Science of Nature
Art
of
Health
Integrative Preventive Medicine
We need a definition of health that motivates us to take care of ourselves and one another, a vision that recognizes human variation and offers something that is attainable for every individual and community. All societies flourish by supporting individuals within communities in their pursuit of health and happiness, enabling them to prosper and give back to society.
Central to this new model is the definition of prevention and its purported goals. The concept of prevention (from the Latin root, praeventus, to anticipate) has been articulated since ancient times. Disease prevention therefore includes any and all efforts to anticipate the genesis of disease and forestall its progression to clinical manifestations. This definition of disease prevention does not presume to cure disease. Rather than focusing on acute treatment and cure, IPM seeks to compress morbidity and increase the period of disease-free life for as long as possible.
The Dance of Health
Health is not static. If we look at ourselves as an extension of Mother Nature then we know our body ebbs and flows with the rhythms of life. Intuitively we know we feel better when we are living in harmony with the rhythms of nature. There are times when we feel healthy and strong, and there are also times we can feel vulnerable and weak. We must flow with the changes in our bodies and balance our lives each day to find our natural state of homeostasis. There, we can appreciate the more serene aspects of the human experience. The subtleties we experience as we watch a sunrise, as we hike to the top of a mountain or as we stand in front of a vast body of water are enormously healing. We can create that feeling in our bodies every day by living in tune with ourselves, our environment and Mother Nature.
The Five Element Theory
The concept of the Five Element Theory is the foundation to understand physiology (normal functioning), pathology (disease formation) & pharmacokinetics (movement of substances within the body) .
These are the minutest elements, which constitute all living and non-living matters. Every thing, including food, plants and living beings are made of these basic elements. All matter contains these five elements. Depending on the predominance of the content, the matter is classified with predominance of earth, water, fire, air or ether respectively. The permutation and combination of these elements and its qualities determines its properties.