- #1 Revealed Secret of Health From the 12th Century
- #2 Revealed Secret of Health From the 12th Century, Part 1
- #2 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century, Part 2
- #3 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #4 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #5 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #6 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #7 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #8 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
- #9 Revealed Secret of Health from the 12th Century
CURING CHRONIC ILLNESS WITH HOMEOPATHY
The word “cure” is seldom used in allopathic medicine, especially when it relates to chronic illnesses. Sadly, physician education focuses mainly on using medications that are only meant to suppress both physical and emotional symptoms. Homeopathy healed my daughter’s psoriasis when she was five years old. This was a turning point in my medical career. It convinced me that the word “cure” can be used alongside the proper therapeutic modalities. Maimonides’ seventh health secret also speaks of “curing” patients. It states:
“The physician should make every effort to see that everyone sick and healthy alike should always be cheerful. He should seek to relieve him of the spiritual psychological force that causes anxiety. This is the first principle in curing any patient. Especially if his illness is bound up with his mind and emotions. As with those who are gloomy and depressed. In all such cases, the physician should do nothing before improving their state of mind”.
CONNECTING EMOTIONAL STRESS AND CHRONIC DISEASE
In 1984, researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine determined that when cortisol production is sustained for a long period, the stress hormone harms the body by weakening the immune system and increasing susceptibility to illness. I have witnessed numerous examples of just how much emotional health affects physical health during the 36 years that I have practiced complementary medicine. Over the course of my career, I have found that 80-90% percent of all chronic illness is due to emotional stress, including conditions such as autoimmune disease, gastritis, GERD, musculoskeletal pain, headaches, recurring infections, anxiety, depression, cancer and many others.
I first realized how much stress can affect personal health when I experienced a bout of Crohn’s disease in my senior year of high school. The illness was precipitated by a stressful situation at home in which my mother constantly made condescending remarks towards my girlfriend in an attempt to dissuade me from being with her. Unable to voice my feelings, I was conflicted between two choices: lose the approval of my mother or discontinue the relationship with my girlfriend. The prolonged emotional stress took its toll on my immune system and triggered the autoimmune disease.
At age 25, I made the decision to leave the family business and pursue a medical career with my wife and three young children. The stress of maintaining a 4.0, preparing for the MCAT and working evenings in the local hospital was more than my body could handle and retriggered the Crohn’s disease. Within a year, the severity of the disease required surgery to remove a section of my small intestines. When this occurred in 1981, I expressed to my gastroenterologist that my symptoms were the result of the extreme stress I was under. He scoffed at the observation and returned to treating the symptoms while ignoring the underlying cause.
A HOLISTIC SHIFT IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
Fortunately, this narrowed perception of disease is gradually changing. There has been a shift in physicians’ understanding of the profound impact that emotional stress can have on health. Not only does emotional stress have a substantial effect on the immune system that over time causes autoimmune diseases and allergies, it is also the predominant cause of most digestive diseases, headaches, fatigue, and menstrual issues.
THE DISADVANTAGES OF SPECIALIZATION IN MEDICINE
How is it that Moshe Ben Maimon made this connection between emotional stress and physical illness over eight centuries ago, yet modern physicians are just now beginning to rediscover this connection? One reason may be due to the extreme specialization present in the medical field today. As a result, physicians have become nearsighted in how they view the human body. Intense focus on individual specialties can result in unintentional negligence of the body as a whole.
Though traditional medicine is headed in the right direction, unfortunately, traditional medicine is slow to change for many reasons. If you are unsatisfied with the confines of allopathic medicine and are looking for a whole body approach to healthcare, please call Renaissance Health Centre at 702-258-7860 to schedule an appointment today.
Copyright © 2022 Terry Pfau D.O. H.M.D. All rights reserved.