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| Linda Hegstrand MD |
| Complete Wellness Ctr 2426 Burton Street SE Suite 3 Grand Rapids,MI 49546 616.464.0470 DrLindaCWC@gmail.com |
Blue Heron Academy |
Linda Hegstrand, MD, PhD
Wellness is more than the absence of symptoms or disease.Because our body systems have the ability to compensate for imbalances, we generally are not aware that we may be progressing toward a disease until it is difficult or impossible to reverse.
We are all genetically unique individuals.We are as different on the inside as we are on the outside.Each individual is exposed to different environmental insults.Because of biochemical individuality, what adversely impacts one person may have no effect on another person or may elicit totally different symptoms.Likewise the same symptoms may have different underlying biochemical and/or energetic imbalances.In other words, we are a dance between our genetics and our environment
We are the harvest of our individual gardens.Any gardener or farmer will tell you if the soil is not appropriate for a given plant, it will not thrive.The leaves will wither and fall off prematurely.Fruit may never form or be deformed.The vitality of a tree is primarily dependent on the chemical composition of the soil and the effect of the soil on the tree through its roots.
A tree provides a useful analogy for understanding approaches to health care.Envision that each branch of a tree represents an organ system such as the respiratory system, the endocrine system, the immune system, etc.The branches that grow from the trunk have an underlying root system that nourishes the whole tree.In western allopathic medicine, physicians are taught to diagnose and treat the symptoms or the diseased organ system with medications, surgery, and/or radiation.When the symptoms are "covered" with medications or removed surgically, treatment is considered effective.This is a disease-specific approach.
This disease-specific approach is all too often used in natural medicine as well.Rather than prescribing a drug, one or multiple nutrients are suggested to relieve the symptoms.This fulfills the expectations of a patient coming in wanting their symptoms to go away.
Sometimes it is necessary and appropriate to use a fast acting drug such as when there are life-threatening conditions.Drugs are best used like crutches.When one breaks a leg, the weight must be kept off the leg to allow healing to occur.>However, the intent is not to be on crutches forever.A similar situation does not happen with most drugs.Medications do not heal.The body has the ability to heal itself when nutrients are present in appropriate amounts, neither excessive nor deficient; when toxins are removed; when there are neither energy blocks nor deficiencies; when the teeth are healthy and the jaw is aligned; when the spine is aligned; and when the mind, body and spirit are in harmony.
Nutrients and toxins have a direct effect on fundamental homeostatic control mechanisms or in other words on physiologic equilibrium.Without evaluating the status of the five primary metabolic control mechanisms, there is no way of knowing what nutrients a person requires to reach homeostatic balance.Because we are biochemically unique individuals, the same symptoms do not necessarily have the same underlying imbalances.A given nutrient may be what one patient requires to heal, but it may exacerbate the symptoms in another patient.For example, a Mercedes with a gasoline engine will not run on diesel fuel and vice versa.Without both chemical and energetic balance, wellness is not maintainable.As an example, if a car has the right fuel, but no battery, it will not move an dif ithas a battery, but no fuel, it will not move. Both energy and chemistry are necessary.
There is no way of knowing where there are metabolic or energetic imbalances without testing.To determine the metabolic status of an individual, the results of specific tests using urine and saliva are evaluated along with obtaining physiologic measurements.Observing live blood under a darkfield microscope or phase contrast microscope provides additional information relating to homeostatic control mechanisms. >Energetic balance can be determined using computerized electrodermal screening/acupuncture by Voll or by manual methods such as applied kinesiology or contact reflexology.Using a combination of these results, the practioner many times discovers abnormalities before they are observed in traditional laboratory and/or imaging studies.This may serve as a warning light to health challenges that would normally go undetected until much later.This is important both for prevention and for healing.
The only way to provide long-lasting relief in any degenerative disease, such as cancer and heart disease, is to reverse the basic cause of the disease by stimulating the patient's own healing abilities.To do that most effectively, analyzing the individual's health status or "soil" allows one to chose the correct natural approaches to obtain wellness.