When Your Body Talks, Listen!

By Allen Lawrence

Today, more than ever, people are unhappy with the quality of medical care. Many people feel a breach of faith between themselves, their doctor and the medical system. Their discontent is fueled by; the ever increasing costs of medical care and medical insurance, difficulty getting and affording medical insurance, trouble scheduling a timely appointment, the long wait in the doctor’s waiting room and in the examination room, the brevity of the actual time spent with the doctor, the lack of information from the doctor, the fact that everything is treated with a medication and that frequently multiple medications are prescribed. What is worse is the realization by the general public that their medical problems are rarely solved, that their illnesses seem to be progressing and that they run an increased likelihood of developing a chronic disease. People are just not getting well and they are very frustrated and unhappy about this.

People blame the medical system, and specifically medical doctors, but the fault may be due to a problem which is bigger than just any one doctor or even the system alone. It is due to their basic lack of understanding and ability to recognize and treat Stress-Related Disorders, or SRDs.

What are SRDs? Why are they creating such a problem? What can be done about them?
SRDs care caused by stress, but not just any stress. They are caused by specific, important unresolved conflicts. Conflicts which the body, or better still the mind of the body or body-mind, feel are important and must be resolved. The body-mind often tries to communicate that these conflicts are important and that they must be resolved. It may get our attention in many ways including through dreams, accidents, and a progressive series of individual small physical, mental or emotional complaints, usually referred to as symptoms by the medical profession. It is important to be able to identify and resolve the causes of the SRD’s to return to a state of well-being.

The body-mind wants us to listen to it. When we do not listen, we do not change. To get our attention the body-mind will progressively up the ante and increase the intensity and severity of these symptoms, until it ultimately creates an even more serious series of symptoms and signs which end up causing physical changes to the body and what we most commonly refer to as illness and even disease.

If we act on this information before injury occurs the process can and will be reversed. If we don’t act then illness will occur and eventually damage our body, or our mental, emotional or spiritual aspects.

The general public, the medical profession and most doctors are not trained to recognize stress or SRDs. As a result of this SRD’s are almost entirely missed. While the person knows something is wrong, their doctor has no way of understanding what is happening. They treat their patient’s symptoms and not their causes. The process often progresses to disease and even chronic disease.

If SRDs are recognized early on they are often easy to resolve. If SRD’s are left unrecognized and untreated they can progress until real illness and disease are created.

If you are suffering from vague but problematic symptoms....
If you are not getting help from the medical profession....
If you are using over-the-counter medications very frequently or on a daily basis
If you know something is wrong but cannot identify it
If you are feeling sick and no one can figure out what is wrong with you
If you have been told that your symptoms are all in your head!@

You may have a Stress Related Disorder and now YOU can do something about it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allen Lawrence
• Release date: Nov 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301310487

