How is your health?

Have you ever visited a physician with a medical problem and been told there was nothing wrong with you? Have you ever been told that because your exam and lab studies were normal that you are in good health? Health is a relative state of being. In modern times, health is an enigma depending on how you ask. When I started my medical education in an allopathic school some years ago, I realized that medicine and medical care is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Wellness was really not a part of that discussion. If an individual lacked some indicator of an identified disease process, the presumption is that he is in reasonably good health and does not need the intervention of a physician. So chances are, if you have been for a routine physical lately, without any particular chief complaint, you are deemed healthy.     But are you really? Are you as active, free of pain or do you have the same energy

you used to have? How has the toxic world in which you live impacted your health? Do you know?

Historically, the indicators of disease in earlier days consisted of the history and physical exam findings. As technology advanced, modern medicine created “markers” of disease. Markers are diagnostic indicators which when present may indicate the presence of a pathological process. By definition, disease markers are compared to normal healthy individuals. Incidentally, many markers are based samples drawn on healthy young male medical students who are entering clinical training at US teaching centers around the country every year. So markers provide a physician with additional information to arrive at a diagnosis and hopefully a treatment plan. In modern time, the rise of laboratory medicine and other diagnostic procedures utilize very sophisticated instruments to determining what is wrong with a patient. I have a great respect for modern diagnostic medicine in all of its various shapes and forms. I used to be a part of that allied health community. Nevertheless, I wonder if we have lost our focus in treating the patient.

With the preoccupation of the medical community on disease, wellness was left out of in the discussion. The American Dental community was the first system of modern medical care to appreciate the value of prevention as a tool of maintaining dental health and decreasing morbidity associated with various diseases of the teeth and gums. Naturopathic physicians are actually the first to bring the concept of prevention into medical care, but their influence declined with the rise of drug-oriented treatment. The schools of nursing across the US have focused on issues of health and wellness. I think this is partly because diagnosis is the domain of the physician and the implication of any diagnosis is that there is a disease process at work, nurses were left with wellness. Health and wellness until recently simply lacked intrigue that is associated technological medicine.

The definition of disease markers is the major aspect of epidemiology—the study of morbidity and mortality in defined populations. Epidemiologists predict the incidence of disease based on the statistical analysis of outcomes, disease markers, and how the incidence of outcomes and disease markers vary in patient populations. Conversely, those factors also define wellness and provide for prevention measures. Many people only think of epidemiology with reference to infectious disease. In fact, it is the basis of much of modern medicine and the protocols that are standards of allopathic care. This body of information has certainly contributed greatly in determining public health policy and the basis for third party payment and medical care coverage.

All of this impacts health care and the study and practice of naturopathic medicine. The double-blinded, placebo controlled, clinical trial is the gold standard of epidemiology regarding claims about a particular drug or procedure. But as such, it becomes increasingly difficult to make an analysis of many natural products because the active ingredient is as yet to be determined. For this reason, many people have issues with natural therapeutics because there is the belief that they do not work or they work largely because of a placebo effect. Many naturopathic treatment principles are based on simple and safe non-technological modalities. These modalities are not easily patented, copyrighted or exploited by manufacturing interests.

Botanical medicine functions in many instances due to the combined effect of the constituents which when isolated lack the efficacy of the whole. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Naturopathic colleges and researchers are interested in creating new paradigms for the study of treatments and disease processes. Because much of our body of knowledge and treatment is derived from case studies and work abroad, we attempt to provide medical care that reconciles modern allopathic technological advances with tried and true treatments that have been in the naturopathic doctor’s bag for decades. All of this has created a technological climate in the practice of naturopathic medicine that is oriented not just to the diagnosis of traditional pathology but also accommodates the analysis of a person’s health even when they lack symptoms. We have laboratories studies—both “high tech” and simple—which we use to consider the total state of a person’s health independent of more conventional interpretations. Therefore, we can direct care toward a more comprehensive assessment and create treatment plans that are long lasting and have a permanent healing impact on the patient. We can also treat diseases in ways that are just as effective and have far less negative impacts on the patient’s wellness than traditional therapies.

Chances are, your health is not perfect. No one’s health ever is. Chances are, something is wearing out but not causing an imposition in your daily routine. Health is a process that occurs over time. Health defines the quality of life and impacts the quantity as well. In some medical circles, health is defined in terms of a lack of disease.

Naturopathic medicine strives to refocus the health dialogue, in a good way. We approach medical care in a manner that promotes prevention and focuses on the extension of life. We not only understand disease, we also understand health. We promote good health as a basis of all of our medical care.