Prevention, Predisposition and Cure: Some Basic Misconceptions Which Need To Be Clarified
by
by
Maria Teresa De Donato, PhD, RND, CNC, CMH, CHom
“…it’s not the
scientific knowledge that should be eliminated, but the power which originated
from it.”
(“Preface” by Giorgio Bert to Noboru Muramoto’s Healing Ourselves, 1993)
(“Preface” by Giorgio Bert to Noboru Muramoto’s Healing Ourselves, 1993)
During the last few decades we
have been literary bombarded with the term “prevention”. Despite prevention should absolutely be a
must when it comes to our health, it is nonetheless fundamental to clarify what
it really consists or should consist in and what it does not.
Pre-vention – from the Latin word
“Pre-venire”, literary means ‘to come
before’ and implies playing an active role
by doing everything possible to avoid that
something, assumingly negative, may
occur. The very fact that all checks and analysis we may undergo aim at
verifying the presence of something, in order to establish that a condition
already exists, is, in fact, an indication that the exam itself has nothing to
do with preventing something from happening.
Laboratory tests, blood analysis,
scans, and whatever still included under the generally used term “prevention”
are NOT a form of prevention at all. They
are only means through which – from an allopathic point of view – a state of
disease or lack of it can be diagnosed, that is, only instrumental to prove the
presence or absence of an issue. Clinical
checks and analysis can, however, also be quite useful even when using
alternative therapies for they allow the holistic health practitioner – as well
as the physician – to have more information about the actual condition of the
individual. Though it is very important
to undergo clinical checks and analysis when there is a problem or when we feel
and fear that something might not be right with us overdoing and exaggerating
this practice is not advisable in the long run.
That said, when a person goes
through clinical checks he/she is NOT preventing anything from happening. To
the contrary, he/she is just going to verify WHETHER a certain health issue
is already in place or not.
True prevention can only
occur when the person does his/her very best in order to avoid to incur in some
health problems, especially those running in her/his family history through healthier and more balanced diet
and lifestyle habits.
Furthermore, having the so called
“high risk of predisposition” does NOT necessarily mean that the person is
going to incur in the genetic problem running in her/his family, but only that
she/he has a higher probability than
another person whose family genetics does not
present that specific issue. Consequently, being predisposed, or more
predisposed to “something” should be a greater incentive to be very active and do one’s very best in
“preventing that particular sickness from happening”. This, as previously stated, can be done primarily
through a healthier nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Unfortunately for us, modern
conventional medicine not only has for long time denied the efficacy and the
need to have a holistic approach to life in general and health in particular,
as done, to the contrary, for millennia by the most ancient medical systems
such as Ayurveda and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), but ended up seeing
the “removal” of body parts and organs as a way to cure… The removal of
something has absolutely nothing to do with the process of treating and/or
curing. A removal is a removal,
neither a treatment nor a cure. (Muramoto,
1993, p. 11)
By saying that, though, we do not
want to undermine at all the efficacy and the importance that surgery plays
considering the fact that in some cases an operation may, in fact, be absolutely
indispensable. We want, however, become aware that in many cases operations are
not really needed and that before
undergoing them we should get all the information we can. This may require doing our own research and,
most likely, hearing more than one opinion, possibly both from allopathic and
holistic health practitioners to evaluate all the possibilities we might have and
to make an informed choice about how to take care the best we can of our health
condition, should that be the case.
Maria Teresa De Donato©2013-2015. All Rights
Reserved.
To know more about my holistic health practice and my coaching activity, please feel free to visit also the following sites:
To know more about my holistic health practice and my coaching activity, please feel free to visit also the following sites:
