Why do we get sick? Answering this question can help physicians understand whether or not a treatment is palliative or curative. As physicians, we must acknowledge that what we call disease is actually an adaptive physiological response to some imbalance or stressor. The stressor can be a pathogen, an environmental stress like subzero cold, or even emotional like mania.
Often physicians mainly focus on treating symptoms. It is often very insightful to ask why does the person need this or that particular treatment? Is this treatment needed to bring about balance again, or is it being given or performed to remove or cover over a natural physiological process? There really should be no need for a medication if the person could maintain homeostasis before. Ultimately we want to re-create the natural homeostatic balance of the body.
A patient reaches an imbalance due a combination or, more accurately, an accumulation of events that move the patient away from homeostasis. The body “normally” can maintain homeostasis, yet sometimes these homeostatic events cause a build up in the body. The build up of metabolic can be due to the body’s inability to release these now toxic substances. It can also lead to the body ability to holding onto the metabolic waste and walling it off. These different responses depend upon are a person’s constitution or their lifestyle combined with their genetic make-up. The way in which people respond, or the response-ability is the result of everything that came before (all the past events and places).
Ultimately understanding how a being responds to stressors, a physician can teach a person how daily activities can create restore an optimal healthy homeostasis to the body. The physician must consider the person’s constitution, past experiences and present manifestations/symptoms into a treatment plan that can help restore balance. The treatment is unique for the disease within the context of the person. That way the cause of the disease and the way the person manifests the disease is treated simultaneously. Disease can start in any of the aspects of a whole being whether it be spiritual, mental/emotional, or physical – Healing can being within any aspects of a person’s being but wellness will require addressing the entirety of that person and restoring complete balance.
