Conventional medicine – and alternative medicine as well, have almost no scientific understanding of cured*. As a result, most diseases can be considered incurable medically. For most illnesses and diseases, no-one can prove the illnesses has been cured, even after they are cured.
What is cured? How can we tell when an illness has been cured? There are four basic requirements.
An illness has been cured when:
- The preset cause has been successfully addressed.
- Healing has completed.
- Signs and symptoms have faded and gone.
- No more medicines are necessary.
In some cases, all four are necessary to cure and to prove cured. However, in simpler cases of illness maybe only one is needed. For example, if an illness has never been treated with a medicine – there is no need for test #4. A minor wound or cut might only require healing – indicated when signs and symptoms fade away. The cause is gone – and in many cases no medicine is required. Note the use of the word “illness”. Diseases are poorly defined and the word disease often refers to a class of medical conditions. It does not make sense to cure “a disease” unless we restrict the definition to individual cases of disease – even then, many cases of disease consist of multiple illnesses and therefore require multiple cures. 4
Let’s take a look at the four requirements for CURED a bit closer.
The present cause has been addressed.
Alternative practitioners often suggest searching for the root cause of an illness. This is a simple, common error. Every cause has a cause. Every cause of a cause has a cause. There are no root causes.
What is important is the present cause. When an illness is present, a cause is present.
Sometimes, the present cause is a life process, like an unhealthy diet – deficient in nutrients or containing excessive unhealthy foods or poisons, or unhealthy exercise or rest patterns. An unhealthy life process of diet, body, mind, spirit, community, or environment can cause an illness. As long as the causal process exists, the illness can continue.
Sometimes, the present cause is an attribute. An illness, or failure of eyesight might be caused by cataracts. The cataracts have a cause in the past, but that cause cannot be addressed – it is in the past. We can only cure vision clouded by cataracts by addressing the present cause – with surgery that removes the cataracts. An attribute that causes an illness might an attribute of the diet, of the body, of the mind, of the spirit, or of the patient’s community. In each case, the attribute cause must be changed such that it does not cause any illness.
Sometimes the present cause is an injury. The injury itself has a cause, which also has a cause, but those causes are in the past. We cannot go back into the past to address the cause of an injury – we must work forward to heal the damage and to address the signs and symptoms that are a result of the injury, the present cause. Note: an injury is an attribute that can be cured by healing. An injury might be physical – an injury to the body, or it might be an injury to the mind, the spirit, of the patient.
That’s it. We address a life process cause by changing the life process such that it no longer causes the illness, we address an attribute cause by changing the attribute such that it no longer causes any illness, and we do what we can to aid healing to cure injuries caused by the illness. Over time, the signs and symptoms will fade away and no more medicines will be required.
Two Causes?
But… What if a disease is more complicated? What about diseases that have many causes?
When a disease has two (or more) causes, then two (or more) actions are required – one to address each cause.
When two actions are required to cure – we need two cures. When we need two (or more) cures for a disease, it consists of two (or more) curable illnesses.
This situation is very common, even for trivial diseases. Let’s look at Vitamin C deficiency which can, over time, become scurvy.
Vitamin C Deficiency – One Present Cause
When a Vitamin C deficiency illness first occurs, the signs and symptoms are quite subtle. This illness can be difficult to diagnose – but it is relatively easy to cure. Only a single cure is required. The cause of Vitamin C deficiency is a diet that is faulty, deficient in Vitamin C. Once the diet is changed – to ensure that it provides sufficient Vitamin C, the illness is cured. Note: Vitamin C supplements, a medicine, cannot cure, because we can never satisfy requirement 4, that no more medicines are needed. As long as the diet is faulty, the illness will continue and will return if the medicines are stopped.
Scurvy – Two Present Causes
As a Vitamin C deficiency becomes more severe, it first leads to minor signs and symptoms of scurvy. Healing slows, and injuries become visible on the lips, gums, and skin. At this point, two illnesses are present:
- The Vitamin C deficiency illness, which is caused by the diet.
- The scurvy injuries, which are caused by a failure to address the Vitamin C deficiency illness.
Because two illnesses are present, two cures are necessary. A complete cure of the disease scurvy requires changes to the diet that address the first present cause, and it also requires healing of the injuries caused by the deficiency. Medical texts recommend Vitamin C supplements to treat scurvy injuries – but few if any texts use the word “cure”. There is no medical test for scurvy cured.
Severe Scurvy – Three Present Causes
When scurvy is not cured in time, it can cause more physical damage than just slow healing and injuries. Scurvy can lead to damaged gums and teeth. Gums can heal, but teeth rarely heal – they must be repaired or removed by a dental surgeon. Severe scurvy, therefore, requires three cures.
- A change to the diet to cure the first illness, the Vitamin C deficiency.
- Healing damage caused by the extended deficiency, the scurvy.
- Surgery to repair damage that cannot be cured by healing.
A simple case of Vitamin C deficiency has a single present cause, and is cured with a single cure action. A more severe case has two present causes, and requires two cures. A very severe cases might cause many types of damage that cannot be healed, and can only be cured by other interventions.
