“We have divided the human body into a jigsaw puzzle of component parts,” says Dr. Robert Kornfeld in an article written for Huffpost, “We’ve taken the jigsaw puzzle apart and assigned a specialist to address each one of these pieces of the whole, losing sight of the fact that everything is part of the whole, and everything we do as physicians to each little part affects the whole person. This has fostered the current allopathic paradigm of “symptom care” in lieu of the more important issue of “health care”.
Dr. Kornfeld felt that in order to establish a system that is truly focused on health care, he needed to expose some “myths” that will unlock the door to creating a more efficient and successful healthcare delivery system.
Myth #1 – Technology has improved healthcare
Although advances in surgical tools have allowed doctors to operate on all parts of the body with minimal trauma and blood loss, has technology truly improved overall health care? Acute care has thrived with advancements in technology, however, statistically, since the age of technology there has been an onslaught of increasing chronic pathology: more cases of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, autoimmune illnesses, endocrine disorders, developmental disorders, allergies, respiratory problems, infectious diseases, neurological problems, musculoskeletal pathology, gastrointestinal disorders, psychological illness, etc. than ever before.
While it is true that technology has enabled doctors to better handle the enormity of disorders, it has done literally nothing for “health care”, as evidenced by the fact that there hasn’t been any decrease in illness or pathology in society. Pharmaceutical companies are certainly doing very well because of this.
Myth #2 – Inflammation is Bad
Ask any doctor what to do about inflammation and you will get the same answer, “take an anti-inflammatory”. While it is true that suppressing inflammation can lead to increased comfort, should we be doing this at all? Inflammation is a response by the immune system that detoxifies, repairs, and protects tissues under any form of functional or metabolic stress. Understanding the purpose of inflammation shows why we should not work to suppress it but instead support it. Inflammation is employed by the body to facilitate the repair of injured cells and will not produce symptoms in low-level stress situations. Signs of inflammation will occur when there is rapid, high-level stress such as acute trauma, repetitive stress episodes, allergy/toxin reactions, and metabolic disease.
When there is a high-stress inflammation response, the immune system then switches to a chronic inflammatory state. This is a protective state that prevents rapid tissue destruction and causes pain to prevent continued “overuse and abuse” of the parts involved.
Usually, the Innate Ingelligence of the body will work to efficiently solve the problem.
Myth #3 – Genetic Diseases are Unavoidable
If having a gene for any illness condemns you to having that disease, then why are you not born with the disease you are coded to have? The answer is that NOT all genes express themselves at all times and many never do.
So what causes a gene to express itself? You need to look at the lifestyle of the patient. Dr. Kornfeld feels that prolonged exposure to free radicals causes damage to our cells over time and that controlling the formation and liberation of them minimizes the expression of pre-existing genes.
Definition: A free radical is an oxygen-containing molecule that forms in the body — this molecule has an uneven number of electrons which allows them to easily interact and affect other molecules.
The best way to minimize the damage that free radicals can do to the body is mostly down to lifestyle choices like diet and environment, as well as supplementation with dietary antioxidants like beta-carotene, lycopene, and vitamins A, C, and E. Antioxidants work against the oxygen-containing molecules in the free radicals (see definition) to help block the negative effects of the free radicals.
Dr. Kornfeld gives the example of someone that has the gene for arthritis. One would expect that this person’s genetic coding would foster storage of free radicals in their joint tissues and that prolonged exposure to these free radicals would cause progression in cellular damage and degenerative disease over time.
Avoiding refined carbohydrates and sugars, processed meats like sausages, bacon and salami, red meat, and minimizing alcohol consumption is important because these all contain high levels of free radicals.
The best dietary antioxidants include fruits, grains, and vegetables, which are rich sources of antioxidants.
In the environment, free radicals come from toxic metals, cigarette smoke, pesticides, and pollution, so limiting exposure to these, where you can, is important.
Would the gene need to express itself if we controlled the formation and liberation of free radicals? Dr. Kornfeld feels that it wouldn’t need to express because, in an ideal situation, it wouldn’t need to go to extraordinary lengths to protect itself.
The secret to taking control of free radicals is taking an honest look at your lifestyle and diet, and minimizing exposure to free radicals while increasing antioxidants.
Myth #4 – Medications Improve Health
We are the most heavily medicated society on the planet. Many people take upwards of 10 medications, yet when asked how they are feeling, most will say that they feel awful regardless of their medications. How can this be? If medications are “keeping them healthy”, why do they feel so bad?
Since medications are designed to interfere with the natural physiology of the body, they will produce side effects. The body works to avoid any blocks that the drug puts in place to manage an illness’ symptoms, which causes the body to react … sometimes in a way that is worse than the illness it is being used to treat.
If you discontinue the medication, you will see a return of illness symptoms, which means that the illness itself has not been addressed … just suppressed.
From an article by Dr. Robert A. Kornfeld
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