Allen Lawrence

About Drs. Allen and Lisa Robyn Lawrence Allen Lawrence, M.S., M.D. Ph.D. In 1966 Dr. Lawrence graduated from U.C. Irvine School of Medicine. He performed his internship at U.S.C. County General Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Upon completion of his internship he entered the U.S. Air Force as a Medical Officer. He spent the next two years on the island of Guam working both with military personnel and their wives. Upon discharge from the Air Force he joined a General Practice in Los Angeles for one year. In 1970 he entered a residency training program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Upon completion of my training Dr. Allen Lawrence went into private practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the West Los Angeles-Beverly Hills area. He practiced OB-Gyn for the next 11 years. During that time he performed thousands of deliveries. These deliveries not only in the hospital but many hundreds as home deliveries and in later in a non-hospital based birthing center. Throughout this period he never lost a single mother or baby, my C-section rate was a low 5%. In 1983 he left the practice of OB-Gyn in 1983 after developing a severe and incapacitating heart irregularity. After trying many different combinations of medication he ultimately recognized that his problem was primarily stress-related. Dr. Lawrence spent the next ten years learning about stress, healing, comparative healing systems. Eventually, this quest lead to the realm of prevention and healing people instead of waiting until they became sick to then treat them. In 1980 he earned a Master's Degree in Nutrition and in 1984 a Ph.D. in Psychology. Lisa Robyn Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D. Lisa Robyn Lawrence has spent most of her adult life working in the medical profession. In the early 1980's Lisa's Premenstrual Syndrome became a major problem. Lisa, working with Dr. Allen Lawrence, researched the field of PMS. After learning its causes she was able to completely eliminate all of her symptoms. Using this work as her thesis, she was granted a Master of Science in Nutrition in 1984. In 1994 Lisa earned a Ph.D. in Human Ecology. As Director of Nutritional Counseling Services at Reseda Woman's Center and later at DiversiCare Medical Group, Lisa has worked with more than 3,000 women. For more than fifteen years Lisa has had a nutritional practice helping people with problems such as PMS, menopause, pregnancy nutrition, weight reduction, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other nutrition problems. Besides her nutritional practice Dr. Lisa Lawrence works with men and women counseling them on alternative and natural healing techniques and treats, Stress, Stress-Related Disorders, illnesses either created by stress or made worse by it. Today Drs. Allen and Lisa live and work together in Desert Hot Springs, California and are Co-Directors of Health Education Associates and Desert Wellness and Healing Seminars providing health education through lecturing, seminars, publishing and the internet. Dr. Allen Lawrence, no longer practice standard Western medicine. They now work with alternative medicine techniques and educate and counsel men and women in wellness and illness prevention. Their work is based on Integration of Mind, Body and Spirit and problem solving to prevent and heal illness, nutrition and lifestyle transformation. The Lawrence's are coauthors of six books, A Doctor's Proven Nutritional Program for Conquering PMS published by Simon and Schuster, Stress Related Disorders, Illness an Intelligent Act of the Body published by ALLME Publishing Co., Huna, Ancient Miracle Healing Practices and the Future of Medicine Published by Hanover House, 30-Days to No More PMS, 30-Days to No More PMS, The PMS Cookbook and 30-Days to No More Iron Deficiency Anemia published by ALLCO Publishing.

Book preview

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the many people who have helped us with writing this book. Those patients, several thousands of them, who sat and talked with us about their individual lives and their life experiences, how the stresses of their life affected them, how it made them sick, and how in many cases they healed themselves. I appreciate them and their extremely valuable contributions to this book.

I would like to thank my wife and partner Lisa Robyn Lawrence for her many contributions of time and effort in reading, rereading, editing and discussing the content with me. Lisa is an amazingly bright woman with many insights and a gift for saying things the way they need to be said.

Accolades to Kip Allen who shared editing with Lisa and Arlette Capel who executed the book production, including the book design, layout, and multiple edits and revisions. They both did an excellent job of helping us produce a work that provides easy to read information.

I would also like to thank our many patients over the years. Especially those who allowed us to use their stories. Our patients have been our greatest teachers and without them we would still be in the dark regarding the role of stress in creating illnesses.

Stress is an ignorant state.

It believes that everything is an emergency.

~Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of us who were born without an owner's manual for our mind or body. In writing this book, it has been our intention to help people better understand how our bodies, minds, and spirits work and how we can cause illness in ourselves and others. In addition this book shows us how we can be more responsible for creating our own good health and supporting the good health of our loved ones, our family, friends, and colleagues.

The process we use is simple. We recognize that we live in an Intelligent Universe controlled by an Infinite Intelligence, and that this intelligence has given us an infinitely Intelligent body. By becoming aware of this Intelligence and understanding how our Intelligent body works and communicates with us, we can easily take control of not only our health and well-being, but of who and what we are.

This Intelligence tells us when we are operating perfectly in tune with our nature. It also tells us when we are in conflict, out of balance, not optimally taking care of our bodies, and when we are being destructive to it.

When these communications are positive, in harmony and balance with ourselves, and our lives, everything comes together and we create what we generally think of as good health. Good health not only means that our bodies work correctly but also that we experience a sense of well-being, feelings of joy, prosperity, and internal serenity.

Illness, on the other hand, communicates that an imbalance or breakdown of some kind has occurred. The body cannot speak in words; it can only speak in physical signs and symptoms. These physical signs and symptoms are messages from your body providing information about the state of your body, life, lifestyle, activities, diet, stresses, positive and negative behaviors, mental and emotional attitudes, and beliefs. Through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual signs and symptoms, which we commonly think of as illness, we can determine what is right and wrong, working and not working and what needs changing, fixing, or repair. In learning how to identify these communications, we learn how to protect ourselves. The more we learn, the faster and earlier we can begin healing ourselves and those around us.

