Understanding Health and Disease

Let us say,

a person is suffering from a fatal disease, and he is on his deathbed with no hopes of survival. Just imagine, a Genie appears out of nowhere in front of him and grants him a wish. What should he ask?

A) Let me be free from this terrible disease
OR
B) Let me have perfect health for the rest of my life

It looks like option A will do the trick. But let’s say he is relieved of this disease, what’s the guarantee that he won’t get another one in future? Unfortunately, many of us seem to choose the first option in our urge to get short-term relief from the problem.

Every one of us would like to be free from diseases. That’s clear. But instead of saying “freedom from disease” can we say “perfect health”? You may ask what difference it makes. That takes us to a more fundamental question – What is health and what is disease? Out of health and disease, which is more fundamental? Before we proceed, take a moment for yourself and think how you would define health and disease.

Defining Health

The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. That leaves us with the question “what is well-being” – which sounds very similar to being healthy. And “absence of disease” is defining health in negative terms. It means that I have to make sure I do not have even a single disease among the thousands of diseases out there, and only then I am certified healthy. I believe health is more fundamental than disease and health has to be defined independent of disease.

Now it is very important for us to understand what health is and how it feels to be healthy because in our quest to understand diseases, we seem to be forgetting to focus on health itself which is ultimately what we want. Think about this – “there is only one health but there are innumerable diseases”. Your body is supposed to function in a particular way when it is healthy. But when it loses that ability, it can lead to either disease A or disease B or disease C and so on.

It is much easier to make sure that a system is functioning in the exact way that it should rather than trying to fix the various problems once there is breakdown. But for that, first of all you need to know how to maintain the system and avoid breakdowns before they happen, which is the idea of this book.

This book is like a user’s manual for your body educating you how to use this highly complicated system and prevent it from breaking down. We need to focus much more on prevention of diseases because not just is it easier and economical to prevent the onset of a disease but it is also rather stupid to let that happen – to put it in plain terms. Imagine every single day so many people in the world are suffering and dying because of diseases which could easily be prevented. This is the reason why prevention of diseases and maintaining good health were held in high regard by all ancient systems of medicine.

Before you start wondering, let me clarify that I am not denying the need for finding new cures and to continue research on diseases. There will be acute diseases and unforeseen accidents for which we would need to treat the disease or an injury as an emergency. Let us leave out these cases of emergency because it is not in our hands. Now the other concern is major diseases. For most of us they rarely occur, although the situation is changing fast in today’s world*. But even most of the major diseases don’t happen in just a day or two. It takes several years to get an autoimmune disease, for example. If we are able to identify it and take appropriate preventative steps in its early stages, we can easily stop the disease from becoming critical. For the rest of the time, our health is more or less in our hands, which gives us the ability to maintain it or let it degenerate. So let us continue our analysis on health.

*It is estimated that up to 700 million people are suffering from autoimmune disorders worldwide. Diabetes cases have quadrupled in the last three decades.

Health is Not a Static Condition

There is another popular definition of health. It is defined as the ability to maintain homeostasis. Some sources define health as a dynamic condition brought about by body's constant adjustment and adaptation in response to the changes in the environment in order to maintain an inner equilibrium called homeostasis. This definition looks more convincing since it defines health in terms of the ability of the body to adjust to the changes in the environment. This clarifies a very important quality of health – health is dynamic. So when we are healthy – which means our immune system is strong – we have lesser chances to fall ill which is nothing but an imbalance of homeostasis.

Do you see the difference in our approach now? If we are really healthy, the chances of us falling ill are less. Have you ever wondered why some people tend to get sick every other day and some people don’t? It’s based on their immunity, which in turn is determined by the state of their health. So coming back to the concept of health and disease, we can say – if we are not healthy in the first place, then we fall sick. In other words, disease is the result of improper health rather than health being a lack of disease. Because our body is constantly monitoring every single parameter (such as blood sugar, blood pressure, heart rate and so on) and adjusting itself to prevent the onset of a disease. In fact some of the common diseases, which are actually not diseases, are body’s reaction to prevent itself from a bigger disease. Common cold, fever, diarrhoea are just a few examples. But even the more critical diseases are also nothing but our body’s desperate attempt to heal itself. So disease can be referred to as an imbalance in the system in the most basic sense.

Triggers of Imbalance in the System

Anything which puts our system out of balance can trigger a disease. It could be an external cause like a sudden change in the weather, it could be food-poisoning, it could be exercising beyond the limit, or it could be an unhealthy habit. The causes of a disease could be too many. Some triggers are not in our control and hence are inevitable. There isn’t much we can do about it. But there are plenty of triggers created by our own wrong habits and lifestyle that can be avoided. The goal of this book is to make you more aware of those mistakes, which can be avoided, in order to achieve better health. When we remove the trigger of a disease, the body is automatically able to return to a state of balance. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, one of the most influential doctors in the UK and the author of The 4 Pillar Plan, says in his book that if wrong lifestyles can be the trigger for a disease then right lifestyle can be the medicine to cure that disease. He says that he has been able to help patients with type 2 diabetes, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, insomnia and even autoimmune diseases to regain health without medications, but through simple lifestyle changes.

