Chapter 1. Dys-Function
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Ayn Rand
Is your heart ticking over? Well, it has to be, of course, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. But, how well is it ticking over? And that's another question. What I mean is, on the Richter scale of how well you are functioning (1-10), is it ticking over at, say, 4.2 of what it should be (10.0), or could be? Or maybe 6.8? Or even 9.2? Now, that would be something.
But you don't know, do you?
What am I talking about here? The answer is simply function. How well are your bits and pieces functioning? How well is your liver functioning? Your kidneys? Your thyroid? Your pancreas? Your right knee? Your left eye? And so on. Nowhere in the field of medicine does anyone know the answers to these questions, even though a plethora of tests are made to check areas such as levels of this, that and the other. But none of these will give an overall assessment of the total extent to which a system, or organ, is functioning.
In fact, few people even know that these are the questions.
Most believe that, having gone through a series of often very sophisticated medical checks and tests, they are determining how well they are functioning. And they will obviously be getting some information, perhaps about the blood Ph level, about thyroid function, about cholesterol level, about cardiac performance and so on. But, are they receiving any information about their total functioning state?
Everything is connected. Everything is inter-dependent and nowhere is there a means of checking the totality of that "connectiveness". Which is function. The approach that we have settled for is a fragmented one in which our focus is directed to the parts - the kidney, the knee, the lung, the sciatica, etc - rather than the whole. Not surprising, when our cultural approach to healthcare is based largely on the philosophy of chasing the symptoms.
Yet, these are questions at the most basic level of our existence. At what is effectively the crudest level of measurement, we largely, though not exclusively, resort to measurement by symptoms. We mostly only think we are ill, or dysfunctioning, when we have symptoms. We then only act when symptoms arise and, even then, sometimes with reluctance.
We almost all accept that this is a normal and rational approach to measuring, if that's the right word, our health and/or fitness status. If a knee goes pop on the football field then there are symptoms and we know that the knee (and associated structures) has to be investigated and addressed accordingly. Note, I said the knee. Not the pancreas; not the elbow; not the duodenum. We react to the symptoms - the knee.
If you are an athlete your thoughts might turn to your particular sport. You do all the right things. You train hard. You follow the right nutritional rules. But, if only you could get rid of that nagging, and recurring, ankle problem you know you could get that extra lift, that bit more pace, you know would make all the difference.
Or, if you could conquer that nasty shoulder problem, your serve would be immensely improved. In fact, in no time you would be ready for one of the tennis Grand Slams? What do I hear? Oh, so the shoulder injury occurred five years ago, that time you helped move the sofa into the other room? And it's an injury you have to live with, you've been told by the best? Well, you know what? The best, like all of us, only know what they know. Which means they don't know what they don't know.
Let's define the word "function". On the face of it we tend to think of the word as relating to voluntary activity; that is, how well and efficiently we go about doing ordinary, everyday things. But if we have an injury, say a fracture, then we are not moving too well. We are dys-functioning.
Even if we have vague aches and pains, we know we are not functioning at the best level. Nor, if we happen to be a migraine sufferer, are our concentration and decision-making processes at the top of their game. We are not functioning very well for the duration of the migraines. But, so what, we'll be back to full throttle tomorrow when it's all gone. Or, will we? Why do the migraines keep coming back?
Then there are those other areas that we don't think of so much as belonging to the category of function. It could have been a lifelong problem but it has necessitated a constant reliance on Cascara sagrada, or some such laxative medicine, for the constipation you remember going back to childhood. Or, it might have been the all-too-often need to resort to medication for that pesky recurring heart flutter that seems to arise for no apparent reason. These are areas that we don't think of too much as belonging to function. They are activities that we do not consciously think of as having to be done by us.
They are part of our involuntary function.
So is what our liver does (or does not do), without our being aware of it. And our kidneys. And even down to those billions of little cells, beavering away, striving their mightiest to do all those myriad things they were designed to do. And we don't know a fraction of what those are. We are humbled.
But help is at hand, at least to a degree. When we become knowingly dysfunctional, which is to say usually when we become aware of symptoms, we find that in many cases the body has the ability to heal itself. And by heal, I mean ameliorate or clear the symptoms, for - and this is important - most of us assume that, in the absence of identifiable symptoms, all is well. However, we will come to that one later.
Admittedly, we all want rid of the symptoms super fast and will turn to various remedies, sometimes any remedies, to obtain relief. But all the while the final resolution process will involve the body's innate healing processes, with or without outside intervention.
The surgical procedures will still finally draw on the gift we are all endowed with, that of harnessing the healing mechanisms within, just as those same mechanisms will heal a cut finger. In our minds, increasingly targeted by the vested interests, media and others and their PR machines, we have largely lost sight of, and even confidence in, the simple message expressed in the concept of:
Vis medicatrix naturae - the healing power of nature.
We too often lose sight of that simple proposition and attribute the healing processes entirely to external elements. Some typical comments from patients might be as follows:
Sarah: "It was the cider vinegar that cured my arthritis".
Me: (Shhh, to myself): "No doubt it helped, but it would have been useless without the healing power from within".
John: "I tried everything and it was the Yoga that finally cured my hamstring problem".
Me: (to myself again. I'm no fool. I know when to shut up): "Sure it helped to open up to the healing flow from within. It facilitated the release of the healing power from within".
You see, the body does not want to be dysfunctional.
The body was not designed to be dysfunctional.
Even more so, the body is forever striving for equilibrium. It never stops, even in the presence of the most profound disorder or dysfunction. Now isn't that something? Even when someone is really, really ill, or dysfunctional, that healing stream, that inner intelligence, is striving with might and mane to bring about organization. Which is health.
There are some basic principles, basic truths, that we seem to be increasingly losing sight of and we need to revisit these, almost elementary, concepts in the quest for rational answers.
The guiding principle most of us use to determine how well, or otherwise, we are doing is to acknowledge whether or not there are symptoms present. It's a pretty simplistic formula we use, such as:
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