Dear fellow Steemians

This article has been a long time coming. In a way, I've completely and utterly lost trust in Western medicine. Not because of any supersticious fear of its voodoo-like magical properties, but because of the sheer conflict of interests that exist in 'modern medicine'.
If you've followed any of my past work on the "Health Care" industry, I tend to lean on the side of the spectrum that would rather term it the "Sickness Treatment" industry.
Having been living in China now for over a year, and having seen with my own eyes the way that alternative "Chinese Traditional Medicine" (CTM for short) is used by over a billion people to treat their ailments, combined with my own interest and learning about nutrition and alternative medicine, I've come to some rather interesting conclusions

I'm gonna save diving into the topic of nutrition, alternative medicine, energy-work, and all those topics for another day.

Today, I'll be focusing my energies on the origin of dis-ease in the body and mind.

I'm still learning more about the body and the mind each day, so consider this an introduction into the topic.

I hope you will enjoy the following presentation I made especially just for you. I wanted to have a little bit of fun with it so I Star Warsed it up a little bit.

😙

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The Source of Disease

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If you attended middle-school in any part of the world that was either the West or conquered by one of the Western powers, there's a high chance that you were taught about the source of disease as being mainly attributable to one of the following:

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Microbes and Viruses.

Indeed, the existence of microscopic organisms was discovered during the period 1665-83 by two Fellows of The Royal Society, Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. And another two gentleman, some 200 or so years later, discovered the first virus (from 1892 to 1898) when a man named Ivanovski discovered that there was something that was causing infections in tobacco plants that could not possibly be a bacteria, and when later Beijerinck ended up calling this "filterable pathogen" a virus.

Very important breakthroughs to say the least, as the physical mechanisms through which disease spread and affected the body were beginning to be understood.

These two forms of pathogen, microbes and viruses, have become ubiquitous with our modern conception of the causes and effects of disease.

What we now may refer to as "germs" are who we generally attribute the blame to for our bad health.

We say that we "caught the flu", or that "there's a bug going around" when we call in sick to excuse ourselves from meeting our professional obligations.

We think of tiny little agents of destruction, getting through our skin-shield ramparts, finding backdoors through pores and other orifices.

Like these pesky rebels always wanting to blow up a perfectly good death star

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But really, and pardon the poetic speech in advance, can we really attribute all of the blame for falling ill to invisible creatures a million times smaller (in the case of bacteria) and 10 million times smaller (in the case of a virus) than our body? Source

Let's look at what we know.

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The Immune System

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Every human being on Earth, on top of having oil-producing skin, mucus-producing nostrils, intraocular-fluid-producing eyeballs, wax-producing ear drums, also possesses something called: an immune system.

What is the human immune system?

Well, I may not have a 7 year multi-hundred thousand dollar education on the subject, but suffice it to say, the immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs in our body that all work together to keep our body safe from infection and illness.

One key part of our immune system that deals with the problem of bacteria and viruses are called leukocytes (a fancy Latinized medical term that come to us from the Greek Leukos meaning white, and Latin cyte meaning cell)

The white blood cells come to us in two types. If you will allow me to use a Star Wars analogy:

One of these white blood cell types is like the Research and Development wing of our body's Anti-Rebel Germ military defense program, and is responsible for inventing anti-bodies, which are basically everything ranging from heat-seaking missiles, ion cannons, and Death Star beams so that we can destroy those pesky Rebel Germs's based on Alderaan (that tumor growing in our ass).

The other white blood cell type is like our Empire's foot-soldier that we send out to neutralize the Rebel Germ threat, whom we arm with the latest and most advanced plasma grenades and photon blasters, like Storm Troopers who we send out to go get massacred every time those pesky Rebel Germs try another attack on our Precious Death-Star, I mean body.

Most of the time, we can totally kick their ass and burn down their rebel-strongholds, slaughtering the men and selling the women and children into slavery. That's the goal at least.

Sometimes though, we're stuck in bed for three weeks as all our white-blood cell storm troopers get clobbered by some awesome Force-wielding Jedi Virus or some shit

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This is what happens to your white blood cells when you have AIDS. Those two guys are known as "HIV".

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FYI: I'm not done having fun with my Star Wars GIFs.

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Okay, so now that we have an understanding of the immune system, can we try to understand the real reason why we get sick?

I'll tell you why: because the Empire is Evil and the Jedis and Rebels need to restore balance to the Force!

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All Star-Wars kidding aside.

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Any body when it feels itself to have gone sick begins to produce antibodies, or simply put, stategies for overcoming the condition of dis-ease

What we commonly refer to as symptoms, are nothing more than a mechanism to alert the body-mind consciousness that efforts need to be made at self-healing.

So why do we develop illness?