There can be no Health without Diseases

I sometimes wonder if it is even possible to be in a constant state of homeostasis in this ever changing world. For me, health is a miracle in itself. It is like trying to keep a boat perfectly still in a river where the water flow is constantly pulling and pushing the boat. Imagine if you had to do the job of breathing, pumping the heart without skipping a beat, digesting food, precisely maintaining hormone levels and a million other things without making a single mistake. Our body does this superhuman task every moment without even seeking our attention. But as a matter of fact in the entire span of our life, invariably there will be times when our body is out of balance, and it is perfectly fine that it is so.

Remember that health is dynamic. What is more important is to come back to a state of balance and not lose the balance completely by a nudge here or a push there. Therefore, I believe it is impossible to have a “disease-free world”. We need to accept minor upsets in our body gracefully and give our body a chance to come back to health by itself. Because disease is as unavoidable as change itself in an eternally changing world. The problem is when our body loses its ability to regain health. If a disease becomes chronic, even if it is minor, it can cause considerable damage to our organs over a period of time. This cumulative damage is much more detrimental to our health than occasional upsets in our system. That is why it is really important to regain health as quickly as possible and not allowing diseases to become chronic. We will learn more about this further in the coming chapters. So to summarize, occasional imbalances in our system are inevitable, provided they don’t become chronic.

Attempt to Build a Disease-free World

Without understanding this simple concept, scientists keep trying to create a disease free world thereby creating newer and deadlier diseases. Let me give an example. The germ theory was prevalent for a long time which made us believe that the world is full of bad germs and bacteria, and we humans have to protect ourselves from these bad germs. A whole gamut of industries were built on this principle such as antibiotics, soaps, shampoos, floor cleaners, sanitizers and so on, which were created to kill these deadly germs. But with the recent discovery of the microbiome and the new understanding that our body is actually inhabited by trillions of helpful microbes, this whole idea of germs has been overturned! Now science knows that good germs are actually helpful to boost our immunity and not to reduce it. Also, now we know that overuse of antibiotics* is one of the biggest threats to our health. To put it in another way – we simply cannot live in a “sterile environment”.

*In 2018, the World Health Organisation declared antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development.

Health is Not Six Packs and Perfect Figure

Different people have different ideas of perfect health. Some people think it is about building big muscles. Some think it is in having washboard abs just like the models we see on TV. Some others think it is to be in top fitness level like that of an athlete and nothing less than that. And there are many more such ideas. I don’t say these things are necessarily bad or unhealthy, but we don’t need to look like a supermodel or be a superhuman to be called “healthy”. Health is more about feeling good than looking good. At the end of the day what matters more is how we feel in our own body than how our body appears for others. Good looks should ideally be a consequence of vigorous health. Looking good doesn’t always imply feeling good. Moreover health and even fitness are not just about looks. Our energy levels and immunity to diseases are things which matter more to us. Health is about the resilience to keep coming back to a state of balance in the long journey of life. We will have a much better understanding of health in the coming chapters. So we need to get our priorities right: Our top priority is health, which is followed by fitness, after which we can work on good looks.

My Own Experience

In my own journey to depend as little as possible on medicines, in the last decade I have fairly succeeded in not taking any pharmaceutical drugs. Over the years, I have tried to listen what my body is saying and respond to it rather than rush to a doctor immediately. I of course get occasional minor upsets like a cold or a stomach upset. But I know how to take care of them better with slight adjustments in my diet and routine. In fact, I don’t treat them as “diseases” because for me health is not a fixed thing. If we are healthy, it doesn’t mean we have to feel great every single day. Health has its ups and downs because it is dynamic just like the seasons in nature. It is not a hundred meter sprint but a full marathon where we are allowed to slow down in order to gain in the long run. Health is bigger than disease and so it can accommodate a disease or a few diseases in the long journey of life. Health is about resilience to keep coming back to a state of homeostasis in an environment which is changing every moment. And this can’t be done without cycles and seasons. This is how nature has sustained and flourished this planet till now and similarly it sustains our body too. Personally, I have seen tremendous increase in my vitality over the years.

Need to Rethink

I believe we need to rethink our understanding of health, disease and healing. We need to work more with the forces of nature rather than fight against them. We need to trust our inner intelligence more and give it an opportunity to do its job rather than meddle with it unnecessarily. In fact, we need to support this inner intelligence and let it guide us rather than superseding it and asserting our power in vain. In order to do that, we first need to understand the intelligence that is functioning in our body and the forces that are at work in order to keep us alive and kicking.