Medical Mindset Vs Health Mindset

Trying to compare these two different mindsets is like trying to compare apples and oranges. They really are completely different which is why there is so much controversy over cancer treatments, immunizations and other issues which are quite often heatedly debated. In order to understand the differences – let's take a look at each one individually. 

Medical Mindset 

If someone is medically minded – they will tend to have a strong faith in the medical community. This means that typically they will follow whatever their doctor advises them to do or whatever is accepted as the ‘norm’ - such as following a strict schedule for well-child visits, immunization schedules and whatever prescription pharmaceuticals they are advised to use. 

Medically-minded people tend to look at diseased conditions as something they ‘caught’ or something that happened ‘to them’. Sometimes, they will even blame God for bringing this trial and/or punishment into their lives. Since the disease may be considered life-threatening and/or life-altering – they will take anything or do any treatment to get rid of the problem. 

This mindset also is quite often based on a ‘partsome’ thinking. This means that if something is wrong in one part of the body – for instance, breast cancer – then by removing the breast, you have taken care of the problem. It’s not affecting any other part of the body. If the problem is depression – then taking an antidepressant should solve the problem because it's in our mind and doesn’t affect the rest of the body. If we have tonsillitis, then removing the tonsils will fix the problem because it doesn’t affect the rest of the body. 

This type of thinking is actually how I was raised. My mother was born in the deep South in 1918. She came from a big family and her father was a share-cropper, so they were very poor. After getting married at a very young age, having three children and then getting divorced – she moved to the big city to start her life over. She got a job in Chicago, read everything she could, became more sophisticated, met my father, got married and moved to California to begin a new life. As a suburban housewife in the 1950’s she wanted to live a better life and be a part of middle-class America. Part of this meant that now she could take her children to ‘respectable’ doctors, have her babies in a hospital, live in a nice home with an indoor bathroom, and be a beautiful A-typical 1950’s housewife and mother. My mother was an incredible woman – I'm so thankful she was my mother. Not very many people could have done what she did. 

Health Mindset 

Now let’s take a look at how Health-minded people tend to view their health. The best way I can begin to share this viewpoint with you is to share an analogy of Dr Samuel Thompson. He was a doctor in the 1800’s and his philosophies were often referred to as Thompsonian medicine. He used to tell people to imagine a woodstove. If you put clean burning fuel into this stove – you will have lots of heat with very little waste. However, if you put poor burning fuel into this stove – you will have very little heat and lots of waste. 

He would then teach that the human body works the same way – if you put clean burning fuel into the human body – you will have lots of energy with very little waste. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true – if you put poor burning fuel into the body – you will have very little energy and lots of waste. He then went on to say, “Imagine the wood stove with four chimneys”. Each one of these chimneys represent one of the body’s channels of elimination. 

We now know that the lymphatic system is one of the body’s largest channels of elimination, but in the 1800’s they weren’t aware of this, so Dr Thompson represented the respiratory, the digestive, the urinary and the skin. He would then teach that if something gets into the body which doesn’t belong there – such as bacteria, a virus, any type of toxin – the body will try to get rid of it. Therefore, if the body uses the respiratory system to eliminate the problem, we might experience cold-like symptoms – a runny nose, congestion, runny eyes, cough. If the body uses the digestive system, we might see flu-like symptoms – nausea, diarrhea, intestinal cramping. If the body uses the urinary system, we might have burning, strong- smelling urine, kidney stones. And finally, if the body is eliminating through the skin, we might have eczema, rashes, acne, boils, etc. When we look at the body in this way, it is easy to see that if we work with the body we can help it to eliminate the problem. 

For instance, if the body is using the respiratory system and we are suffering with cold-like symptoms – the medically-minded would say to take a decongestant, antihistamine and /or cough syrup. By doing this we are stopping the body from doing what it was designed to do which is why a cold can last for ten to fourteen days and quite often go into some type of secondary infection like bronchitis or an ear infection. If we work with the body, then quite often, a cold will only last twenty-four to forty-eight hours because we help the body to eliminate what was causing the problem. 

