I lately have begun to wonder if one of the biggest flaws in medicine is that it gives us a diagnosis for our symptoms. We then have something real, to believe in, and build around. Once we have a diagnosis it is much harder to undo it; unless you are one of the fortunate ones that believes in the power to heal and turn it all around.

This concept hit me hard while visiting my parents and catching the end of Greys Anatomy

The scene was unfolding where a lady was

at the butt end of receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. In one minute her reality of being a healthy teacher with a few health niggles that were about to be solved by a hospital stay to then return her to her life and passion; teaching young children was in seconds transformed into a death sentence. That big word ‘cancer’ fell on her head like a sledgehammer and with it all talk of stats of life expectancy, treatment outcomes, survival rates. Basically in one sentence everything changed for this lady and her FUTURE turned into DEATH. How can several seconds change our life and beliefs about our life so quickly. Most often what we are told, we believe.

What IF our beliefs about our health make all the difference?

A case in point is AIDS. When a strange and terrifying virus first started killing patients back in the 1980’s medicine rushed to discover a cause. A scientific reason, means that we can then ascribe a cause, and in our minds then focus on doing something about it; it takes the fear away. So the researchers and scientists in the CDC rushed to find the cause and the HIV virus was discovered. The odds were poor we were told; HIV killed. And so people with HIV back in the 1980s, developed full-blown AIDS and the associated awful symptoms quickly and died shortly after their diagnosis. They were TOLD HIV kills, and so they BELIEVED they would DIE; and so they did. Fast forward to now, knowing what we know about HIV, patients are given HOPE, and they have far better quality of life, survival and life expectancy. I have heard the original scientists involved in the research say on the record that the way that the HIV discovery was rushed and how we were informed about what HIV was is their biggest regret as it gave little hope and this was all the difference in how many people died.

What if medicine instead gave us an explanation for our symptoms, and then worked out all the whys…. Maybe if we told patients how their bodies are not nourished sufficiently to support health, how the environment affects their bodies right down to a genetic level, how their beliefs and thoughts come into play, how emotions can be held within the body from traumatic events and lead to illness, how stress impacts their health and how they need to exercise and move their bodies. What if we told patients that their connection to life on this planet as we know it is crucial for health. What if we were told the truths on why sickness happens and then give knowledge about the important tools to heal?. Every patient is different; IF as doctors and therapists we showed patients the tools we felt could help them heal and also empowered them with the ability to harness the power of their beliefs then could we create better clinical outcomes?

I believe this to be true

What if medicine instead focused on the power of the mind to heal, the flow of energy in the body, and the significance of epigenetic factors, and got to the root causes of the misbehaving organs (e.g. virus, infection, dysfunction due to toxins, malnutrition, EMFs or stress) and taught people how to eat and nourish themselves, how to protect themselves from the environment, and guided them along in this journey….

I think we could go a long way to help people heal if medicine started to get off its high horse with having to be right all the time and started to look at patients as something more than a body