Disease
What is health?
Western medicine defines health as the “absence of disease or other abnormal conditions”. It’s an idea which when first considered seems to make good sense, but upon closer examination doesn’t really account for what we know about health being a dynamic flux of homeostatic mechanisms. We know that disease begins before we can detect it, and as a result, medical science has invested in an increasingly complex array of sometimes invasive procedures to measure and predict health, such as blood pressure, serum lipids, biopsies, hormone profiles, cat-scans and MRIs.
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Countless sages and scientists have speculated on the cause of disease, on the ultimate cause, often as if there is just one factor we can tweak in order to prevent disease and prolong life indefinitely. For the ancient yogis of India it was properly guarding, preserving and circulating the vital force called prana through various practices, including meditation and spiritual exercises. For the modern geneticist, it is about modulating and inhibiting the genetic expression disease with different drugs, something that apparently holds out great promise but has yielded precious little fruit.
Please login or register to see the full articleIndigestion
If there is one disease in traditional medicine that can be said to be the ‘mother’ of all disease, it is indigestion. Although typically referred to as a minor set of symptoms most of us have experienced from time to time, traditional medicine equates indigestion with the first element of physical dysregulation, the first event that brings about ill-health and disease.
Please login or register to see the full articleIntestinal Permeability Syndrome
There is an increasing amount of evidence that damage to the intestinal wall plays a role in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis, Behcet's syndrome, type one diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis (Cuvelier et al 1987, De Keyser et al 2002, Fresko et al 2001, Malosse et al 1992, Vaarala et al 2002, Yacyshyn et al 1996). In some cases these patients will experience problems with digestion, and even if they do not experience overt gastrointestinal disease, when the tissues of the digestive tract are examined by techniques such as colonoscopy they will often display indications of chronic inflammation.
Please login or register to see the full articleChemical Injury
There are many chemicals, both natural and synthetic, that are known to damage cells (cytotoxicity, cell = cyto). Some of these chemicals are cytotoxic and act by direct means, whereas others are only become toxic when they are metabolized. Humans are being exposed to an increasingly wider array of environmental toxins than we have that have seen before, most of which have been produced as a direct result of industrialization. These toxins are now found in both the workplace and in the homes, as well as in our food, air water and bodies.
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One of the features of higher plants and animals is that they are dependent upon the presence of oxygen to produce energy, called aerobic respiration. Energy-rich carbohydrates and fats are oxidized is a step-wise manner within the cell to release energy, some of it used to fuel the cell’s activities, and the remainder released as heat.
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Although the function of the immune system is to protect the body, it is clear that the immune response to exogenous agents, such as infection, can also lead to tissue damage. When the immune response to an otherwise harmless antigen results in tissue damage, we can broadly refer to this as a hypersensitivity reaction. There are four types of hypersensitivity reactions, each mediated by a different class of immunoglobulins.
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The term autoimmunity refers to a loss of immunological tolerance (IT), meaning that that the immune system has lost the ability to distinguish self from non-self, and acts against self-antigens. There are two theories in modern medicine as to why this happens.
Please login or register to see the full articleInfection
Most microorganisms are harmless to humans: indeed, our very own eukaryotic cell can be understood to be several different kinds of microorganisms that evolved into a single physical entity several billion years ago. Thus we are a collection of microorganisms that we attempt to control and modify with our genes. Beyond this however, the external surfaces of our bodies are extensively colonized by bacteria, many of which can be seen to be absolutely key to the maintenance of life.
Please login or register to see the full articleImmunodeficiency
Immunodeficiency diseases involve a deficiency of B cells (antibody), T cells (cellular), or a combination of both, and can be either congenital or acquired. Congenital forms of immunodeficiency are rare, and are characterized by a susceptibility to infections and chronic diseases such as pneumonia, giardia, candidiasis and chronic rhinitis.
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That mind and body have an intricate connection has long been a belief in many traditional systems of healing. According to the Asian systems, the body is but a coarse representation of the mind, and thus all disease is ultimately psychosomatic in nature. This is, of course, is an assertion that cannot be objectively proved, but practitioners of these systems feel that they have little to apologize for.
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While many in this world would admit to life being beautiful and wonderful it is also very sad, and because the beauty does not last the sadness wins out in the end. Many people suffer countless traumas that begin in utero, and if the Asian belief of reincarnation is to be considered, we have been accumulating trauma over many life times. It is not surprising then that so many seek relief from their pains and troubles, and the easiest way to do this is to take some kind of consciousness altering substance.
Please login or register to see the full articleIatrogenesis
In 2000 the British Medical Journal reported that iatrogenesis, or ‘medically-induced injury’ is the third leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for at least 225,000 deaths annually.
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