Is your illness cured? Or just in remission? How can you tell? How does your doctor decide? Are some illnesses incurable, such that only remission is possible? Are some illnesses curable, but we often only achieve remission? Is cancer survival a cure, or only remission? Sometimes? All the time?
Neither current conventional medical practices nor any alternative medical practice distinguishes clearly between remission and cure. The reason is simple.
Cured is not defined for most diseases. When cured is not defined, every cure is called a remission.
It’s easy to say “remission” without judgement. When a doctor says “remission” nobody cares. There is no scientific or medical proof of remission, and none required. All claims of remission are accepted without question, although such claims can be states as “It’s in remission.“, or “It seems to be in remission“, or sometimes – when a cure comes about by a non-conventional treatment “It’s probably just in remission.” (or “”It’s probably just a placebo effect.“) No proof is requested nor required to demonstrate “remission but not cure“. Currently, any claim of remission might be a cure – we use the word remission when we don’t know. Because we don’t understand.
Once we define cure the difference becomes clear. A clear definition of cure, alone, does not make it easier to judge a specific case. Claims of cure are more difficult to validate. Today, almost all claims of cure for most diseases are viewed with suspicion. There are no statistics for cured. Only a quack doctor dares to claim a cure – cured being not defined.
Cured is currently not defined for any non-infectious disease, not defined for any chronic disease, not defined for any mental disorder . We used to dream of cures, but today, we lose cures, even when they occur. Although cured is not difficult to define, there is little medical or scientific interest.
The book The Elements of Cure presents a definition of cure for any illness that can be cured.
Cure: an illness has been cured when the present cause of the illness has been successfully addressed, when signs and symptoms are faded or gone, and healing has completed. When an illness is cured, no more medicines are necessary.
Remission: an illness is in remission when the signs and symptoms fade or disappear, but the present cause has not been addressed.
When the present cause has not been addressed, it’s not a cure. However, in many cases, it’s not clear, or not easy to judge. Today, we have very little experience judging cured. It is possible that the cause has been addressed – without our awareness, and a cure is present. Should we call it a cure? It might be remission.
Remission of signs and symptoms – we address signs and symptoms of an illness, with no attempt to address cause. In these cases, we know it’s remission. Sometimes, other patient actions might create a cure without medical assistance. These cures cannot be documented medically. When not cured, the cause can continue to damage the patient, even as the signs and symptoms are diminished. Today, this is a common situation in both conventional and alternative medicine.
Remission due to a surge in Health or Strength – as some aspect of our health grows in strength, the signs and symptoms can be diminished or disappear. The cause is still present and might be causing damage. The signs and symptoms are in remission but will re-appear as the cause grows or the patient’s strength fades. Sometimes, improvements in healthiness produce a cure – we might view every cure as an improvement in healthiness. The difference is a judgement.
Remission or Cure due to Healing – when healing strengthens or speeds up, the signs and symptoms might fade. If the cause of the injury is still present, and there can be a back and forth battle between healing and illness that waxes and wanes over time. When the cause of an injury is entirely in the past, healing produces a cure, not a remission.
Chronic Illness Remission: a chronic illness has a chronic cause. It is not cured by addressing the cause, but by addressing the chronic nature of the cause. Addressing the cause, but not the chronic nature of the cause, will result in a remission until the cause builds forces again. Today’s conventional medicine considers chronic diseases to be incurable. Why? Perhaps it’s because no medicine can address the chronic attribute of the cause. Sometimes, the chronic cause is addressed or changed without knowledge of the doctor, sometimes without knowledge of the patient – and the illness is cured.
Cure: An illness is cured is when the present cause has been addressed. In simple cases, with a single cause, this is sometimes easily proven. Complex illnesses are more difficult and often cured in stages.
Chronic Illness Cure: A chronic illness is cured when the chronic attributes of the cause are addressed. Many causes of chronic disease do not cause any illness until the cause is chronic for some time.
Partial Cure: When the present cause is only partially addressed – the result is a partial cure. This can happen when an illness has two or more causes – and one is addressed, or when a part of a cause is addressed, but not the complete cause. Signs and symptoms of the illness might still be present and the patient might still be diagnosed with the disease. Current medical practice does not study partial cures – and they are generally classed as remission without investigation.
Temporary Cure: When the cause is temporarily addressed – the result is a temporary cure. It might be easily mistaken for remission when the cause occurs again and the illness recurs. It can be difficult to distinguish between remission and a temporary cure – unless we know the cause has been addressed. Conventional medicine sometimes confuses temporary cures with remission. The cure for the common cold is not considered remission, although we expect the illness to return. A cancer, on the other hand, is almost always classified as a remission, such that any future case is a re-emergence of the disease. Neither is considered cure in current medical practice, because of medical chauvinism. Cures, in bureaucratic medicine, can only come from an approved medical treatment.
What about a disease with more than one cause? If we wish to cure, we must consider any disease with more than one present cause – to be more than one illness. Each illness is cured by addressing a present cause.
Medically, today, the only illnesses that can be cured, and proven to be cured, are infectious diseases, caused by bacteria, a fungus, or perhaps a worm or similar parasite. These illnesses are cured by killing the pathogen. Once we prove that the parasite has been eliminated, the illness is proven cured. It’s almost a shame we discovered antibiotics, because our concept of cured became stuck – and all non-infectious diseases are now considered incurable as a result.
It’s a simple rule: An illness is cured when the present cause has been successfully addressed. However, it is not a rule spoken, nor understood, much less implemented in medicine today. As a result, all diseases, except a few infectious diseases, are considered incurable. Diseases like arthritis, Chron’s, diabetes, depression, cancer, hypertension, even scurvy, can be treated, but cannot be cured.
Incurable diseases can only achieve remission, not cure. But we might ask, are any diseases truly incurable? Or should we call these disorders “disabilities”?
When will we learn to cure diseases, and know they have been cured?
When we develop and agree on scientific medical definitions of CURED for every illness. When we develop scientific processes to understand cured more clearly, and to improve our definitions of cured for every illness until every case of cured can be understood. We’ve got a long way to go.
This post is based on the concepts of cure as published in the book, The Elements of Cure, a book that explores the many possibilities of cause, illness, and cure.
to your health, tracy
Founder: Healthicine