It is our hope to change the way we, as individuals and as a society, look at illness. It is our greatest wish to make a difference in the lives and health of each of our readers. The message we wish to impart is the title of this book, When Your Body Talks, Listen!

The greatest weapon against stress

is our ability to choose one thought over another.

~William James

Introduction

Each of us wants to be healthy and live a full life. Unfortunately, from time to time, we may find ourselves suffering from illnesses. Once sick, we count on medical doctors to heal us, although they are not always able to do so. This causes distress and even anger for many people. While some people hardly think about illness, others are concerned and want to know how they can protect themselves, insure longevity paired with good health.

There is a large group of illnesses that the medical profession cannot cure. Medical doctors generally do not recognize these illnesses until late in the diseases' course. Because of this, many people suffer needlessly. Many of these illnesses are preventable. Unfortunately, a majority of the people suffering from these illnesses, and often the medical doctors themselves, are unaware that these illnesses are not only preventable, but also fully reversible especially if found and treated early.

This book is primarily about a group of illnesses caused by stress-those conditions we will refer to as Stress-Related Disorders (SRDs). Most people suffer from one or more Stress-Related Disorder. In fact, it is likely that you, my dear reader, may suffer from one or more of these illnesses yourself. You will also find that if you suffer from an illness where treatment has not been successful, your illness might likely fall into this category.

When we discuss Healing of illnesses, we are specifically talking about Stress-Related Disorders. However, the concept of Healing itself is not limited only to these conditions. In referring to Healing, we generally mean the innate capacity that we all possess to heal any condition of the mind, body, or spirit in which there is an imbalance or an illness.

If the terms illness and healing are unclear or confusing at this point, please, don't worry, we will define and explain them in much greater detail within the course of this book. Healing of the body, as you will soon recognize, also requires healing of the mind and spirit.

Fortunately, this process does not necessarily involve psychiatry, psychology, religion, or the occult. Instead, it simply involves acts of love, self-love, and caring. Healing is not performed by a medical doctor, medications, or even surgery. Healing always involves your efforts to create your own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual repairs-and return to wellness.

As we begin delving deeper into the healing process, it is important that we have a clear idea of what is needed to create healing and an understanding of the problem or problems that have originally caused the illness process. It is also important to recognize that illness, no matter the type or cause, is an intelligent communication from the body, mind, and spirit that a conflict exists and requires a solution.

It also helps to have a plan and the willingness to carry out this plan. In this sense, healing becomes a process of resolution and completion. Conscious and subconscious conflicts need resolution so that the body, mind, and spirit can return to normality. Implicit in this intelligent process is that healing can help us grow, evolve and ultimately find our highest, healthiest, and best Self.

True healing is about learning, repairing, growing, and evolving. Healing goes on all the time. It is a natural part of who and what we are. The repair process has to do with returning injured areas to normal, harmony and balance with the whole person, nature, and life itself. It makes no difference whether what is to be healed is a body part, an emotion, a business, a relationship, or our connection to the Universe in which we live.

Learning has to do with understanding the factors that caused our problems in the beginning. Growing represents not only our basic physical, mental, and emotional growth, but also the opportunities that arise in everyday life. In the end, personal growth is necessary, and intelligent healing requires that we master this process and reach for and find our highest, healthiest, and best Self. This includes learning from our mistakes and using what we learn to support our future growth.

Most important of all is allowing—and vigorously encouraging—the healing process and healing. Healing will not occur if we resist it. To become healed, we must accept our capacity to heal ourselves. To do this, we must learn to have faith in our innate ability to heal ourselves. Those who have already experienced this process know that it does indeed happen. However, it is not always possible to explain how or why it happens. We ultimately need to know that we have the ability to heal whatever must be healed, and that we must be willing to do the work to make this healing possible.

FOREWORD

BY ALLEN LAWRENCE, M.D.

What we present in this work is entirely our own personal viewpoint. We present little or no scientific references in this work, as we do not intend it to be a strictly scientific treatise. Instead, it comes from our years of personal observations and from what we learned from the many patients who have been our teachers.

