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The Promotion of Health and the Prevention of Disease
Written by:
William Bergman, MD - Hahnemann Health Associates
Introduction
In 1941, the renowned medical historian Henry Sigerist wrote that
the main items that must be included in a national health program
are free education, including health education for all, the best
possible working and living conditions, the best possible means
of rest and recreation, and the best possible medical care.
For Sigerist, medical care was "a system of health institutions
and medical personnel, available to all, responsible for the
people's health, ready and able to advise and help them in the
maintenance of health and in its restoration when prevention has
broken down.” The current healthcare system is divided between
two fundamental branches: medicine, which is concerned with the
treatment of disease, and public health, which is concerned with
the promotion of health and the prevention of disease. While the
former has a far greater amount of resources, public health is
thought to directly affect more peoples' lives. The promotion of
health and the prevention of disease involve three distinct
strategic levels of implementation:
Societal measures to broadly improve the overall standard of
living of the population, including efforts to reduce
unemployment and to increase educational opportunities. An
example of this level can be seen in the initial success of the
prevention of tuberculosis when mortality rates were dropping in
England, Wales, and Scandinavia, even before the cause of
tuberculosis was understood, probably due to improved nutrition
that allowed people, especially children, to resist infection.
Public health interventions to foster health promotion and
disease prevention in the society as a whole. An example of a
successful public health strategy can be seen with the widespread
utilization of polio vaccination, which had a major effect in
reducing morbidity and mortality.
Healthcare providers performing preventive interventions for
individual patients, either to prevent disease (primary
prevention) or to detect disease at an early stage (secondary
prevention). An example of such intervention is in the declining
mortality rate of Hodgkin's Disease in the late twentieth century
due to earlier diagnosis and treatment of that condition.
Disease Management and Disease Prevention: Finding a Smart Balance
In reality, however, a mere fraction of the total healthcare
budget has been allocated to prevention. In 1991, for example,
the United States spent $750 billion on healthcare of which only
three percent was dedicated to government public health
activities designed to prevent illness. Officially, preventive
healthcare has been a major goal of United States policy since
publication of "Healthy People: The Surgeons General's Report on
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention" in 1979. In 1990,
"Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention Objectives" (United States Department of Health and
Human Services) listed three broad goals to be reached by the
year 2000.
1. Increase the span of healthy life for Americans.
2. Reduce health disparities among Americans.
3. Achieve access to preventive services for all Americans.
Such goals require a shift of resources from a healthcare system
emphasizing disease management to true disease prevention and
health. With greater balance between disease management and
preventive healthcare, it can be expected that the quality of the
overall healthcare system can improve to address the needs of our
society, whether to individuals through healthcare providers or
through public health methods to larger segments of the
population.
Of course we all realize that preventing disease is far better
than treating it, especially if we are considering chronic
diseases such as heart disease and cancer, for which cures are
very difficult. Among the baby boom generation, more and more
disposable income is going toward wellness services and
preventive healthcare, helping to shift the paradigm from disease
management to health promotion.
One of the primary features of complementary/alternative medicine
is the emphasis placed on the cause of disease as compared to the
emphasis in conventional medicine on the diagnosis of the
clinical entity. Understanding the cause of disease gives us a
tremendous advantage in advocating an effective healthcare
strategy to prevent it.
Five Principles of Healthy Lifestyle
To begin, it is important to recognize that there are certain
fundamental principles of health for which there are really no
alternatives. These can be thought of as spokes on a wheel. If
even one spoke is weak, the wheel will not turn smoothly and the
entire vehicle will be disrupted. To maintain an optimum level of
health and well being, we have to relate to five fundamental,
non-alternative principles:
Good nutrition, including clean air and pure water
Adequate exercise
Proper posture
Sufficient rest
A positive, peaceful state of mind
Whatever else we may require in the way of information and
resources to optimize our health or treat more chronic diseases,
we cannot avoid paying attention to these five fundamental areas
of lifestyle. They are basic and essential to maintaining and
promoting our health.
We should understand that true health can only be attained if we
live in harmony with natural law as a matter of our day-to-day
lifestyle. By incorporating the principles of a health-building
lifestyle program into our daily routine, we can maximize the
potential for a longer and happier life. Whatever else we do to
increase our level of health and vitality, such a lifestyle
program will be the solid foundation upon which everything else
will be based.
