Intuitvely we all know that man-made chemicals are in general bad to put into our bodies. We avoid getting cleaning fluids, pesticides and petroleum products on our skin or in our food. Many of us suspect that plastic is not good for us and we drink from stainless steel or glass containers. Likewise we get very nervous when we find out that our food has been modified genetically with bacteria and viral genes added to the plant genome.
You see there is a higher wisdom inside us that God placed there to direct our path. We know natural is best, yet many of us live very far removed from the natural world and we know this promotes poor health.
But when we become sick, we nearly fall over ourselves rushing off to obtain an expensive chemical (many of them derived from petroleum products) called a drug, to help "restore" our health. I will admit sometimes you really need pharmaceutical drugs to save you, and help you heal yes, but where did all of the natural medicine go? Well like anything else there was less profit in a product anyone could find or grow so over the last 100 years we have had this gradual decline into using only patentable drugs. The drug companies out there research natural medicine and many modern drugs are still derived from thier original botanical source. But often their research missed the fact that it often takes many of the natural components in an herb to get the intended effect. Those companies only look for a single molecule because that is what is considered a patentable drug. Thus many wonderful natural treatments have been left in the dust of history. World wide it is estimated that between 60-80% of the worlds population relies on herbal medicine for primary health care.
Think about this.....What if we were able to take the best from both worlds by judiciously using modern surgery and drugs but copiously using natural medicine? I believe we would find optimum healthcare!
We have had a season of unprecedented blessing in our country. Our blessings have given us everything we needed then everything we wanted. However in living the life of ease we also began to loose our faith, health, motivation, purpose, connection to the land and connections with one another. Health care has suffered the same fate. Even now programmers are diligently working on creating artificial intelligence programs with the goal of replacing primary care physicians with computer systems.
Many of us believe that though technology can certainly enhance certain aspects of care, the human touch is clearly part of the healing process. The Osteopathic physician performing Manipulation Therapy invests time, intuition and effort into assisting healing in ways that machines and insurance companies can never understand. As we march forward into our future we must seek to restore health using ALL of our understanding. I have seen countless times superior technology bypassed by inferior ones with superior marketing. This means that as our systems modernize, we must exercise our right to have hands on healing or we will loose that right. I have seen Osteopathic manipulation have a profound impact on people and improve their lives. It would be a tragedy to loose Osteopathy just because it took a while to do it and insurance didnt like to pay for it.
I also believe that we as believers have the ability to heal one another. Our farms and gardens have the ability to prevent and cure disease by producing good beneficial vegetables and fruits. Ezekiel 47:12 God has created an amazing place for us to dwell and thrive. Genesis 1:29-30. Even if you need medication to help in the short term you should have a long term goal of improving and restoring your being to a healthy balance.
The following is a quote from the founder of Osteopathic Medicine:
"The Osteopath is one who has a mechanical knowledge of the human body when normal or abnormal; and they should know how to adjust all variations from the normal. The more mechanical knowledge you have of the physical body construction the better your work will be. Bring your patient to normality then go home. Plenty of good food, rest and nature will effect the cure. Keep your knife in your pocket and the drugs in the drug store; give God credit for perfection in all things, as a mechanic, builder and engineer. Life proves its perfection by its work. DO means Dig On."
Andrew Taylor Still 1828-1917