When I decided to become a physician, I made a pledge that my life would be dedicated to helping people get well. In the early years of my practice, I relied on what I was taught in medical school to help me heal people. During those years, I helped many people, and my patients seemed pleased. I treated many and even appeared to cure a few people. However, I cured far fewer people than I believed were curable. I ultimately found that medicine was not about curing people, but about treating them with medications, surgery, and other medical procedures. I eventually became disillusioned, and I developed illnesses that forced me to give up the day-to-day-practice of medicine.

As with many others through the years, We ultimately find that our own illnesses are our greatest teachers. These works, as well as the other books Lisa and I have written are about a few of the many success stories. It is also about a willingness to look beyond the medical textbooks and see what is actually happening. It is about those patients and their families who were willing to go beyond their previous limitations and view their lives in a different and more productive way. Ultimately, it is about the exploration and the journeys these patients took to find their own wellness and healing. I believe that this approach will one day, be considered the standard for a new medicine-a medicine of healing rather than simply treating.

Currently, the medical profession concentrates on technological systems to solve its inability to cure patients. I believe this is the wrong place to look. It's not that technology isn't valuable, but rather that the answers are within each of us in an area where it is unlikely that any technological breakthrough will ever be of great value.

The answers exist within the interrelationship of our minds, bodies, and spirits. Certainly, the role of our brains, anatomies, physiologies, and biochemistries are all important factors. However, the part we are about to discuss is about being human, and how we actually work beyond our physical parts.

The principles we will discuss within this book are the basis of many healing systems, many of which are thousands of years old. One such system that we believe is extremely valuable is Huna (meaning secret), an ancient Polynesian and Hawaiian healing system that has been actively used for somewhere between 2,000 and 14,000 years. It is not only much older than Western medicine; it is much wiser and more sophisticated in many ways.

In this book, we will introduce you to some new ways of thinking about old problems. We will present a framework upon which the interaction of our minds, bodies, and spirits are described. No such structure presently exists in modern day medicine. This is a major problem for those of us who want to heal and those of you who want to be healed.

Because the information I am presenting here is so different from what you may already be used to, I decided that I must give you one extremely important instruction before we start: believe nothing I say, unless you first know it to be true. If, after you have completed reading our book, you are still unsure of what I have offered, do two things: First, live with it for a while without trying to prove it to be either right or wrong. Second, watch the world around you. Look at those people who become ill, and see if what I have said helps you to understand why some people heal spontaneously and why others do not and may subsequently remain ill or develop one or more chronic or even fatal illnesses.

I believe that if you do this, you will soon find out for yourself that what I say herein is basically correct. If you recognize this for yourself, then you will also recognize that you are the creator of your own life. Once you become aware that only you can cause your own illnesses, then you can learn how to heal yourself. Only you can heal your illnesses and change your life for the better. Only you can reach for and find your highest, healthiest, and best Self.

Allen L. Lawrence, M.A., M.D., Ph.D.

FOREWORD

BY LISA LAWRENCE, M.S., PH.D.

When I, Lisa, was very young I knew that I possessed the ability to heal myself and others. I knew and trusted that bodies could heal and get well. I did not need to understand the process at the time, I just trusted it. As I grew older, much of that system was taught out of me. Teachers, parents and doctors told me that healing was scientific, doctor stuff. You have to go to special schools and learn to be a doctor in order to heal people. I was told it was a lot of hard work and that only doctors could cure you if you were sick.

I learned as a young adult that people who were sick with serious illnesses like cancer, heart disease, tumors, arthritis, infections or other types of illnesses usually went to see their medical doctors for help in feeling better or healing. My biggest question was who helps us prevent these illnesses and teaches us not to get sick?

It seemed that I first had to get sick before a medical doctor would help me get well again. No one gave me information about what I could do to help myself prevent and even cure illness. It was not until I was an adult and had a problem that my medical doctor could not cure that I took my life and healing into my own hands. This was when I started learning how to heal myself and how to prevent myself and others from becoming ill.

My husband, Allen, and I have worked together for more than three decades in presenting the tools necessary for healing to our patient/clients. We then gave them the information about how to apply these tools in their lives to help prevent illness and to improve their ability to heal.

Now we feel it is time to share what we have learned from this experience with a much broader group.

Listening to the wise communications from our body to identify and heal the underlying blocks, conflicts and misconceptions is the basis of this book. We hope that soon you too will have a better appreciation of how to listen to what your body is trying to communicate to you. Thus the title of this book, When Your Body Talks, LISTEN!

