Christopher Welling is famous for faking sickness just to skip school. It is a technique he devised since a young boy and he is quite the master at it, too. He tells his Mom he is unwell, feigns a stomach problem, says he thinks he is getting a fever and lays down on the sofa. Concerned Mom gets the thermometer and as Christopher is holding it in his mouth, when Mom steps into the other room, he places the thermometer on the lamp light-bulb next to the sofa just long enough to raise temperature two degrees above normal.
Mom returns and checks the reading: “Oh my gosh, you certainly do have a fever, better you go straight to bed for the day.” Done deal, mission accomplished!
Focusing on signs and symptoms can be deceptive at times. We think that because there are no symptoms we must be healthy and well, that is until we get symptoms and so then we think we are sick. Actually, although that may be true in some circumstances, being “unwell” does not mean you are necessarily sick. Many times the body is simply adapting to a transitional exposure or episode and a truly healthy person will respond, however with some symptoms, and recover quickly without medications. If medications are given, they may reduce some of symptoms but the healthy person will get well either way, with or without the drugs.
The state of “unwellness” can also persist chronically, so unlike the temporary episode, there are ongoing signs and symptoms but tolerable enough that a person doesn’t see a doctor. Many types of conditions fall into this situation where an unhealthy person, who may not yet be considered sick, will suffer low-grade health issues as an unwell person and eventually would be a chronically unhealthy person… yet still not sick. No test results tell the doctor they are sick and the conditions are not fully disabling; only perhaps somewhat interfering with normal everyday living.
Sad part about this is that since we are not told that we are sick, we think therefore that we must healthy; but that is far from the truth. Sad reality is that there are more people who are unhealthy, then there are sick ones or healthy ones. This is especially true since the post-modern area of the information age that we are in. Genetically speaking we are engineered to be farmers, fishermen, etc. where we move a lot but eat a little. Today we eat a lot and move too little. These two aspects are the main determinants of unhealthiness today. They mainly affect energy management… the rest follows.
Modern medicine is focused on disease management but is totally ill-equipped to address the epidemic stages of “unwellness” and that most people are basically unhealthy. Organised medicine may be discouraged from directing future research into resolving the lifestyle contributing factors of unhealthy people, a policy that promotes more chronic disease, eventually (and that’s good for business).
Truth in health, true health does not come from a bottle of pills, a diagnostic test or medical intervention; that should properly be labelled as disease management. Health comes from “doing all the RIGHT things and avoiding all the WRONG things” so we preserve a fit body, we prevent the slippery slope of chronic unwellness and therefore preserve our health. If someone is taking medicine to produce normal blood or lab test results, that is erroneously referred to as health care. Only when a normal profile can be maintained without medicine can a person truly say that they are likely healthy; because as long as someone is taking medicine, they are deemed to be sick. Sick is worse than unhealthy but now the balance is pushing the person to get sicker, as we very well know, all medications have side effects.
Looking at the panorama and downward slope of health into sickness we start with Health, then unwellness, then chronically unhealthy, then sick ending up into a hospital and finally into the morgue. Looking at the above scale of 1 to 10 from Death to Life we are expressing the percentage of the fullest expression of life when we are a Ten (10) and the fullest absence of life the closer we get to Zero (0). We are all are somewhere on that line. But where? And once you properly locate your number, what are you going to do about it? Remain in the majority who are unwell or unhealthy? If you really are moved by this message, the recent blogs on becoming a 10 should help get you back on track.
Yours in Health,
docMIKE
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