The other thing that Dr Thompson and many other naturopaths understand is that when something is affecting one part of the body – it is affecting the whole body. For instance, let’s stick with the above analogy. Quite often when a child is suffering with some type of upper respiratory problem – an herbalist or naturopath might recommend giving the child an enema. When I first began to study herbology, I used to think this was pretty sadistic – I mean REALLY – the problem isn’t even on that end. However, what those doctors understood is that when the body needs to eliminate something – the first place it will try to use is the digestive system – the colon. If the colon is plugged up – then typically, the body will switch to the respiratory system. 

By administering the enema, they could clear the blockage – allowing the body to eliminate where it wanted to in the first place. Quite often, the respiratory symptoms would miraculously disappear. Can you see how this is a completely different way of looking at the body and how it works? A health-minded person thinks in a ‘wholesome’ way as opposed to a ‘partsome’ way. They know that anything that is happening in the body is a symptom of some type of imbalance which is affecting the whole body – not just one piece of it. They also tend to think that we didn’t come here with spare parts, so are less likely to remove the tonsils, the appendix or any other part within the body until they have done everything they can to fix the problem holistically. 

A health-minded person is going to think very carefully about everything they put into their body. This means food, water, supplements, drugs, what they listen to, what they read, the people they surround themselves with – knowing that true health involves more than just the physical. It also involves how we are doing emotionally, mentally and spiritually. If we were eating all organic, live, fresh foods, but were involved in a toxic relationship or surrounded by negativity every day in our family or in the workplace – it would take a toll on our health. 

In 1976, my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was given about six months to live and was told that he needed to have surgery, chemo-therapy and radiation. At this time, I was 22 years old and idolized my father. I couldn’t even imagine a life without him in it. Many prayers were said in his behalf and, being a woman of faith, I believed he would be healed. Instead I watched him deteriorate and lose all quality of life due to the toxicity of the chemo-therapy and the debilitating effects of the radiation. 

With all of the amazing experiences I have been blessed with over the past twenty-five years, I have come to understand completely why my father passed away. God has natural laws in place which govern the universe, govern our bodies and He has given us instructions on how we should live. When we disobey those laws there are consequences – not because He is punishing us, but because we have made choices which have brought about consequences. Just like if you planted a field of alfalfa and never watered it – your crop would die – not because God is punishing you, but because you did not follow the correct path (laws) for raising healthy, strong alfalfa. 

In closing, let’s compare a couple more examples. Most people are not going to view things as dramatically one sided as outlined below, however, these examples can give you the perspectives of different mindsets : 

A person is diagnosed with diabetes: 

▪ Medical Mindset – eat whatever you want, but take enough insulin to counter- balance it which can eventually lead to neuropathy, amputations, blindness, impotency, strokes, kidney failure and death 

▪ Health Mindset – adjust your diet and lifestyle to correct the problem and bring the body back into balance 

A person is diagnosed with cancer: 

▪ Medical Mindset – surgery, chemo-therapy, radiation 

▪ Health Mindset – recognize this as a ‘health opportunity’ - the body is severely out of balance and extremely acidic – make the lifestyle changes which are necessary to bring the body back into balance. Depending on the severity of the situation and how extensive the cancer is – these changes may have to be drastic and overseen by a professional, but I have been privileged to know multiple people who have reversed their disease 

A person is overweight: 

▪ Medical Mindset – gastric by-pass surgery, diet pills, commercial weight loss products 

▪ Health Mindset – change lifestyle to eliminate or greatly reduce processed foods, fast foods, sugars, sodas; add in fresh live food, exercise, pure water, right type of fats 

When I first began to study natural modalities, I was still stuck in a medical mindset. By this I mean that I used these natural ways to treat symptoms. They had less side-effects and worked better than the medicines I had used previously, but I was still using them in the same way – chasing symptoms and disease. It wasn’t until years later that I realized my focus needed to be on optimal health – not diseased symptoms. In fact, I now believe that disease is nothing more or less than the absence of health. If we focus on health – we don’t have to worry about disease.