Lisa Robyn Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Stress is the trash of modern life

— we all generate it — but if you don't dispose of it properly,

it will pile up & overtake your life.

~Terri Guillemets

Disclaimer

The ultimate goal for most healing professions is to identify illness and heal it. In order for this to take place the practitioner, and hopefully the patients, should have a clear idea and understanding of what illness is, how it is caused, the process of moving from its most minimal stage to its most maximum end result. With this information solidly in mind, one can then recognize even the simplest illness while it is still in its earliest stages. Early recognition then allows planning and development of a meaningful healing program which can resolve the causes and stop the progression of the illness, and finally, reverse the signs and symptoms that have already occurred. It is also important to recognize that even the highest level of well-being requires constant vigilance, regular maintenance, 24/7-365 protection of the individual's overall health and wellness. It is to these goals that our book is dedicated. Also, while we recognize that not all medical problems and health issues are caused by or made worse by stress and Stress-Related Disorders, some 70-80% of all medical conditions are either created by or worsened by stress which is more often than not 100% resolvable.

If you are ill or are in the process of becoming ill, see your medical doctor for evaluation and treatment if needed. We cannot stress this enough. Also, always ask yourself if your illness could be caused by stress and whether it is or is not a Stress-Related Disorder. If the answer is yes, then understanding the information we present in this book will allow you to better direct your overall health care and treatment program.

While we are proponents of alternative medicine and healing, we recognize first that some problems are better dealt with by medical doctors. Secondly, some problems can only be dealt with by medical doctors. Thirdly, at least —whether or not you chose to work with a medical doctor—healing requires a diagnosis, so that you actually know what you are dealing with and hence what you are treating. Finally, it is extremely valuable to know and understand your options.

Our book is an attempt on our part to present information about an area that is poorly dealt with on the part of the Western medical profession, many alternative medical practitioners as well as the general public itself. It is a sad fact that stress is poorly dealt with and treated by almost all aspects of the healing professions. This book is meant to convey information regarding stress and the Stress-Related Disorders which are poorly understood. It is our goal to help readers obtain more sophisticated health care solutions as well as attain healing as rapidly as possible.

There is no intention on our part to offer any specific diagnosis or treatment program for any specific medical condition or health problem. Our goal is to provide our readers with a basic understanding from which they can identify any role which stress may play in causing or worsening their illness, or in blocking results from their current treatment program.

While treating illness is generally the role of your medical doctor, chiropractor, homeopath or other licensed standard or alternative health care practitioner, the knowledge contained in our book will help you understand what is happening to you, why treatments are working or not working, and what you can do to help and support your practitioner and yourself in eliminating and curing your illness.

After a solid diagnosis has been made by a health practitioner, we offer information which can now offer additional help and support to your standard or alternative practitioner regarding how they can create a meaningful and appropriate treatment programs for reversing your illness and helping to heal you. Working with your health care professional, you can help identify the causes of your illness and find new creative solutions to heal yourself. The information we present is not offered to take the place of standard medical practices, instead it is meant to be used as an adjunct to a well designed standard medical treatment program offered by your health care professional.

Professional Disclaimer

The information contained within this book is intended to be wholly for educational purposes and is not meant or intended nor is it implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Nothing contained in this book is intended to provide a medical diagnosis or offer specific treatment without a competent evaluation by a medical professional.

The information in this book is offered by the authors Allen Lawrence, M.D., Lisa Lawrence, Ph.D., and Allco Publishing and is based solely their opinions and beliefs, observations and research and not that of the medical community as a whole.

The information presented herein is mainly based on proven scientific information, which is generally well known and well understood. While the greatest majority of what we present is based on the current state of the art for defining stress, illness and illnesses caused by or worsened by stress, we do believe that we also offer a new theoretical model for how stress can and does cause illness.

Within this book we discuss what we refer to as the Survival Center. This concept is not found in most scientific literature as the Survival Center, rather most often what we call the Survival Center exists not as a specific place nor anatomical/physiologic structure but rather as a combination of processes, anatomical and biologic functions, which are generally assigned to various parts of the brain and the hormonal-neurological systems.

