Holistic Health Care

If you understand something about health and disease, you will be better prepared to evaluate the kinds of tests and treatments that your medical doctor, nutritionist, psychiatrist, acupuncturist, personal trainer, coach, homeopath, naturopath, chiropractor, dentist, psychologist or sister-in-law may recommend in the name of good health. If you have chronic or recurring symptoms that are not being adequately diagnosed, a little information and some detective work will empower you to be an intelligent participant in your own health care.

Dr. Sidney McDonald Baker, author of Detoxification and Healing: The Key to Optimal Health, believes in a systems approach to health, which he explains through 'The 'Tacks Rule':

• If you are sitting on a tack, it takes a lot of aspirin to make it feel good.
• If you are sitting on two tacks, removing just one does not result in a 50 percent improvement.

Dr. Baker suggests you can substitute the word aspirin here with antibiotics, psychotherapy, vitamins, organic foods, but he states clearly that the proper treatment for sitting on a tack is tack removal. In other words, says Dr. Baker, "the body may be irritated by an unwanted substance. If not a tack, it could be a disagreeable substance such as a food that causes an allergy, it could be lead or a germ or a naturally occurring or manufactured toxin. The presence of some unwanted substance is a common root of illness." (p. 2).

Because the body and disease itself are complex, there is usually never a single solution to any health care issue. A systems approach to health care is simply the consideration of a multiplicity of underlying factors that are causing an illness or chronic health condition. It might be better called a lifestyle approach to health care.

Doctors who endeavor to help and educate their patients in as many ways as possible are able to effect the best overall health care. This would include, for example, tests that eliminate the threat of major life-threatening illnesses, improvement in diet and nutrition, recommendations for improved emotional health and education about lifestyle choices and one's daily habits.

Holistic Perspectives of Health

Health conditions are "multi-factorial." Perhaps the broken arm snapped because osteoporosis weakened the bone… Perhaps the person suffered a dizzy spell before falling into the glass… (Both osteoporosis and dizzy spells may be related to toxic processes.) And did the doctor know to prescribe high doses of Vitamin C, which recent research has shown speeds tissue repair? Furthermore, the fact is that most health problems suffered by most people in modern society are far more complex than these simple cases. They are generated by multiple causes and could respond in unpredictable ways to a variety of treatment possibilities and preventative measures.

What is the answer?

You're in the middle of all this, and therein lies your power. We believe that today's "empowered" patients will become, in many ways, more knowledgeable about their state of health than their doctor ever can. How is that possible? If you are driven to find answers, you have several factors working in your favor.

Factor 1) Because you're on the inside looking out, you have an intuitive sense about the factors affecting your health care. You have the advantage of being able to compare your variations in symptoms more accurately than your doctor can. You can adjust for your individuality. When a doctor's training has taught that something "rarely" occurs, she or he is predisposed to dismiss the possibility that it could be happening with you. This can be a problem because some conditions that were rare in the past are occurring more frequently today – caused by the interaction of thousands of toxins to which our bodies are now exposed. So if a doctor tells you, "Oh that's extremely rare," we suggest you tell him or her, "I want to check it out, nonetheless."

Factor 2) You know you're not crazy. Your doctor doesn't know whether you are or not. You do, however, have the personal responsibility to yourself and your healing process to address the emotional "tacks" that may be preventing you from healing. (see Detox as a state of mind.)

Factor 3) You're more motivated. In our litigious society, many doctors are not willing to try anything that falls outside of peer-reviewed medical journal published research and insurance company protocols. As Dr. Baker said above, this can be limiting. If it's your health and your life at stake, you have greater incentive than the doctor to find answers. If you're willing to take responsibility for the results, you can explore alternative treatment modalities that a doctor won't. This does not suggest that conventional doctors are of no help at all, or that you should go about trying out holistic health treatments modalities willy-nilly. Many people who try this find that they are given conflicting answers and treatments. No, we believe that you have to be more deliberate. Seek information first. Then act on the information you find most pertinent to you-- ideally information coming from more than one well-credentialed source.

The information on this site will provide you with a central organizing theme--an understanding of how the body naturally accomplishes the process of detoxification, and how you can facilitate the process. There are a lot of techniques that can facilitate this. No single technique will work equally well for every person, nor will all techniques fit into the lifestyle and preferences of everyone equally well. That's where your experimentation comes in. But we are dealing with SIMPLE SCIENCE here, the basic biochemistry of your body.

IF… You suffer from one or more of the many complaints that are generated or antagonized by toxins, and you engage in an effort to reduce your toxic load and you support your body's natural detoxification processes by supplying the proper biochemical ingredients in terms of truly nutritious food healthy diet, essential supplements, appropriate exercise, and adequate rest, THEN your body will better succeed in its job of healing itself.