Because it signals to us that we have fallen out of balance.
Let me go-in a little deeper into what I mean by balance.

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Homeostatis

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Homeostasis is the term that we give for the body's propensity towards balance and equilibrium.

The Human Body is an incredibly complex piece of machinery that requires the precise execution of millions of simultaneous complex bio-chemical operations. The failure to execute the exact right amount of these biological operations in a co-ordinated and precise effort leads to the disruption of essential life-supporting vital functions, and death.

The body thus requires a very specific amount of external inputs in order to perform its multitude of tasks, and without these key external inputs, will be unable to function and will perish.

But as thinking beings gifted with minds, we are not only bound and restricted in our activities by the physical needs of our bodies, we also have to take special care of our mental anatomy.

Our physical and mental bodily processes are what may be termed our physiology and psychology.

So what affects our psychology and our physiology?

The best way I can attempt to answer this question is by asking another question:

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"What is our mind made of?"

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We already know what our body is made of. Cells, tissues, organs, systems of organs, and the like. It also houses a wide range of molecules, as well as microbes, viruses, and other physical components.

And our body, being the machine that it is, requires fuel to run. The kind of fuel that our body requires comes in three main forms: macronutrient, micronutrients, and phytonutrients.

I'm going to save diving into the topic of nutrition for another post, but safe to state here that:

• Macronutrients are the classic "building blocks" of carbon-based lifeforms that your gym-rat homies are always tallying up at the end of every meal you eat together to make sure they're always staying on track to pack maximum gains: proteins, lipids (fats), and carbohydrates (sugars).
• Micronutrients are those smaller yet equally important molecules that are needed in trace amounts to break down those building blocks our body can't use and converting them to the ones we need, which your health nut coworker is always using as an argument to guilt you into eating that kumquat he's handing you. They are vitamins and minerals.
• Phytonutrients are that even more equally important form of nutrient that they forgot to teach you about in your middle school science class that your vegan friends are always going on about. Phytonutrients are that poorly understood yet essential class of molecules we call antioxidants.

Without an appropriate balance of all these essential molecules that we must get from our environment in the form food, water, sunlight and topical skin ointments (all natural, of course), our body won't be able to function properly and we'll start developing diseases to alert us to the danger and peril we are facing. (An untimely death in case you're missing the bigger picture.)

But what is our mind made of?

The simplest answer to this question is "Energy". But what do I really mean by that?

I mean your thoughts and your emotions.

Essentially, there is a link between our emotions and thoughts (which are our state of consciousness) and our biology (which is our bodily state).

Anything that influences our emotions and thoughts (our mind) will have a proportional and measured effect on our biology (our physical body)

And everything that influences our biology (our physical body), will have an equal effect on our emotions and thoughts (our mind).

If you're spending any amount of your time outside of this section when you go grocery shopping at your local supermarket, you're asking for trouble.

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Anybody who has studied endocrinology will understand that if a subject is feeling love, compassion, joy, equanimity or tranquility, that the brain will start producing things like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, opiates, and endorphins. These are all powerful antidepressants that regulate mood/emotion, but they serve more than just the purpose of uplifting our spirits, they are also powerful immunomodulators.

These molecules in the brain regulate and control our immune system.

The same can equally be said for feelings of hostility, anger, resentment, guilt, depression or fear. In these instances, your body will start to produce adrenaline, which produces the sensation of anxiety and is a powerful signal that we are feeling uneasy and perturbed. It doesn't stop there, the brain will also produce something known as cortisol, which is known as the "stress hormone". Cortisol is a vital hormone that can slow down our metabolism (if we are in a period of famine), or it can decrease our sensation of sleepiness (if we need to stay awake to perform an important task). But high level of cortisol (stress) can be incredibly damaging to the body in the long term.

So, every emotion we experience has a biological expression in our body.

Adrenalin and Cortisol (anxiety and stress) play a vital role in "saving our asses" when we need to perform beyond our ordinary capabilities in high stress situations that are very energy demanding. However, in cases of overexposure and over production of these hormones, they weaken our immune system by throwing all of our hormones out of balance.

Homeostasis is achieved by a propensity towards perfect balance and for fully optimal functioning of the body.

When we start falling out of balance, we begin to experience what is known as dis-ease.

Experiencing a state of dis-ease is the way our body processes the information that it is receiving, and alerts us to our exposure to unfavorable external environmental conditions that are causing damage to the body and disrupting its natural state of balance.

Mahleihkewlzzzz. What dah fuuuuuuq arr' dey?

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In other words, its not that bacteria and viruses are infiltrating our body and causing us to be sick because they are so incredibly awesome.

It's that we are unable to perform those millions of simultaneous functions properly, and these pesky Rebel Germs are finding a breach in our state-of-the-art defenses and taking advantage of a momentary lapse in our ability to ward their attacks off with our super-duper awesome biological defense systems.