There is another area where we offer a new way of thinking about stress and the creation of illness is: the Wellness-Illness and Illness-Wellness Continuum. This construct is based on our many years of observation of how stress ultimately ends up causing various illnesses. It is not a construct taken from any medical text book. A third area is where we take observational liberties in our breakdown and definitions of the various sub-stages of the Wellness to Illness process: distress, dis-stress, dys-stress, disease, dys-ease and some portion of the definition of disease.

These areas require scientific research and recognition so that the process by which stress leads to or causes illness is clarified and better understood. This is essential so that this information can be used again and again to help prevent and treat those suffering from SRDs.

The basis of the Wellness-Illness Continuum, the definitions and descriptions of distress, dis-stress, dys-stress, dis-ease, dys-ease and some portion of the definitions for disease are based on our observations over the past 40 plus years in medical practice as well as our day to day experience working with and helping those ill with Stress-Related Disorders (SRDs) and illnesses. We present this information as a series of observations that make sense to us and which we believe present a new theoretic basis for how SRDs are formed, how they can be recognized, diagnosed and ultimately treated. These portions of our work, the Survival Center and the Wellness-Illness and the Illness-Wellness Continuum are theoretical constructs that must be approached in the very near future to prove or disprove.

The case histories we have presented herein are based on fact and specific individuals. Some parts of their stories have however been changed (names, dates, time and places) to protect those individuals whose stories we ultimately used. Some parts of their stories may have been left out while others parts have been featured in order to make specific points as examples. We have made these changes to make sure that no person was compromised in any way or form. Changes were made based on relevance to their past history, to their overall health and to the medical problems they exhibited in order to protect them from recognition. In all cases the basic information is correct and appropriate and deemed sufficiently important so that the specific case history was selected to provide valuable information which we feel is relevant to the specific area of discussion the case history was selected to exemplify. Some information was left out when it was deemed neither significant nor relevant to the specific example as it was used in order to minimize space and also, more importantly, to direct the reader's attention to those issues relevant to the concept we are discussing regarding the creation and effects of SRDs.

We call for the medical profession and science community in general to take a brand new look at the process by which stress causes illness so that we can begin to not only better understand this process but create a meaningful system of early recognition of SRDs. Recognition early enough to block their formation and hence create a new level of prevention, protection and treatments for those who if not identified early, educated and assisted, would one day simply be another sick person whom it might, when finally diagnosed, be too late to help, treat or cure.

The time to relax is when

you don't have time for it.

~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin & Sydney J. Harris

Chapter One

TRANSFORMING ILLNESS INTO WELLNESS

In the process of practicing medicine and working to facilitate people getting well, we recognized that there is a large group of illnesses that are often missed by both patients and physicians. Even when recognized, these illnesses are frequently mistreated or often not treated at all. In the course of this book, we will discuss these illnesses and educate our readers on how to recognize them, how they are created, how they can be prevented, and healed.

In recent years, articles in both the lay press and medical literature have suggested that between 70-80 percent of all illnesses seen within medical offices are either caused by stress, made worse by stress, or related to stress. This group of illnesses, which we refer to as Stress-Related Disorders or SRDs, robs tens of millions of people of their well-being, health, and vitality each year. They cost society billions of dollars in medical expenses and lost productivity each year. Stress-Related Disorders often generate suffering and pain in those affected by them. Much to my dismay, the public and the medical profession know little about SRDs, why they occur, and how to eliminate them. In the following pages, we examine how Stress-Related Disorders occur, their effect on us, and how you can heal and ultimately eliminate them.

ONE PHYSICIAN'S STORY

After graduating from medical school, I (Allen) planned to set up my medical practice. I wanted to save the world. I believed that if I were just given the opportunity to work with sick people, I could cure them and heal their illnesses. I believed that their new found health and well-being would enhance their lives, and that they and their families would live happily ever after. How quickly my illusion was shattered.

Within a short while, I realized that the practice of medicine was not about curing people. Instead, it was about reducing their symptoms to a comfortable level. The problem was that although the patient's symptoms were treated and maybe even controlled, they remained sick. Conditions such as diabetes were often fully reversible through diet, exercise, and use of appropriate vitamin and mineral supplements. Year after year, I saw that many men, women, and even children who had diabetes were treated with medication but never really cured. At best, they were only brought under good control. A large percentage still ultimately developed complications and many most likely even died of the complications associated with their diabetes. This was also true of most Stress-Related Illnesses. While the symptoms were being treated, the true cause of the medical condition was not resolved. This often led to chronic disease and death, even when this was totally avoidable.

