Masters of Health Magazine June 2019 | Page 88

A very few fundamental problems exist that explain nearly every disease. It doesn’t matter what specialty your disease falls under. As Pierre Laplace said, a very few fundamental laws can explain an extraordinary number of very complex phenomena.

These underlying problems are the link between most chronic diseases. In almost every disease, the same few things go wrong. And those same few problems are all interconnected. One affects the other in a giant web of biology. Pull on one part of the web and the whole web moves.

This web is built of the 7 keys of UltraWellness, which I’ve written quite a bit about. These keys are the underlying causes of ALL illness.

This new roadmap turns the myth of diagnosis on its head, and in doing so reveals one of the most radical concepts to emerge from this new medical approach: The name of the disease bears little relationship to the cause of the disease.

One Disease, Many Causes—One Cause, Many Diseases

One disease can have many, many different causes, ALL of which manifest the same symptoms. Take depression for example. It may be caused by many different factors, yet the symptoms we see are the same across the board. The DSM-V accurately describes these symptoms (100 percent accuracy), but it says nothing at all about the causes (0 percent validity).

Imagine a room full of people with depression. They all meet the DSM-V criteria for depression, and they would all be prescribed antidepressants for their “disease.”

However, neither this diagnosis nor the treatment provided takes into account their genetic individuality. It doesn’t tease out the reasons each of them became depressed in the first place.

These problems arise because the real causes of depression are not addressed with antidepressants.

It may be there are many “depressions,” not just one generic “depression.” These “depressions” may be the result of a multitude of causes: folate, B6, or B12 deficiency; low thyroid function; “brain allergies” to foods; an autoimmune response to gluten that inflames the brain; mercury poisoning; abnormal proteins called gluteo- or casomorphins from mal-digested food that alter brain chemistry; brain inflammation from a hidden infection; blood sugar imbalances; low testosterone or other sex hormones; a deficiency of omega-3 fats; or adrenal gland dysfunction from excessive stress among many other possible causes.

These are some of the real causes of “depression” as well as many other mental illnesses and neurological conditions. Without addressing core, underlying issues like these, we can never have optimal brain function or mood.

There is really no such thing as the “disease” called depression, just many different systemic imbalances that cause the symptoms we collectively refer to as “depression.”

One disease, many causes …

On the other side of the spectrum, there can be one factor in a person’s diet, lifestyle, environment, or genetic make up that can cause dozens of different and seemingly unrelated “diseases.”

Gluten, the protein found in the most common grain eaten in America—wheat—as well as barley, rye, spelt, and kamut is an excellent example. Gluten is one common factor that can create so many illnesses and diseases it would be hard to count them all.