Think of a vitamin deficiency as a glitch in your force-field that allows them to fly right into your hangar and bomb the crap out of your control station.

Not this time H1N1 Starfighter Bird Flu Rebel Scum

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So if we cannot blame germs for our diseases, who can we blame?

Ourselves.

And the world, I guess. And God. But I don't have to tell you it's incredibly empowering to take responsibility for ourselves, and it stimulates the crap out of our mind and body's healing mechanisms.

We create or at the very least allow to persist negative factors that are causing our body to fall out of balance.

And let me just state what may not be the obvious right now... I experience plenty of disease and find it incredibly difficult to listen to my body and respond appropriately.

But this is something that I've come to realize: for all of my eczema, and cold soars, and coughs, and sore throats, and dry skin, and itchy scalps, runny noses, tummy aches... (Oh my god this list seems endless, let me stop right now before I give myself a heart attack to boot.)

There is a clear reason why I am experiencing these "symptoms".

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I'm not giving my body what it needs, and I'm not doing what my mind wants me to do.

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And that literally means I might frickin' die of cancer one day if I can't get this shit under raps.

This is something I absolutely plan to redress.

Because I've learned several things about my body along my journey.

That eczema? It's pent up anger.
Sometimes, and most often I don't even consciously realize it, I'm blistering with rage.

That cold soar? It's shame.
I'm feeling so guilty, I feel I can't even show my face in public.

That stomach ache? What my body needs at 1 in the morning is water and sleep.
Not a frickin' dominoes pizza, Hae-Joo.

That itchy skin?
I need some of those good avocado oil fats baby.

That soar throat? (This is an obvious one)
Stop smoking all the God the time...

Okay, I could keep going on, because in truth, it's actually even more complicated than that.

We can't find balance simply by playing around with our diet if all we do is lie around on the couch watching DTube vids. (Go fuck yourself YouTube)

Just like all that positive thinking, visualizations/affirmations and trying to push ourselves to be productive won't mean jack shit when our body is battling fatigue from living on nothing more than cheerios and milk for the last 48 hours.

So what is the point of this article?

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We need to seek balance in all areas of our life.

We need to create the right conditions to be able to live in a positive state of mind and bask in the warm glow of all those antidepressant neurotransmitters.

We need to live a healthy and happy lifestyle filled with joy.

Ain't that Easier Said Than Done.

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I know. But it's the New Year guys.

2018 promises to be a rich and rewarding year for all of us.

But if we really want to enjoy it to the maximum and make the absolute most of it, we've got start paying attention to what our bodies are telling us, and living in accordance and harmony with not only who but also what we really are in reality.

I'm not saying we need make a crazy big list of things we're gonna do in 2018. We all know how those lists end up.

Miserable failures... We find we can't live up to those impossible expectations after the first minutes of the New Year have started.

So instead of setting ourselves up for failure, and sharing with each other all of our new years resolutions and getting all excited about how great the year is gonna be for all of us.

Let's do this instead:

Let's decide that this year is going to be different, because these year: we're going to pay attention.

Let's start treating our Bodies like screens, instead of like machines. After all, you've heard this expression before: "we're not Human Doings, we're Human Beings". When new images pop up on the screen, let's analyze and interpret the meaning of those images. Pimples? Jitters? Headaches? Let's notice them, and pay attention to them, and apply every conscious remedy we can possibly think of, using our most advanced Death-Star super-computer technology, to self-heal those problem.

And as for our Minds? Instead of treating them like vacuums, that we must absolutely fill with all kinds of sensorium-numbing distractions, like our addiction to consuming information and over-thinking everything, let's treat our minds as projectors, that are playing a very unique film uniquely produced for our viewing pleasure. I believe that if we stop all the constant flux of chaotic energies going through our minds, even if it means taking ourselves out of a high-stress situation to just take a minute to breathe and pay attention, maybe we will begin to realize that our mind is projecting the story of our life out onto the world, and that we are the main character in one of those exhilarating thrillers in the world.

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It is said that the best things in life are savoured taking one's time.

And there's nothing I want to enjoy more than living my life

🙃

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Them's is today's thoughts folks. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope the abundance of Star Wars gifs and analogies made it a slightly more fun read. I'm trying to learn to take myself less seriously and have more fun with everything I do. I like that better than trying to be so professional and serious all the time. Hopefully you will like this truer version of me!

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Peace and Love Steemy-Family

Hae-Joo

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Sources Star-Wars-Rebels-XWing-Gif / Star-Wars-Storm-Trooper-FlameThrower-Gif / Bad-Ass-Rebel-Gif / HIV Jedi Gif / H1N1 Starfighter Bird Flue Gif
Pictures lacking reference come from Pixabay.