The same is true of many other illnesses, even illnesses that are easier to reverse and eliminate. Through the course of this book, I will not only describe how illness is created, but also how it is too often allowed to progress from simple intelligent communications from the body that something is wrong, through more complex, dangerous stages into illness, disease and even chronic disease and death.

It became apparent to me that not every sick person wanted to get well. They often believed too strongly in their illnesses. Their doctors, family, and society's belief in illness too often held great negative power over them. Frequently, their illnesses became an integral part of them. Many felt powerless to affect their illness. In fact, many people could not even imagine themselves being completely well or entirely healthy. These people suffer from what I think of as an illness mentality. They believed in illness and accepted its power over them to the point that they surrendered their ability to return to wellness.

It also became clear that for many people, there are significant secondary gains from being ill. Children who are ill don't have to go to school and sick adults don't have to go to work. Sick people surrender many responsibilities to others because of their illnesses. They often receive desperately needed attention from others. For some individuals, illness is a justification for their inability to succeed, to take risks, or to even try to succeed. For others, illness legitimizes their failure to function normally in life. Illness often provides a reason or excuse for why they have not turned out the way others wanted them to be or what they expected of themselves. Illness may also relieve them of obligations for social contact, friendship, and commitment.

After many years of practicing medicine, I recognized four different types of patients: Those who believed in illness and are frequently sick, those who are only occasionally sick, those who were at sometime in their life very sick and at some point later had become completely cured and finally, those who are never sick.

THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN ILLNESS - ILLNESS MENTALITY

The first group consists of many of the same types of people I just described. They believe in illness. They generally suffer from a wide variety of illnesses from recurrent colds and influenza to conditions such as headaches, neck and back pain, high blood pressure, ulcers, bladder infections, urethral irritations, abdominal pain, vaginal infections, and constipation all the way to heart disease and even cancer.

Often in the beginning of their illness process before the full pattern of their ultimate illness becomes defined, only vague and general symptoms are recognized. Some examples of these vague types of symptoms are fatigue, nervousness, anxiety, depression, constipation, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, and so on.

These symptoms often seem to come from nowhere. They can vary greatly in degree, coming and going in irregular patterns, often seemingly random and unrelated to each other. In some people, they cause pain, suffering, and inconvenience. In others, they are simply a nuisance. Through the years, we have all experienced parents, relatives, neighbors, and friends being sick. We gradually learned to accept sickness as a normal part of life. Sickness has become expected. Everyone gets sick from time to time, a patient once told me. It is normal to get sick. I have heard these types of statements thousands of times over my years in practice.

Each of us has our own personal experience with illness. It generally starts early in life as we suffer the illnesses of childhood. These give us proof to believe that all illness is real. The problem is that we too readily accept this as proof that all adult illnesses occur for the exactly the same reasons, and that bacteria and viruses, bugs or genetics are responsible for illness.

As we age, there is a clear change in the pattern of illnesses that most adults experience. The causes become less apparent, and the circumstances are often ill-defined. Illnesses are no longer occurring because the individual and their immune system have been exposed to childhood diseases to which we have no existing immunity. As we reach late childhood and early adolescents, illnesses are more commonly associated with nutritional factors, lifestyle, and exposure to the elements, injury, accidents, and stress.

These illnesses differ in many ways from childhood illnesses. One way is that when medical attention is sought and after an examination, laboratory testing and other diagnostic tests are performed. Test results are often normal for the individual's age and sex. The physician's diagnosis is therefore often vague and imprecise, and related to his or her best guess based on acute or chronic symptoms more than a specific disease pattern. In fact, in the earliest stages, most diagnoses are simply statements of the patient's symptoms. The majority of times, when a diagnosis is ultimately assigned, it often reflects the physician's need to please his patient, the patient's family, or the patient's insurance company. Too often, the diagnosis and treatment assigned are based on the patient's and/or physician's need to justify the office visit rather than determining the real cause or problem at hand. Whatever diagnosis the physician ultimately chooses, it is likely that it will have little if anything to offer regarding the real cause of the patient's problem nor what factors underlie his illness.

The assignment of a diagnosis often validates the reality of the illness for both the patient and the physician. This frequently misdirects the physician, taking him away from the real problems that underlie the illness and leaving their patients feeling as if the symptoms they are experiencing are really bona fide illnesses.

