People who are used to a traditional medical approach to health problems may have a little bit of trouble understanding how natural approaches are effective. For one thing, medical approaches have to be exact. The right drug needs to be given for the right condition. Giving Ritalin (a drug commonly given to ADD patients) to someone in pain will have no good effect. Similarly, giving a NSAID to a child with ADD will not produce any results. When you treat symptoms you need the exact treatment to address the symptom you want to treat. Dr. Emanuel Cheraskin created the model that is shown at the top of this article. It is a model for health and disease. Medicine works at the outside of Cheraskin’s circle—addressing signs and symptoms. Natural health care works at the center of the circle—balancing the causes of disease.
Natural health care doesn’t work the same way as medicine. Natural health care is about balance. A chiropractor treats back pain by balancing the spinal column. An acupuncturist treating pain balances energy in the meridians. Balancing the body’s biochemistry with nutrition can help to relieve pain. Rather than thinking of disease as something that just randomly invades a healthy body, they think of disease as evolving when all of the components for good health are not present. For a body to be healthy there must be good genetics, good structural balance, good nutrition, biorhythmic integrity and good emotional health. When these base components are not present, it sets the stage for disease.
Traditional Western medicine deals with symptoms. It works on the outside of the circle. It is a great approach when the symptoms are severe or dangerous. If you get hit by a car, you may want the trauma team to work on you rather than have someone give you calcium to help you bones to heal.
The fact that you can use nutrition to control pain and inflammation often surprises patients. They just need to understand that instead of changing the chemistry of inflammation with a NSAID, you can change it naturally. They also need to understand that you are not treating their pain—you are restoring their health. Healthy bodies don’t hurt. Natural health care does not treat pain, allergies, multiple sclerosis, headaches or even cancer. It treats the human beings that have these conditions
