Basic Tenants in Wholistic Kinesiology® Part 2

So, how is modern medicine doing in this fight to right the damage that we have done to ourselves?? So poorly in fact, that doctors are now the third leading cause of death in the industrialized countries according to a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 284 July26, 2001). There are over 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic (doctor induced) causes. These numbers include unnecessary surgeries, medication and other errors in hospitals, infections in hospitals, and negative effects of drugs. Despite the new technologic advances in our country, we are still second to last in overall health indicators including low birth weight, neonatal mortality and infant mortality, and overall life expectancy.

The following is a quote from Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor in chief on the New England Journal of Medicine

“The combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 (35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all of the other 490 businesses put together (33.7 billion). Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the U.S. Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers and the medical profession itself”.

The poor performance of the United States was recently confirmed by a World Health Organization study, which ranked the US as 15th among 25 industrialized countries. While there is the perception that the American public behaves badly by smoking, drinking, and perpetuating violence, the data does not support this view. Female Americans smoke less than the Danes but more than the Japanese, males smoke way less than the Japanese. Yet the Japanese are the healthiest according to this study. The US ranks fifth best for alcoholic consumption. We consume less fat than most industrialized nations and our cholesterol levels are third among the industrialized countries.

Drugs, surgery and hospitals are rarely the answer to chronic health problems. Enhancing the healing capacity of the body is the key. Improving the diet, exercise and lifestyle are the building blocks. A new paradigm of health is needed. Now as never before, people are starting to question the traditional medical paradigm of healing. Kinesiology is a modality whose time has come. We are confident that this modality can help restore proper function to the individual by devising an individual approach to restoring balance. One size fits all diets and supplement routines are also an area where one can get lost. So many folks read the latest diet or health book, they buy the diet program and or supplements recommended and find out months later that it did nothing to help them. Of course this dietary advice is good. It must have helped someone, or else the book wouldn’t have been written. How will you find the exact diet and supplement program for you in a book written about someone else?

Only the body can give you feedback about what it needs. It can do that in a very elegant and consistent way. With this knowledge it is possible to monitor how things are going internally and adjust according to needs of the body. Homeostasis is achieved in this way and health can be restored. We all have very different needs. We have different genetic makeup, different diets, different lifestyles and stress levels and so therefore, it stands to reason that our nutrient needs would vary.

Medical Doctors are beginning to respond to the demands of consumers for more natural health care solutions. Nutrition has in the past been strictly an elective course for MD’s. Not much was taught to them in Medical school. This subject had to be studied outside of the medical education. Once a Doctor gets out of school he/she is often too busy trying to pay back student loans and start a practice that they often don’t have the time or energy to stay current with nutritional knowledge.

Many schools now are including an integrative medical program in the schools. This is a positive trend in some ways. A little knowledge can be dangerous however. Witness the trend of MD’s to recommend 1200-1400 mg of Calcium to their patients. Not taking into account the type and quality of supplement they may get, nor their current consumption in the diet. In addition, often the patient’s absorptive ability is completely ignored. Too much calcium can lead to accumulation in the joints, kidney stones and various other problems. If calcium carbonate is consumed, the digestive system is impaired because of the pH imbalance of the carbonate form of calcium. So you see a little bit of knowledge can be detrimental. This information generally comes from your family doctor in whom you have confidence because he has so much schooling and knowledge and he wears that white coat. We assume a confidence that can be perilous at times. More and more physicians are attending nutritional conferences and overall this is an exciting development. I recently attended a seminar on “Functional Medicine” in Vancouver BC where over 600 doctors were in attendance. The majority were MD’s. I was encouraged.

Dr J A Dunn
WholisticKinesiologyInstitute.com