When We Fail to Live by the Principles of Health
When we fail to live in accordance with the principles underlying
the health building lifestyle, we lose the internal balance that
characterizes the healthy state. It is also possible that,
considering the degree of environmental toxicity to which we are
exposed, and the level of stress under which most of us live,
even those of us living a relatively healthy lifestyle can be
thrown out of balance, setting the stage for the onset of chronic
disease.
Once we have begun to lose our health, it is unlikely that the
health-building lifestyle alone will be sufficient to reverse the
problem. We begin to experience minor chronic symptoms, which are nature's early warning signals that corrective action needs to be
taken. As powerful as our innate capacity for self-healing is, at
a certain point the accumulation of environmental/metabolic
toxicity and emotional/mental stress simply becomes more than the
system can handle.
It would be wise at this point to consult with an integrative
health professional (one who has knowledge of both conventional
and alternative medicine) to make sure that there is no
undiagnosed disease. Even if you feel you are in excellent health
and have absolutely no symptoms at all, it is wise to have a
periodic conventional diagnostic evaluation to rule out any
disease conditions before proceeding with a self-help program on
one's own.
Using Natural Health Promotion, Before Disease Develops
Once appropriate examinations have excluded the presence of
disease, our next step is the use of natural health promotional
programs, which can help correct the problems before serious
conditions develop. Even those following a health building
lifestyle would be wise to utilize these same programs as a
preventive strategy to maintain and further promote their level
of health.
The place to begin is in our response to minor acute illness.
Often the onset of the uncomfortable symptoms of colds, minor
skin eruptions, gastrointestinal problems, and other common
complaints are nature's way of trying to handle low-grade
infection or inflammation. By learning how to use nontoxic
natural medicines like homeopathics, we can cooperate with nature
rather than unwisely suppressing the symptoms.
Detoxification
In addition, the combination of toxicity and mental-emotional
stress puts an enormous burden on the self-regulatory systems of
the body. By addressing this issue as early as possible, we can
significantly reduce the risk of more serious disease developing
down the line. The issue of toxicity involves those methods that
will effectively promote healthy gastrointestinal function and
rid the gastrointestinal tract of parasites and other
contaminants that we've introduced through the food or water.
Food additives, flavorings, colorings, pesticides, preservatives,
antibiotics, and hormones, among others, set off reactions in the
body that can cause a variety of health problems. Used on a
periodic basis, ideally every season or at least 12 times each
year, an intestinal detoxification program combined with liver
and blood cleansing can help defend the body against "inner
pollution" by flushing out environmental toxins as well as the
toxic by-products of metabolic processes.
Positive state of mind
The importance of a positive, peaceful state of mind has already
been mentioned as one of the key factors in a health-building
lifestyle program. It is believed by many that negative
mental-emotional patterns such as resentment, envy, fear, and
guilt can greatly disrupt and disorder the balance of our mind.
Modern science is substantiating that every emotional state has a
corresponding biochemistry based on the release of powerful
neurotransmitters, which are naturally-produced chemicals that
can exert either a beneficial or destructive influence on our
body's physiology or function.
Stress management
Because this mind-body connection mediated by chemically active
neurotransmitters is such an important factor in disease
causation and disease prevention, it is becoming increasingly
clear that we need to manage stress on a regular basis in order
to optimize the capacity of our inherent self-healing and
self-regulatory mechanisms.
Conclusion
We have chosen to emphasize a health promotional approach using
homeopathic medicines, detoxification, and stress management
because they are generally safe, easy to implement, and will, in
most cases, effectively improve your level of health. Of course,
as was emphasized earlier, it is always advisable to discuss
these approaches with your physician or licensed health
professional, and to consult with your doctor if any health
problem fails to resolve promptly or if there is any question
about the existence of a more serious condition.
As we move into the first years of this new century, we are
poised for great strides in the promotion of health, extension of
life, and the prevention of disease. By taking more personal
responsibility for our health and becoming more self-reliant in
accessing those tools that can effectively serve us, we will be
in the best position to take advantage of the breakthrough
advances in biotechnology and medicine that science will
undoubtedly provide us.
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