Despite massive amounts of money invested in treatments (nearly 20% of our GDP), the allopathic approach has not enhanced our health. Furthermore, global industrialization, a benchmark of a nation’s “success”, is sabotaging our body’s and the environment’s ability to restore health. Sadly, our nation’s economy contributes to a sick planet and it is being reflected in the human condition. More so, our current mode of living is only getting worse. In order to change course, we must unveil some common misconceptions about conventional living and heed the powerful wisdom of Nature.

In terms of health, a decreasing quality of life sustenance (air, water, food, etc.), along with an unprecedented rise in metabolic illnesses, is further evidence that some part of our approach to life has been deeply unsound. Even amidst ubiquitous claims that Science and Technology will provide the answers to all that ails us, science as medicine has become increasingly ineffective because it was built on a faulty presumption that it can improve upon nature. In our arrogance, we ignored the fact that nature has been sustaining itself quite magnificently for billions of years.

It has only been in the last few hundred years that advances in science and technology have placed an exponential burden on earthly resources while steering us away from a balanced, natural state. Paradoxically, the more we have devised methods to take command of health and increase daily comforts, the more disconnected we have become from the life force of our environment. It has been a slow but insidious process that accelerated after the Scientific and
Industrial Revolutions. During that time, Natural Philosophy and indigenous worldviews were steadily replaced by a predominantly reductionist view of life – a world seen as countless bits and pieces. As we altered our universal perspective, we became more determined to dissect and identify the components of a system on a premise that we could gain a greater knowledge about the mechanisms of life. While this is a foundation of the scientific method, it has also been its downfall. In our pursuit to understand how everything worked, we lost our vital perspective for health – that of wholeness – we forgot that everything is connected. In terms of dramatic tragedy, this has been our fatal flaw.

For billions of years, the inherent wisdom of nature has guided the planet toward a more dynamic state in which interdependence and diversity play crucial roles – every living thing has emerged with a unique function to support life. Nothing in nature is extraneous and nothing is wasted – everything is significant. In this sense, we can acknowledge that we are part of this giant, living organism called Earth. We can recognize that its systems work coherently and efficiently to achieve its fullest potential – GROWTH. Growth is proof of Life and Life propels growth.

As in nature, our bodies reflect the same implicit order of Life. In fact, discoveries made in the last few decades have confirmed that the human body is even more complex and interconnected than we had ever imagined. Rather than the biological container of segregated body systems we had envisioned ourselves as, it turns out we are more a bio-energetic vessel that is intimately bound through a matrix of infinitesimal connective fibers (fascia) that course through trillions
of specialized cells, supported by billions of diverse microorganisms – we are a microcosm of the world.

Most importantly, we have learned that the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites that have been uniformly vilified as the cause of many of our diseases are mostly a population of communication and nutrient-producing flora, called the microbiome, that are essential for life. What is being revealed is that the human body can only function in the presence of these microscopic life forms and their communication network because they enable us to assimilate and produce nutrients,
transmit hormones and build a strident immunity. While the brain conducts the release of hormones and immune builders, it is the microbiome that initiates and communicates the needs of the body to the brain. If this natural pathway is compromised, as it has been through industrialization, the environment and our bodies suffer.

Ideally, we are introduced to our microbiome at birth through the vaginal canal, through the colostrums and breast milk we are nourished with, and through contact with our environment as we enter and interact with the world. This early inoculation of diverse flora establishes mostly in

Tragically, what began in Science as germ theory to target pathogens, became a war on all microorganisms that upset our natural balance. Once we severed the lifeline between

imbalance in the environment, problems arise. Undoubtedly, current outbreaks in infectious disease are the byproduct of such abuse.

Within the scheme of life, Nature does not make mistakes and all living things play their own essential role. So, in healthcare, if we look expansively for the origin of the symptom, we can more effectively resolve the underlying problem. In order to restore our bodies and environment back to a vital state, we must reduce or eliminate the substances that interfere with Nature’s pathways and support the hidden universe of microbes that maintain health. In the case of exposure to infection and disease, a robust immune system, comprised of plentiful and diverse bodily flora will support our health most efficiently. Indeed, exposure to the environment is what boosts our immunity to infectious disease – that is the true nature of herd immunity.

If we look fully to Nature, it will provide all we need to THRIVE.

There are numerous professionals who provide guidance toward a holistic, Nature-driven approach to wellness. Here are a few Functional Medicine Practitioners I highly recommend: