Many cures are invisible. Can a doctor diagnose a cure? Can a doctor diagnose an invisible cure? Obesity is one of the most common diseases today. Scientific American recently reported “Obesity Trends in the U.S. Reflect a Global Epidemic“.
There’s an epidemic of obesity attacking Northern America.
Let’s suppose that John has been diagnosed with obesity and prescribed a diet to treat his disease. John tackles his obesity, and wins. He goes back to his doctor and passes the diagnostic criteria. He no longer has the disease obesity.
Is John cured? Was he cured by the treatment?
We can’t tell if John’s obesity was cured. There is a diagnosis for obesity. But there is no diagnosis for cured. Obesity cures are invisible. It’s interesting to note that the medicine prescribed is to ‘not eat’ some foods. It’s a ‘not medicine’, invisible. But it’s the only medicine that can cure obesity.
“Now wait just a minute… Maybe obesity shouldn’t be a disease? Maybe it’s a ‘condition’? Maybe we can only cure diseases, but not ‘conditions’?”
Frankly, that’s just word waffling. It’s called a disease, it’s called an epidemic. It can be cured. We should be able to diagnose not just the disease, but also the cure.
“But… What if I get obesity again? Maybe it wasn’t cured, maybe it was just in remission. Maybe the symptoms were just in remission?”
That suggestion is illogical. If John’s obesity is just in remission, then, by the same logic, he was born with obesity,in remission. He only needed was the right conditions for his disease to emerge.
If that’s true, then everyone has obesity, just waiting to ’emerge’. Nonsense.
We can’t cure obesity. And when we cure obesity, we can’t tell if it has been cured. Surely this is an exception. Or is it?
Let’s look at another incurable disease: The common cold. There is no cure for the common cold. But it’s possible, commonplace actually, to get a cold, and then the cold goes away. Then, maybe a few months, perhaps a few years later, another cold appears. Was it the same cold? Nope. The cold was not in remission. It was gone. And now there’s new cold.
The cold is cured by health. Health is invisible – more so when you have a cold, but even when you have a cold, your health is working to cure it. A healthier person cures a cold faster – a person who is less healthy takes a bit longer, sometimes, a lot longer. But, according to current medical theory, there is no cure for the common cold. The cure is invisible. There is a diagnosis for the common cold. But there is no diagnosis for ‘cured’.
Cures for the common cold are invisible.
Obesity is a disease when the patient is diagnosed. It is cured, when the patient can no longer be diagnosed as being obese. But this cure is invisible to modern medicine. Cured cannot be diagnosed. If the patient becomes obese again, it’s a new case of obesity, with new causes. Just like the common cold. Obesity can be cured. Today, the cure was invisible. Obesity does not ‘hide’ and come back, the patient can get a ‘new case’ of obesity.
Are these just strange exceptions? Are there any other diseases that cannot be diagnosed as cured? Are there any other invisible cures?
There are lots of them, actually.
The top causes of death in the USA include heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and pneumonia. Only one is curable: pneumonia. The rest are incurable. If a doctor cures heart disease or hypertension, there is no diagnosis for cured. The cure is invisible. If a doctor cures cancer, there is no test for cured. Medical researchers wait 5 years, and if the patient is still alive, without symptoms of cancer, they are declared ‘cured’. Imagine if someone cured pneumonia, or obesity, or the common cold, but the only way to diagnose a cure was to “wait 5 years”? That’s just silly.
What if someone cures “chronic” lower respiratory disease? Is it possible to cure a chronic disease? Yes, chronic diseases have chronic causes. If the chronic cause is removed, the disease is cured. But, when chronic lower respiratory disease is cured, there is no test for cured. The cure is invisible.
Is it possible to cure Alzheimer’s? There are lots of researchers looking for a ‘cure’. When they find it, will the cure be recognized, or will it be invisible?
Many people and many doctors also, claim to have ‘reversed’ their diabetes. Is it cured? There is no diagnostic test for diabetes cured. When diabetes is cured, no one can prove it was cured, because the cure is undefined for diabetes. Cured is invisible.
We can cure pneumonia. Pneumonia is cured when we address the cause. Pneumonia is caused by an infection, a bacteria. When we have killed all of the bacteria, the pneumonia is cured. We can test for the bacteria, the cause and if all of the bacteria were killed, the disease has been cured.
When we address the cause, the disease is cured.
What other diseases have invisible cures?
Scurvy is a disease caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C. Beriberi is a disease caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B1. Night blindness is a symptom of Vitamin A deficiency. Each of these diseases are cured, and the cure is trivial. We cure scurvy with foods containing Vitamin C. We cure beriberi with foods containing Vitamin B1. We cure Vitamin A caused night blindness with foods containing Vitamin A, or foods like beta-carotene, that can be converted to Vitamin A by our bodies. Of course some healing may be required to complete the cure. In serious cases, where healing is not sufficient, the patient no longer has the disease – but they might have a disability caused by the disease.
But, what do the medical textbooks say about deficiency diseases?
MERCK’s Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment does not list a cure for any of these diseases. MERCK recommends treatments, but does not use the word cure. Nutritional diseases cannot be cured by medicines, so the cures are invisible.
Lange’s Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment does not list a cure for any of these diseases. Lange’s recommends treatments, but does not use the word cure. Nutritional diseases cannot be cured by medicines, so the cures are invisible.
Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine does not list a cure for any of these three diseases. Harrison’s recommends treatments, but does not use the word cure. Nutritional diseases cannot be cured by medicines, so the cures are invisible.
What about toxicity diseases? Lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, carbon dioxide poisoning? The same. These diseases can be ‘treated’, according to the medical texts, but they cannot be cured. When they are cured, the cures are invisible.
In “The Book of Woe”, author Gary Greenberg advises that the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual for mental diseases does not offer a cure for any mental illness. Maybe he was surprised? If so, he simply hadn’t bothered to check any other medical reference books, like MERCK, Langes, and Harrison’s. None defines cure, none has the word cure in the index, nor the table of contents – and none makes consistent, scientific use of the word cure. Cure is invisible in medical textbooks. Even when it appears, it seems almost by accident.
Theory of Cure:
What is the current theory of cure? Our current theory of cure cannot define cure, nor cured, for most diseases. We need a theory of cures that covers every disease, if we are to find cures. We need a theory of cure, so we can actually cure diseases, and declare them cured when they are cured.
We need to make cures visible.
We need a theory of cured for every disease. We need to start with a simple theory, and work to enhance it, improve on it, as we learn more about cures and more about theories of cures.
We need a theory of cures, based on cause. When we address the cause, the disease is cured. No other theory can cure.
to your health, tracy
Tracy is the author of two books about healthicine:
