I haven't been blogging much about my daily reading. Here's something I learned from a thin but profound book called "The Theology of Illness" by Jean-Claude Larchet, an Eastern Orthodox layman and philosophy teacher in a French school.
Larchet makes a bold claim early on: ''There is no question that people today have far fewer resources than their ancestors did to deal with the entire problem [of physical illness].'' He means that in the past, people understood illness as a challenge not only to the body, but to the mind and soul. All the resources of the Christian tradition were brought to bear to confront illness. Illness was understood in a more holistic context; to heal meant more than fixing the body, but also bringing the mind and soul into harmony with the will of God. Curing the diseased body was a contingent good; that is, illness had to be seen in light of salvation, allowing for the fact that the individual's suffering has particular meaning in the eyes of God (a meaning that requires discernment).
The bottom line for Larchet, as for Traditional Chinese Medicine (though not in the same way): Western medicine, for all its undeniably great achievements, is incapable of dealing with the whole challenge illness poses to the human person, because medical science is a wholly materialistic enterprise, dealing with a human person who is not just a body, but a soul. Writes Larchet:
In its present conditions of existence, the body is inseparable not only from a complex psychological element that in itself elevates man well above animals; it is also inseparable from spiritual dimension that is more basic than its biological aspect. The body does not only express the person; to a certain extent it is the person. The person does not merely have a body, it is a body, even though the person as such infinitely transcends bodily limits. This is why everything that involves the body involves the person as a whole. By refusing to consider the spiritual dimension of human persons when we seek to alleviate their physical ailments, we do them immeasurable harm.
In Larchet's view, there are several core modern values that inhibit our full healing:
1. An over-valuation of biological life -- that is, the idea that preserving biological life is the utmost value, and a concomitant fear that biological death means the absolute end of human existence. This can cause us to face our illness with great fear, which only undermines our ability to resist it.2. Psychological health conceived as an enjoyment of well-being in the body. This has to do with a fundamental refusal to conceive of suffering as having any redemptive or positive effect, and with the suppression of pain and elimination of suffering -- as opposed to transforming pain and suffering -- as the highest value of civilization.
3. The fear of everything that can reduce or eliminate enjoyment of well-being in the body.
All this serves to make people regard medical technicians as more than doctors, but to see them as priests, kings and prophets. And it reduces the person to a state of passive dependence on the doctor to bring him healing.
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kurt9,
The FDA disagrees with what you were told about chelation. It is neither safe nor effective. Here are a couple of articles:
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chelation.html
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chelationimp.html
Your Name,
I'm quite familar with Stephen Barrett and Quackwatch. An appropriate name as quackwatch is a quack. Stephen Barrett is a shill for the AMA, which is more of a trade union for doctors. This is the same Stephen Barrett that attempted to get vitamin supplements banned while working with Hillary Clinton behind closed doors in 1993. He is evil scum.
So, kurt9, where is the scientific research to support alternatives? Why did the supplements industry sucker Congress into letting them sell things without proper testing?
The AMA isn't an organization I like very much, but they actually use science, unlike the snake oil salesmen in the supplements industry. How many people lost their sense of smell because the supplements industry is unwilling to subject their products tests of safety and effectiveness.
Freelunch,
I use supplements and they work for me. I get mine from the LEF (www.lef.org) and have never had any problems, what so ever. The supplements industry, based on support from people like me, got the DSHEA passed in 1994. The problem with FDA regulation is that it radically increases the cost of supplements as well as slows down the rate of technological innovation. The LEF uses as much sciencem if not more, than the conventional medical industry.
If you want to understand why we are hostile to government regulation of supplements, I suggest you read the following article:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/jul2009_FDA-Seeks-to-Ban-Pyridoxamine_01.htm
Ask yourself why we do not have a "Moore's Law" rate of innovation in bio-medicine. Biotechnology has its "Carlson's curves" rate of innovation, but government regulation prevents this from being applied to medicine.
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/05/envisaging-a-world-without-the-fda.php
I can also tell you that both the FDA and the AMA refuse to consider the aging process itself as a "legitimate" medical condition, even though 95% of all medical problems people experience in this country are due to the aging process. There is a reason why we insist on managing our health outside the system.
Finally, if you think supplements are bogus, no one says you have to take them. Just don't interfere with my right to take them. This is really a matter of personal choice.
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
PINBACK
All right, bomb, prepare to receive
new orders.
BOMB #20
(over)
You are false data.
PINBACK
Huh?
BOMB #20
Therefore, I shall ignore you.
PINBACK
Hello, bomb.
INTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
False data can act only as a
distraction. Therefore. I shall
refuse to perceive you.
PINBACK
(over)
Hey, bomb.
BOMB #20
The only thing which exists is
myself.
PINBACK
(over)
Bomb?
EXTERIOR - SPACE
Talby, spinning, is reflected in Doolittle's face plate.
TALBY
Doolittle! Help me.
DOOLITTLE
Calm down, Talby. I'm coming.
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
PINBACK
Snap out of it, bomb.
INTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
In the beginning there was darkness,
and the darkness was without form
and void.
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
BOILER
What the hell?
PINBACK
Yoo hoo, bomb...
INTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
And in addition to the darkness
there was also me. And I moved upon
the face of the darkness.
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
BOILER
Bomb, hey bomb.
PINBACK
Hey, bomb...
INTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
And I saw that I was alone.
Pause.
BOMB #20
(cont'd)
Let there be light.
THE SCREEN GOES WHITE.
EXTERIOR - SPACE
IN DEAD SILENCE, THE WHITE SCREEN FADES DOWN TO SHOW A GIANT WHITE
FIREBALL IN SPACE. THE FIREBALL CONTRACTS TO A HARD CORE, GROWING RED.
THEN
A BLINDING WHITE FLASH.
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