for us to get sick? Are they part of our process of being alive? Is it like a car or machine that parts start to malfunction because of the defect, usage or age? To be able to answer these questions, we must first dig deeper into our own nature and the causes of disease. Next week’s article will address the causes.

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Author: Maurice Correa
Website: pathtoone.com
Blog: p2oblog.blogspot.com