Treating the Healthy Body to Prevent Illness

The fountain of youth

Don’t you think keeping the body healthy and disease-free is a good common sense?  Most of the time, we understand “treatment” as something we have to do when we have ailments and do not need when we are well.  The concept of WELLNESS is more than merely treating a disease.  It is also a prescription for healthy living.  Wellness is to maintain our strength and vitality; mind and spirit so that disease can not take them away from us. 

The Himalayan medicine system teaches that  the  most valuable medicinal plants are not those  that cures diseases but the most honored herbs are those that are taken when one is healthy and well.  This is to prevent disease/s from occurring in the first place and I think this makes a lot of sense.

The Western or Modern medicine is just the opposite.  Our doctors, hospitals, and drug companies would recommend medicine for treating diseases.  They have little interest in keeping us healthy because their livelihood depends upon our being sick.  The more often we get sick the more we would require their expensive services to put us back in good health.

According to Dr. Earl Mindel, a pharmacist; doctor in nutrition and a master herbalist, “a Himalayan healer would be saddened to hear of how our modern medical system has corrupted the healing arts in the name of financial profit.  He would be bewildered by our reliance on toxic chemotherapeutic agents, on risky surgical procedures, and on drugs that can have side effects exceeding any possible benefit.

Our closed-minded doctors might simply dismiss Himalayan medicine as primitive and unsophisticated.  The irony is that we are the primitive ones.  How sophisticated can we be when our modern society is plagued by cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, depression, sexual dysfunction, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and all types of degenerative and autoimmune diseases?  In the Himalayas, these conditions are virtually unknown.  To the contrary, these unassuming people are renowned for health and longevity unmatched anywhere on Earth.”

When we are well we are generally happy.  We think we are invincible and can do anything we want and don’t think about maintaining our good health until it deteriorates.  We  should maintain our gift of health and not to wait until we are or terminally ill to need health medicines. It is much simplier and enjoyable  to take in medicines to keep up our good health than to take medicines to treat a disease.   Himalayan medicine have  these to suggest:  Eat good food, exercise and enjoy the simple things in life.  My next article would be how to maintain good health.

Reference:

Mindell, Earl. (2003). Goji: The Himalayan Health Secret 2^nd ed. Lake Dallas, Texas: VideoPlus, Inc.