If we take too long to cure scurvy, it can cause damage that cannot be healed or repaired – which might result in physical deformities that cannot be cured. Of course, if we don’t work to cure scurvy, it becomes fatal.
Theory of Cured
In theory, it’s not difficult to define cured for every disease. Today, our medical systems have little practice defining cured – and as a result they have difficulties defining cure, leading to the belief that most illnesses are incurable.
In reality, most illnesses are curable. There’s just one problem. Most cures are not caused by a medicine. Vitamin C deficiency, for example, cannot be cured by a medicine – because using Vitamin C as a medicine cannot meet requirement #4.
Conventional medicine sometimes recognizes a cured state, when an infection is cured by a medicine that kills the infecting agent. However, cured is not defined medically when these same disease is cured by health, or by healthy activities, or by alternative medicines.
Partially Cured
Once we have a better understanding of cured, we can move forward to define partially cured. Partially cured is not a useful concept in today’s medical practice, but it is an important concept, an important part of the cure process.
An illness or disease is partially cured when
- One or more of the present causes has been partially or fully addressed.
- Healing has partially completed.
- Signs and symptoms have diminished due to the fact that a cause has been addressed.
- Less medicines are needed for signs and symptoms.
In some cases we might judge a partial cure to be a step in the right direction. In other cases we might aim for a complete cure from the start. Note: Medicines don’t produce a partial cure unless they can address the cause. A medicine that only reduces signs and symptoms is often a fake cure.
What about Chronic Diseases?
Maybe you’ve heard that chronic diseases are incurable. It’s a common statement in conventional medical theory, a common error.
In medical theory, chronic diseases cannot be cured by a medicine, therefore – in medical theory – they are incurable. Why can’t chronic diseases be cured by a medicine? Can any chronic disease be cured by a medicine? Actually, yes. It is entirely possible to cure some chronic diseases with a medicine.
First, we need a simple, clear definition of a chronic disease. In conventional medicine, a chronic disease is often defined by disease, sometimes it is defined in specific cases of the disease, based on time. As a result, arthritis is considered a chronic disease – because it is almost always chronic and cannot be cured with a medicine. Depression, on the other hand is classified as chronic depending on the individual case. The logic that defines a chronic disease – today – is very fuzzy, simply not logical. What is the logical definition of a chronic disease?
A Chronic Disease has a Chronic Cause
When the cause of any illness is chronic, when it persists over time, the illness is chronic. However, when the cause of an illness is chronic, it is not sufficient to address the cause – it is necessary to address the chronic nature of the cause. When the chronic nature of the cause has been successfully addressed, the illness can be cured.
There are two basic types of causes of illness – life negative processes and negative attributes. Each can be chronic. Each might result in a chronic illness.
Process Caused Chronic Disease
Let’s look at a simple life process example, obesity.
Cured is not defined for obesity. If someone claims to cure obesity, they might offer evidence in support of their case – but there is no proof. Because cured is not defined for obesity, no cure can be proven.
What is the cause of obesity? Obesity is not caused by eating. We need to eat to survive. Obesity is not caused by overeating. Most – perhaps all of us overeat sometimes. But overeating does not cause obesity. However, obesity can be caused by chronic overeating. Note: Obesity can also be caused by chronic unhealthy eating, which results in a disease of chronic malnutrition.
The only cure for obesity is to address the chronic nature of the cause. A diet will not cure. Even if the patient loses weight, the weight will reappear if the cause continues. When the present cause, the chronic overeating, is addressed, obesity can be cured.
It’s the same for any chronic disease caused by a life process. They can only be cured by addressing the chronic nature of the cause.
Chronic diseases caused by life processes can include many dietary diseases and also many diseases caused by faulty processes of rest and exercise of body, mind, spirit, or community. These chronic diseases are not cured by addressing the perceived cause – they are only cured by addressing the chronic nature of the cause.
Attribute Caused Chronic Disease
Some chronic diseases are caused by attributes of body, mind, spirit, or community. Attribute are nouns, things that persist – chronically – until they are addressed. We might view every disease caused by an attribute as chronic, unless the cause can be healed. If the attribute can be transformed – the chronic disease will be cured.
Carpal tunnel syndrome can be caused by an attribute of body or environment. A person with poor posture might get carpal tunnel syndrome because of their poor working posture. They might be cured by changing their posture. Another person might be cured by a chair and desk change that let’s them work healthily, without stressing the wrist. A third person might find themselves cured when they lose their job, or find a different job – perhaps even a promotion – that does not put chronic stress on their wrist. However, our medical systems have no definition of cured for carpal tunnel syndrome – so all cures are ignored and carpal tunnel syndrome is considered a chronic, incurable disease.
We might also view cataracts as a chronic disease – if they cannot be cured by surgery.
This post is written based on the concepts of cure and cured published in the book The Elements of Cure and A Calculus of Curing.
to your health, tracy
Author: The Elements of Cure
* Conventional medicine has a scientific definition of cured for some cases of infectious diseases, when the infecting agent is killed by a medical poison, or removed by a surgery, and can be proven to be eliminated. Cured is not defined for any other infectious disease and not defined for any non-infectious disease.
