DESIGNING A NEW MEDICAL MODEL

Auto manufacturers design new models almost every year, but many in the medical profession seem content with the old medical model, under which doctors capably handle trauma, perform surgery, and manage infections and some chronic diseases, often by prescribing petroleum-based drugs. Yet the vast technological changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are now beginning to make us sick, with most Americans now both toxic and malnourished, according to Joseph D. Beasley, MD, MPH, speaker at NOHA’s November meeting.

. . . each year Americans eat about nine pounds of food additives, basically considered safe until proven unsafe. But of the more than 3,000 chemicals that have been added to our food chain, we only know the carcinogenicity of several hundred. We are in the midst of a gigantic experiment: more than one hundred million Americans now have some form of chronic disease

Many Americans, he said, are missing some essential nutrients; and each year Americans eat about nine pounds of food additives, basically considered safe until proven unsafe. But of the more than 3,000 chemicals that have been added to our food chain, we only know the carcinogenicity of several hundred. We are in the midst of a gigantic experiment: more than one hundred million Americans now have some form of chronic disease; the first recorded heart attack occurred in the late nineteenth century; there are instances of atherosclerosis, diabetes, asthma and cancer. The increase in life expectancy in this century is mainly due to a decrease in infant mortality, and the modern control of diseases is largely due to better sanitation.

Thus, instead of treating symptoms, he believes, we should be cleaning up our environment and food and broadening medical science. In short, we need a new medical model, one that considers the effects of malnutrition, addictions, and the environment (chemical toxicity, adverse food reactions, and classical allergy). Detailed metabolic and genetic evaluations are needed, and this is precisely what Dr. Beasley is doing in his medical practice, particularly with patients with alcoholism and chemical dependency. With such patients, recovery consists of detoxification, biochemical (i.e. nutritional) restoration, and lifestyle change (i.e. exercise, chemical avoidance, and stress management).

. . . instead of treating symptoms . . . we should be cleaning up our environment and food and broadening medical science. In short, we need a new medical model, one that considers the effects of malnutrition, addictions, and the environment . . .

Under the old medical model, he said, many excellent, well-trained physicians go on treating symptoms, usually with drugs, mostly synthetic. Yet there are profound differences between drugs and nutrients. For instance, drugs
 
  • are foreign to the body, which tries to eliminate them as soon as possible
  • never satisfy a deficiency of the body
  • interfere with the metabolism of the body
  • have immediate and specific therapeutic activity
  • can be dangerous when taken in combination
  • often do not work, particularly with susceptible people, such as the elderly
  • alleviate symptoms and, except for antibiotics, do not affect underlying causes
  • are toxicants in any dose and have sometimes serious side effects; drugs kill hundreds of people a day.

In contrast, nutrients
  • are essential to the body which either uses them quickly or stores them
  • can make up for deficiencies in the body
  • support the metabolism of the body
  • have broad, gradual therapeutic effects
  • work best in combination
  • always "work" and are particularly important to susceptible people
  • work only by dealing with underlying causes
  • are natural to the body and heal rather than sicken or kill.

As for vitamin supplements, only vitamins A and D are toxic, he said, and then only if taken in amounts ten times the Recommended Daily Allowance.

Perhaps the best new development in the new medical model that Dr. Beasley proposes and uses is that supplements can now be recommended on the basis of lymphocyte growth tests. Since everyone’s requirements are different, this is a way of finding out one’s own nutritional needs – at least on the day of the testing.

Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XVI, No. 1, Winter 1991, page 3.