An
important differentiator between alternative medicine (acupuncture,
herbs, yoga, etc.) and Western medicine (drugs, surgery) is how the
practitioners view disease. In alternative medicine, disease is seen as
something to be avoided. In Western medicine, we see disease as
something we must wait for, then cure.
Have you heard the term “wellness?” It has two contexts, one in alternative medicine and one in Western medicine.
In the alternative medicine world, wellness means taking
care of yourself so you don't get sick. Let's find ways to avoid
cancer, heart disease, mental illness. We can do this through changing
our diet, exercising more, and changing our energy fields.
In Western medicine, we wait until we get one of these diseases, then
we rush heroically to “beat the disease.” In Western medicine, the term
wellness means “early detection” of disease. If you walk into a “Wellness
Center” in a hospital, you'll see mammogram screening rooms, MRI
machines and other tools to scan for the existence of disease.
Is that wellness? To me, it's not. Wellness is about staying well, it
is about avoiding disease in the first place. When a person is told
“You have cancer,” it is a major blow to their psyches, and their
lives. Why go through that if you don't have to? Why not do whatever
you can to avoid that terrible day?
Western medicine treats the “pre-detection” part of life as a kind of
random soup of nothingness. You can't really do anything about any of
these diseases, you just get them or you don't. No rhyme or reason to
it, it just hits you, and then you deal with it.
Genetics is a big factor in the Western medical model. If you get
cancer, ah, well, it was in your genes that you'd get it. You see, your
great grandfather had cancer, so it was inevitable that you'd get it
too.
Huh? Unfortunately, Western medicine can't explain why siblings get or
don't get diseases supposedly passed on from their parents. One sister
dies of cancer at a young age (because of genetics) and the other
sister lives to be 100 (genetics).
For my part, I'm going to take the best care of myself possible, and not play a silly waiting game for disease.
