Why We Get Sick or Why We Stay Well

A Model for Health or Chronic Degenerative Diseases

By Stan M.Gardner, M.D.

The causes of our health or disease (dis-ease) can be likened to pieces in a puzzle. See the Health Puzzle below. How many pieces can be missing or altered and still maintain a picture of health? Let’s examine these various pieces, recognizing that their relative size value is different for every individual, and that they all interlock to create the completed picture.

There is no question that genetic constitution influences our susceptibility to certain disease states. However, based on longevity (how long a person lives) and cancer studies in twins placed in different environments (1), we know that only approximately 20-30% of our disease expression is based on genetics. The recent work being accomplished on the genome project reveals that we can up-regulate or down-regulate the expression of our genes, based on what we bring into our bodies (i.e., with food choices or toxin exposure). (2)

Diet is the single greatest challenge faced in industrialized nations. A person visiting the United States observed, “There are three problems with the American diet. You eat at the wrong time, you eat the wrong kinds of food and you eat too much.” I add to his three problems a fourth: even if we eat an ideal diet, can we get the nutrients we need from the present-day soil, and production and preparation methods? More will come about that topic in future articles.

Environmental toxins and pollutions represent a real threat to our health. Mormon predicted in Mormon 8:1, as he described our day, “Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the earth.” Tobacco exposure, including second-hand smoke, has probably the single best direct correlation with exposure and disease (3). We are also now exposed to herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, and petroleum (gas) fumes in the air and on food. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified the top 275 most hazardous substances based on toxicity and amount of exposure. The top 3 are heavy metals-arsenic, lead and mercury (4).

Emotional issues have a much greater impact on our health than we might like to admit (5). Grief, anger, worry and fear cause physiologic reactions in the body that express themselves as disease. What we focus on expands, and we become what we think about. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (6)

Other pieces of this puzzle include exposure to infectious agents and electromagnetic waves. Trauma certainly affects our health, although it is not a typical trigger for chronic degenerative disease. Sleep and exercise, or the lack thereof, have significant long term effects on the repair and fitness of our body. Aging is a natural process, but we need to be careful we don’t attribute “common” conditions in an unhealthy population as “aging.” Last is a puzzle piece which describes factors in disease which are currently unknown and unidentifiable. Disease which fits into the “unknown” category may fit into other categories as technology helps identify causes and conditions of illness.

The Weakest Link

Once a certain number of these pieces, or causes, are damaged, the body’s cells start to malfunction or breakdown. The cells or organ which breaks down first are based on genetic susceptibility. I call this “the weakest link.” This will manifest itself in an almost endless number of ways. Many degenerative diseases fit within five common categories. These are mentioned so we can see ourselves in this model. Remember, these are merely effects or end organ damage. The treatment lies in identifying and eliminating the causes.

The immune system can manifest breakdown in any number of ways. Seasonal or chronic allergies can be to common dander, pollens, dust, molds or mites. Food sensitivity may be “allergic” or it may come through other mechanisms. Hypersensitivity to metals like nickel is fairly common. Chronic infection or recurrent infections may indicate an immune system weakness, at the antibody level or the lymphocyte level. Autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system recognizes its own body as the enemy and starts to attack it. This may sometimes occur in the pancreas (diabetes), joints (arthritis), thyroid and muscles (fibromyalgia). Cancer occurs when the immune system does not recognize the transformation of normal cells to increasingly unregulated malignant cells.

Inflammatory reactions can manifest itself in such simple (but debilitating) ways as pain, swelling or itching. Pro-inflammatory processes play a significant role in the United States number one killer–cardiovascular disease.

The breakdown of the gastrointestinal tract is expressed in many ways. Inadequate digestion (breakdown) of food means it cannot be adequately absorbed to replace nutrients and supply energy. Undigested particles of food can present as large proteins capable of greater immune reactivity compared to smaller amino acids. This is because a significant part of the lymphoid (immune) system is surrounding the intestinal tract. Inflammatory bowel disease can be devastating to those afflicted. Peptic ulcer and reflux are extremely common forms of organs breaking down.

For a simpler picture of what is happening with illness, imagine the brain divided into 2 parts-the thinking part and the computer (hypothalamus and pituitary) part. The computer regulates the endocrine or hormone system through a feedback loop. The autonomic nervous system with its opposing sympathetic (fight or flight, adrenalin) and parasympathetic (relaxation, repair) impulses is governed through the computer. Neurotransmitter disruption of serotonin and dopamine results in a myriad of problems, including depression, anxiety, or hyperactivity.

Last, but not least, is the epidemic of obesity and “adult-onset” diabetes (that is now seen in children).

Cause Not Effect

Although this five-category breakdown is clearly an over-simplification, it does place on paper a picture of some common types of organ damage. If we want to be healthy, we must focus our effort on the cause and not the effect, seen as dysfunction. This can be likened to a river-if there is a poison upstream, everything downstream will be poisoned. If we treat the poison downstream without solving the upstream source, we will forever be struggling with its removal. All too often the downstream organ treatment approach (with emphasis on drugs and surgery) causes long term harm. Henry David Thoreau said, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil [symptoms], there is one hacking at the root [cause].”

Let me illustrate the application of this model. A 4-month-old breast fed baby was brought in with a 3-plus month history of ear infections, unresponsive to multiple antibiotics, and a recommendation was made to place tympanostomy tubes in both ear drums. [This would be end organ treatment.] Rather than try the end organ treatment as the first choice of treatment, we worked on determining the cause of the ear infections. The probable cause could lie in an immune system weakness from nutrient deficiencies, so I implemented an aggressive program of improving the mother’s diet. I added vitamins and mineral supplements to the mother’s regimen to saturate her system and spill over to the baby in the breast milk. Within a few weeks this baby’s ear infections were gone, never to return.

This body is designed to be healthy. If we are to prevent or repair organ damage, we must minimize the harmful toxic elements already within our bodies and reduce the intake of new toxins and poisons. We must bring in the elements (nutrients) that permit repair so that our self-repairing body can take charge of its own processes. We need to exercise care that we do not take over those processes or block them with medications.

With this model as a background, each cause and effect in the model needs to be addressed in greater depth. I would like to start with diet and nutrients and their many complexities. Subsequent positive elements important for repair include exercise, sleep and emotional health. Then we can address the broad range of immune system deficits (effects). We will enter the more controversial realm of environmental toxins and pollutions, including heavy metals.

We will then cover the individual organ needs, including the most prominent organs–the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, endocrine/hormonal system and the brain. Perhaps, even highly controversial topics like vaccinations and energy medicine may be broached in future articles.

    Lichtenstein P, Holm NV, Verikasalo PK, et al. Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer. N Engl J Med. 2000; 343 (2): 78-85.
    Velazquez A., Bourges H. Implications of the human genome project for understanding gene environment interaction. Nutrition Rev. 1999; 57 (5): S39-S42.
    Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 19th Edition; Tobacco and Health, David M. Burns, pp. 34-37.
    1999 CERLA List of Priority Hazardous Substances. This list can be obtained from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology, Mail Stop E-29, 1600 Clifton Rd. N.E., Atlanta, GA 33033.
    Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, Karol K. Truman.
    Proverbs 23:7.

Healthful Hints:

    There is a cause to all dis-ease or illness.
    If the cause is remedied, the illness or dis-ease is reduced or eliminated (depending on the effectiveness of reducing the causes and the amount of end organ damage present before treatment of the cause begins).
    If the cause is not remedied or recognized, end organ treatment ensues with its emphasis on drugs and surgery.