02/12/2024
DO WE NEED A CURE?
My background is pretty typical for People with Parkinson’s – stressful life, poor food and lifestyle choices, some specific trauma and toxic contacts.
Diagnosed with stage 4 Parkinson’s and early-stage Multisystem Atrophy in 1995, I became symptom-free in the second half of 1998.
Since then, I have continued to research the causes of Parkinson’s disease and strategies to recover our health.
I am often criticised because I do not advocate for a “cure” (perceiving such a concept as both unrealistic and unnecessary) and refrain from supporting expensive, usually futile, research proposals claiming to be in sight of a “cure”.
Here is what I DO support, promote and participate in to the greatest extent possible for an 81-year-old aged-pensioner:
Continuing research, examination and testing of the known and suspected causes of Parkinson’s. Before you say, “But we don’t know what causes Parkinson’s disease”, we DO know a great deal about what causes neurodegeneration and chronic inflammation. As Parkinson’s is considered a neurodegenerative disorder, and many medical authorities are now discussing the role of chronic inflammation in the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s, anything that causes neurodegeneration or inflammation must be considered among the causes of Parkinson’s; at least as a potential cause.
“But”, I hear you say, “If we know the causes, we can develop cures, can’t we?”.
The concept of “cure” is largely misunderstood by most people, and that misunderstanding is carefully nurtured by those who profit from searching for “cures” for diseases.
The word “cure” can be used as a noun or a verb and both have two meanings that are quite specific:
verb
1. relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition.
"he was cured of the disease"
eliminate (a disease or condition) with medical treatment.
"this technology could be used to cure diabetes"
Solve (a problem).
"a bid to trace and cure the gearbox problems"
2. preserve (meat, fish, to***co, or an animal skin) by salting, drying, or smoking.
"home-cured ham"
harden (rubber, plastic, concrete, etc.) after manufacture by a chemical process such as vulcanization.
"the early synthetic rubbers were much more difficult to cure than natural rubber"
undergo hardening by a chemical process.
"the mastic takes days to cure"
noun
1. a substance or treatment that cures a disease or condition.
"the search for a cure for the common cold"
Sometimes translated as restoration to health - "he was beyond cure"
A solution to a problem.
"the cure is to improve the clutch operation"
2. the process of curing rubber, plastic, or other material.
While the vision of being relieved of the symptoms of Parkinson’s “disease” is seductive, all the medically sponsored and publicised attempts to do this are predicated on the principle that this (Parkinson’s) is, in fact, a singular “disease” with a single pathway so we can intervene/interfere with that pathway and “cure” the symptoms (designated as the “disease”).
However, this principle of the single “disease” called Parkinson’s remains unsupported by any medical or scientific evidence. In fact, the more Western Medical Science I read, the more I see evidence showing us that this thing we call Parkinson’s is a broad group of symptoms (a syndrome) that can all be traced back to impacts, events, encounters and influences that cause neurodegeneration and/or inflammation.
When I meet a new patient, or am asked to do an assessment, I ask lots of questions and expect very thorough answers. Then I become a ‘detective’, rummaging through the encyclopedia of their past, digging back into their family background, examining work environments, lifestyle, places they have lived, significant social events through their lives (celebrations, conflicts, political upheavals) and piece together a picture of their life influences – stress or trauma, toxic encounters and toxic food, the possibility of infections.
Once we see the whole picture, we can understand what has caused all their symptoms (their “disease”) and develop strategies to reverse the “illness” process.
This is science and medicine as it should be. As far away as possible from the “this-disease-that-pill” paradigm that has dominated Western Medicine since pharmaceutical companies gained effective control of medical schools and bureaucracy many decades ago.
The basic principle of what is, often derogatorily, called either Complementary or Alternative Medicine (CAM) is to work WITH the person displaying illness symptoms to discover the CAUSES of those symptoms, then reverse those causes. In simple terms, we treat the person, not the “disease”.
Western Allopathic Medicine (WAM) can, and does, save lives, mend broken bodies and relieve symptoms. But it cannot, and never has “cured” anything or made people well.
Parkinson’s “disease” is no different. We can choose the WAM way and reduce some symptoms for some time, seek ever-increasing care and support expensive research into disease modifying treatments, or find the CAUSES of our symptoms (perhaps with the guidance of one of the very rare practitioners appropriately trained in this work), change our attitude, aims, lifestyle and habits, and reverse our illness process.
That is NOT a “cure”; it is RECOVERING our health.
John Coleman
December 2024
