THE 12 ELIXIRS

INTRODUCTION,/p>

Your body has a trail of signs and marks that tell of the story of you.

The human body does nothing randomly. Everything it does it does for a good reason. Actions result in reactions. Creating situations creates probabilities. Just as the whole of the universe is subject to the laws of Newtonian and quantum physics, so is the human body. The body is a little universe unto itself, an individual ecosystem that has its personal set of norms and ideals. Each body, each human universe, is affected by and, in turn, affects the environment in which it finds itself. If it is a good adaptor, it survives and thrives. If it is not a good adaptor, it will suffer. At all times, it tries its best. Sometimes these trials result in injuries or illnesses that the body either cannot completely recover from or recovers from with great sacrifice. These attempts leave their mark upon the body just as storms leave their mark upon a landscape. A scar here, a mole there, a preference or dislike for certain flavors or foods are all clues—clues to the history of that body. These clues indicate how that body is adapting to its environment. None of these signs is random. None of these marks is an “accident.” Illness is not bad luck. Injury is not an accident. Everything occurs for a reason. Everything occurs as a result of previous actions. The probability of illness or injury is calculable and therefore relatively preventable.

God does not play dice with the universe and health is not an accident.

Just as health is not an accident, neither is disease. We do not always know the causes but we can tell, by the chemical and physical trails in the body, which organ is weak, which organ is fighting, and what the body is asking its owner to do to help. It asks with cues and signs and symptoms. Much of this knowledge was once possessed by the average person—learned at the knee of one’s mother, absorbed by osmosis from the environment in which one grew up. Different healing traditions use different methods of analysis, diagnosis, and healing. When done well, they all work well. Many patients do not care which medical “political party” the doctor belongs to. They wish only to be relieved of suffering.

Most patients want to get well. Most patients want to know why they got sick. And most patients want to know what they can do to not get sick again. It is for these patients that this book is written.

Your body is designed to give you optimal health throughout a long life. It is programmed to be committed to your health. Part of that design is a communications system. That system connects the various functions and organs of the body with the outside world. Most of this system communicates under your level of consciousness. However, when necessary, it is designed to let you know in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways when and how to change your behavior—if you wish to remain alive and healthy. This communication system is necessary for you to adapt to the world you live in. Good adaptation = good health.

Living has some requirements. A car requires fuel, an engine, and an exhaust system to operate. Life requires all living systems to intake fuel, to absorb and utilize it for operations and repair, and to excrete waste. How well we do these three actions determines how well our bodies operate. Your body is working 24/7 to keep these three functions in tip-top shape. That requires a lot of communication between your organs and you. We will cover the various communication methods your body uses to talk to you. This body talk is what directs your actions and choices. These choices are influenced by your age, gender, genetics, and geographic location. They will affect your body’s ability to satisfy the demands of your internal organs at any given moment. Each choice, each action we take either optimizes our ability to adapt or damages our ability to adapt to those internal and external demands.

The better we adapt, the healthier we are.

As you read this book, do not rush. Slow down and think about the principles and information presented. It is my hope that you will begin to recognize your own abilities to heal yourself and your loved ones. We are all born with these abilities. Recognizing them is step one to empowering yourself in your own health care. Regardless of whether you are trying to improve your own health habits or trying to optimize the treatment of a disease, bring your awareness of your body’s cues to the forefront.

Always, always keep in the forefront of your mind WHY you are trying to get healthy and WHAT “healthy” means to you.

(“I want to be able to run with my little girl again.” or “I want to have energy.”)

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER

Doctors cannot give a patient the desire to get well.

Doctors cannot instill the discipline necessary to do the work of getting and staying well.

Doctors can perform treatments.

Doctors can teach.

The word doctor means teacher. Use your doctor as a resource and ask questions. Offer your own analysis. Patients are often correct regarding what the problem is and what caused it.

If you are ill: I do not recommend reading health books when you are ill. Your body requires all of your energy to be directed toward healing and not diverted into analysis of technical data. If you are ill, we recommend that you surround yourself with beauty, peace, and inspiration. Read inspirational and humorous books. Let those who are caring for you read the health books.

If you are relatively healthy: By all means, read whatever you can get your hands on. Knowledge will free and empower you, but read wisely and with a grain of salt. Be aware that all authors write from their point of view and from their experience. This is very important. A doctor treating colitis in a Midwestern urban area with a practice consisting of Swedish- or Norwegian-Americans may get great results using very different techniques from a doctor getting great results treating colitis in a southern farming district with a practice consisting of Asian- or African-Americans. Geography, culture, genetics, and pollution all play a crucial role in how a disease manifests and how it is best treated.

Whatever you choose to do to become healthy, use common sense, pace yourself, and be sure to have the Twelve Elixirs (see part III) in place. Above all—

do not let the pursuit of health become more of a stress than the disease you already have.

WHAT CAUSES ILLNESS?

Illness is the result of malfunctioning organs. An imbalance in an organ will lead to disease. The malfunction occurs first, leaving the body’s many defenses compromised and vulnerable to infection, injury, genetic mutation, and inflammation.

Whether your concern is keeping your healthy body healthy or healing an illness in your body, the “treatment goal” is the same: optimal organ function. Whether you have this or that diagnosis or a supremely healthy body, keeping your health and eliminating disease from your body requires—requires—requires—that all your organ systems function optimally.

In some schools of healing, most attention is paid to eradicating the tumor or the inflammation or some other symptom The question I beg of you to ask is “WHY?” Why is there a tumor? Why is there inflammation? Humanity would not have survived as long as it has if people had not figured out the answers to these questions (posed quite differently, of course, through the ages). Tumors do not appear for no reason. There are causes for that appearance...