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Article [3] A Strategy for a Prevention and
Wellness Program
Dr. Kevin McKay presented a plan for a wellness and prevention program for a doctor's office at the 3rd Annual Functional Medicine Sunshine Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, October 22, 2000.
This plan is based on a model that views
wellness and illness on a continuum, with optimal health on one end and death at
the other. Near the optimal health end, biochemical and cellular energy
changes can occur, which lead to mild dysfunction. A more severe change
can be in cell transport and regulation which can lead to a mild loss of in
vitality. When tissue specific alterations occur, a further deterioration
of health, there may be noticeable symptoms and minimal changes in laboratory
findings. Then far toward the "death" end of the continuum is
organ pathology and diagnosable disease, where conventional medicine commonly is
practiced in regard to most chronic conditions for which people often go to the
doctor. A person can go back and forth on this continuum, getting better
or worse, except at the stage of irreversible terminal illness.
What influences movement back and forth
(all too often toward death rather than toward optimal health) are factors which
either, on the one hand, add distress to the person or, on the other hand,
support the person's ability to adapt and respond to stress.
Our aim is to remove or decrease the
distress factors and to increase and support the person's ability to adapt and
respond.
The primary cause of distress are
trauma, toxicity, and insufficiency.
Traumas can be emotional stress (a
perceived threat), physical stress, and electromagnetic stress.
Toxicity can be chemical, microbial, and
toxic thoughts and emotions from interpretations of past events.
Insufficiency can be lack of fresh air,
natural light, rest, exercise, pure water, nutrients (macronutrients -
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins), micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes,
photochemicals, amino acids, etc.), love, happiness, balance, job satisfaction,
and mission or purpose.
Dr. McKay explained that working with
people to move them toward optimal health is a patient-centered or
person-centered approach, in contrast to a disease-centered one.
Disease-centered medicine with drugs and
surgery may be appropriate when the person is at the severe disease stage when
nothing else works, and in acute emergencies, when drugs and surgery work faster
than anything else, but there are several areas where disease and diagnosis
oriented conventional medicine does not work so well. The viewpoint of Dr.
Andrew Weil, Harvard medical graduate and director of the Integrative Medicine
Dept. at University of Arizona, is that conventional medicine is not very
effective for viral infections, most chronic degenerative disease, most kinds of
mental illness, most forms of allergy or autoimmune disease, psychosomatic
diseases, and most forms of cancer.
Patient-centered health care as
described by Dr. McKay focuses on the life of the person, how past experiences
and lifestyle choices (antecedents) predispose a person to problems, how current
lifestyle choices and present experiences
may be triggering various signs and symptoms of illness
(triggers), and the mechanisms by which signs and symptoms came to be
(mediators).
Some antecedents may be genetic or
congenital, demographic, dietary, effects of age, habits, environment,
occupation, traumatic events, altered intestinal flora (due to antibiotics), and
other toxin-induced, drug-induced, and disease-induced predispositions.
Some triggers can be physical injury,
excess physical exercise, antigens (things that trigger allergic reactions),
microbes, drugs, toxins, radiation, temperature extremes, adverse social interactions,
memories of previous sickness or distress, feelings of anxiety, stressful life
events, and spinal misalignments.
Mediators can be stress hormones,
neurotransmitters, free radicals, emotional mediators, thoughts, beliefs, fear
of pain, fear of loss, beliefs about sickness, poor self esteem, social
mediators, rewards for being ill and other behavioral conditioning, lack of resources,
and electrical and magnetic energy fields.
Dr. McKay presented aspects of Dr. Mark
Percival's program from Health Coach Systems International. This program includes
individual lifestyle counseling, group instruction, and informational
audiotapes, videotapes, books, and other instructional materials.
More information can be obtained from
the books, Teaming Up For a Healthier You and Take Charge of Your Health, the
Anti-inflammatory Lifestyle, by Mark Percival, available through Health Coach
Systems International, 800-348-1549. A detailed description of how to
decrease and remove toxins from the body is The 7-Day Detox Miracle by Peter
Bennet, N.D., and Steve Barrie, N.D. 1999 ISBN # 0-7615-1422-8
Postscript to Amy Scarlet: The first paragraph seems a
stodgy and heavy. I haven't become proficient in graphics, but that
continuum should be a line with an outward facing arrow at either end. You
may use editorial license to put those things I described along the line.
Thanx
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