Have you ever thought about that word, disease? If you separate it into its parts you get, dis- and -ease.
Britannica defines it as: “Disease– any harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism, generally associated with certain signs and symptoms and differing in nature from physical injury. A diseased organism commonly exhibits signs or symptoms indicative of its abnormal state. Thus, the normal condition of an organism must be understood in order to recognize the hallmarks of disease.”
Simply put, it is to stray from ease. A change from the normal, easy functioning of our bodies.
To fully understand what this all means, we must be able to recognize what “normal” is for human functioning. And “normal” is the optimal functioning of an organism–aka health. How God designed us to function.
Our body is made up of approximately 100 trillion cells. And when there is a disturbance to the integrity of our entire system and its functioning, the body must compensate to establish a new balance. It must seek to reestablish homeostasis. Nature and our innate physiology is always working to find balance and a true “cure”. It doesn’t want to dysfunction on purpose.
So often we go to a doctor and are told we have a disease. But did that diagnosis define WHY that was happening in the first place? No. It is just a label that will be tamed with pharmaceutical drugs. The root cause won’t be investigated.
Putting it all together…
Imagine your arteries are plugged from eating foods that weren’t designed for optimal functioning. Your body must increase blood pressure to compensate for this blockage. This gets labeled as “hypertension”. But this really isn’t a disease. It is a corrective measure by the body, in order to keep us alive. Without that increase in blood pressure, your body would not receive blood flow to its organs, necessary for survival. So yes, while it is hypertension, it is simply a stray from the ease of functioning. “Dis-ease.”
Similar to any diseases with -itis at the end. The suffix “itis” translates to “inflammation.” You’ve likely heard of colitis, bronchitis, tonsillitis, gastritis, cystitis, etc. All of these are ways the body expresses that there is inflammation in that area. Again, they do NOTHING to tell us WHY that inflammation started in the first place.
And before we are officially diagnosed with something, the first signs are not diabetes or an auto-immune disease. It’s having chronic migraines, irregular periods, acne, bloating, constipation, memory loss, fatigue, toxic relationships without boundaries, poor sleep, etc. All of these (and many more) are ways the body is trying to get our attention. Ways it is compensating and dysfunctioning as a result of abusing it over and over with poor lifestyle choices.
In order to thrive, we MUST return to the laws that govern our biology. It’s truly basic physiology. When we do this, there is no dysfunction. And when there is no dysfunction, there is no disease.
All of the PA students we instruct, echo the same sentiment, “Wow! I really need to brush up on my physiology. I haven’t seen these pathways since I took that class.” It’s sad, really. The basics have been lost in the shuffle of which pharmaceutical drug best matches the symptoms. We have completely forgotten about how the body functions.
