Cure, the word cure, has disappeared from conventional medical practice. Many medical dictionaries do not contain the word cure. No authoritative medical text contains a definition of cure, cures, curing, nor cured – much less a scientific medical definition.
Most standard dictionaries treat cure as a noun. A cure is described as a medicine that ends an illness or a case of disease. It’s a simplistic and often incorrect assumption.
Cure is a verb. To cure is to take actions to end an illness. Cures are sets of actions that end illnesses. Curing is the process of ending illnesses. Cured is the state of the patient, with regards to the illness, after the illness has been successfully addressed.
Even an antibiotic medicine that brings about a cure does not “cure” the illlness. The processes of prescribing the medicine, and of taking the medicine, as prescribed are the curative actions – the cure. The medicine is just a tool, not a cure.
Cure consists of three verbs, three elements of curing.
We’re most familiar with healing. Healing consists of the natural processes of body, mind, spirit, and community to heal damage caused by an illness. Healing functions irrespective of cause. It does not matter how a hand was burned, an arm was broken, a mind was led astray, or a spirit was broken – healing pays little attention to cause. The cause is gone. Cause guides many cures, but not healing.
Another common element of curing is transformation, transforming. Surgery is often recognized as a cure. A surgeon transforms broken or damaged teeth, cloudy cataracts, or weak abdominal linings to produce dental cures, cataract cures, and hernia cures. But most transformative cures are much more gentle. An osteopath, a chiropractor, or a massage therapist might transform a blocked tissue – and enable a healing cure. A psychiatrist, a priest, or a grandmother might transform a blocked mental idea or spirit attitude, enabling healing and leading to a cure. Sometimes, a transformation is sufficient – but most transformations require healing to complete the cure. Most illnesses that require transformation require at least two cures.
The third element of cure is the word we often associate with “curing”. We might call it “healthing”, health is a verb – but healthing is not in any medical dictionary today. We cure scurvy by a process that healths the diet. We cure chronic illnesses by addressing, healthing the chronic nature of the cause.
Take note: medical references do not advise how to “cure” scurvy – nor any nutritional disease. Cured is not defined for scurvy, and medical reference texts recommend “treatments” for scurvy. Unfortunately, the treatments recommended, various doses of supplemental Vitamin C – cannot and do not cure scurvy, so the word “cure” is not used. Curing scurvy requires a healthing action, to address the dietary cause, often to address the cause of the cause – before a cure can be attained. A patient who has scurvy because of poverty, or alcoholism, or even ignorance, cannot be cured with supplements. A cure must address the cause.
When a causal illness, like scurvy, progresses, it can cause damage. Supplemental Vitamin C aids the healing – but does not address the cause. Sometimes, the damage is severe, and dental surgery – a transformational cure is also required. Complex illnesses require complex cures. A complex scurvy illness, that has caused severe dental damage, requires a causal cure (a healthing cure), a healing cure, and also transformational cures. Each is a verb, a process necessary to complete the cure.
Sometimes an illness has multiple causes, a compound illness. Scurvy might be caused because the patient is a poor, ill educated, alcoholic. When multiple causes are present, multiple cures are necessary. Providing money will not cure. Curing the alcholism will not cure. Education will not cure. A compound illness requires many cures, many cure actions – none of which are “things”.
Cure is a verb. A set of three verbs, one for each type of cure: healthing, healing, and transforming.
to your health, tracy
Author: The Elements of Cure
