IMMUNE FOR LIFE:/MEDICAL FALLACY: DISEASE AS EITHER/OR
To make matters worse, thanks to at least three medical fallacies, our physicians often harm our “doctor within”. One of these is the idea that health is an either/or situation, with nothing in between.
We physicians tend to see a patient as either healthy or diseased. If the person is sick, treat the disease. If there is no recognizable disease, then there is nothing to treat. It seems so very simple, but it’s not.
Health isn’t an either/or state. It ranges from the best to the worst of health. Imagine a HEALTH LADDER. If you’re standing on the top of the ladder, you have vibrant health. Standing on the lowest rung, you have a serious disease, such as cancer. We don’t jump from the top of the ladder to the bottom, or the bottom to the top. Health and disease do not appear out of thin air. We climb up or down, step by step, passing through the various stages of disease and health.
With VIBRANT HEALTH you feel great at any and every age. Not only do you feel physically fit, you’re happy as well. Your emotional and spiritual health are excellent.
One rung down is FAIR HEALTH. In this condition you don’t feel bad, but you don’t feel great either. You’re a little tired, and perhaps you have a vaguely dissatisfied feeling about life. Still, you’re not sick, so, your doctor usually can’t help you.
Next comes the SYMPTOMS rung. Symptoms are the problems you begin to notice, such as shortness of breath, fatigue, headaches, backaches and chest pain. Standing on the SYMPTOMS rung, you feel run down and unenthusiastic about life.
A step below symptoms is the SIGNS rung. Signs are the changes in your health and/or body that we doctors can actually measure. Elevated blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms and abnormal blood counts are signs. Now you have something your doctor can treat, often with pills and injections. From the SIGNS rung, it is still possible to scramble back up the HEALTH LADDER.
When you’re down to the MEASUREABLE ILLNESS rung, you have an easily identifiable illness such as colitis, tumors, ulcers or diabetes. Now your physician is excited; he or she can bring out a full arsenal of drugs, surgeries, CAT scans, angiograms, nuclear magnetic resonance scans and dialysis.
SERIOUS ILLNESS is the next rung down the ladder. By now your health is nearly gone, and your life is in danger. Serious illnesses include heart disease, cancer, uncontrolled diabetes and strokes. These are the kinds of problems the medical system is geared to deal with. But even if a doctor manages to “cure” you, chances are you’ll never be really healthy again.
Below the SERIOUS ILLNESS rung is DEATH.
If you view health and disease as an either/or situation, you’re operating under a serious misconception.
Where do we stand on the HEALTH LADDER? Well, most of us are in average health. That puts us on the SYMPTOMS or SIGNS rungs, bad places to be.
*18\80\8*