Whether necessary or not, the sick person is usually given medication. Patients often demand medications to fix their illnesses. It makes little difference to most people whether the medications they receive are appropriate or potentially dangerous. They may request and even demand antibiotics to treat conditions where antibiotics have little or no value. I have had this experience in the past, where patients demanded medications such as penicillin for minor, viral, upper respiratory illnesses. Even when I have explained that these problems are caused by viruses which will not respond to any antibiotics and that my prescribing antibiotics would unnecessarily place them at risk for potentially lethal side effects, they still want, even demand, being treated with an antibiotic.

The fact is many physicians eventually end up prescribing unnecessary even dangerous medications not just to relieve their patient's symptoms and anxiety, but also because they really don't know what else to do. In addition, the work and negative energy expenditure associated with arguing with the patient or his family about this is rarely worth it since they will merely go to another doctor to get what they are demanding. All too often, medications are prescribed because the doctors tire from arguing with patients' requests for unnecessary medications.

Just as with assigning a diagnosis, the ultimate effect of prescribing medication confirms and reinforces the patient's fears and ultimately their beliefs that illness really exists.

THOSE WHO ARE ONLY OCCASIONALLY SICK

The second group is composed of those who are only occasionally sick. These individuals may become ill on occasion. Their lives do not revolve around illness. They may disregard the signs, symptoms, and illnesses that they do get. They may or may not have an illness mentality. If they do, it is considerably less developed than in the first group. Often, their illnesses relate to stress, exposure to the elements, nutrition, lifestyle, injuries, emotional or spiritual causes. I spend a great deal of time in this book talking about this group.

THOSE WHO WERE SICK AND BECAME COMPLETELY CURED

In the past, these people have had a serious, possibly life-threatening illness or series of illnesses. At some point, they recognized that they were not their illness and they no longer needed to be ill. Whether they take credit for healing themselves or give credit to the medical profession, to a healer, or just good fortune, they somehow in some way learned something from their illness and now using what they have learned they stay healthy. These individuals may or may not have had an illness mentality at or before the time they last became sick. However, if it did exist, it was no longer an issue once they were healed. It no longer affected them or moved them toward illness. In fact, once recovered, they often change to develop a wellness mentality - health and well-being are my natural states of being. We will address this in greater detail later on in this book.

THOSE WHO ARE NEVER SICK

There is a small group of people who rarely get sick, even during childhood. They have consistently had and maintained a wellness mentality. They simply do not believe in illness. Once again, I will also discuss this group in greater detail in later a later section.

ABOUT THE ILLNESS PROCESS

There are two general types of illness: acute and chronic. Acute illnesses generally have sudden onset. That is they seem to arise out of nowhere. They then often either resolve themselves and go away or progress over time to become a chronic illness. Chronic illnesses can be any illness whether it has an acute onset or starts gradually and builds up slowly over months and years. Acute illnesses are generally short lived; one of several outcomes are likely to occur. The illness occurs and either heals spontaneously, or it transforms over time into a chronic illness, or the recipient dies from it or from complications associated with this illness.

When an acute illness strikes, it often causes signs, symptoms, discomfort, pain, inconvenience, loss of capacity, and more. In our society, one of the first things we do with acute illness is to wait and see whether or not it will go away on its own. If that doesn't occur, then we consult with our primary care doctor or go to an urgent care or emergency room. During the following doctor's visit, a series of events takes place, including the doctor or his assistant taking a medical history, the doctor then performs a physical examination, laboratory and other diagnostic testing will be done and finally the doctor will end the visit by offering a diagnosis and then some type of treatment and treatment plan.

The diagnosis may be clear or unclear to the physician. However, having a diagnosis is essential on many levels. The diagnosis helps the physician decide if treatment is needed and the type of treatment required. A diagnosis is necessary so that a reason for the illness can be given to the patient, or his family and friends. It is essential to rule out communicable diseases so that others are not exposed, or if already exposed, are treated as early as is possible. A diagnosis is necessary for medical record keeping, for if a physician does not generate a diagnosis, he could be liable for legal action by the patient or the state medical board for poor record keeping or even incompetence. Finally, if the patient wants his insurance to be billed, one or more diagnoses are essential since the insurance companies will not pay without at