Have you ever been cured of an illness or disease and the cure was ignored, the cure went missing? It happens a lot. Where might we find an illness cured? Where does an illness go, after it’s cured?
We sometimes use the word cured for patients who have been cured (usually plural), “the cured were released from the sanitarium.” But, the illness is cured, not the patient.
Where are our statistics for cured? There are none. No one tracks cured cases of any disease.
Note: cure-rate is not cured-rate. Cure-rate is statistically “presumed to be cured,” not proven to be cured. In most types and most cases of illness – cure rate is never calculated. Cured statistics would be a count of every person who cured, without reference to the treatment.
Note: this post is a discussion of missing cured based on the book A New Theory of Cure (there being no “old theory of cure.”)
We’re missing a lot of cured. It’s not that we can’t cure illness. It’s just that those cured go missing. Where are they missing from? From our medical systems, from our medical view.
Cold, Flu and other Common Cures
We’ve each had many colds, all cured (unless we have one now, or two).
But, in current (non cure-ent) medical theory, “There is no cure for the common cold” this ill-logic also applies to influenza, measles, and many other diseases – even the dreaded C Flu (whose forbidden name is on medical bureaucracies see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – do no evil list.)
These cures are so trivial that we easily ignore the cured. Modern medicine is a science of drugs, of treatments and preventatives, with few curatives. Cured are commonplace, but few come from medicines. Most cures come from health. Most cured are missing from medical theory, so most cured are ignored.
The cure for the cold, or the flu, is not a medicine. Colds, flu, and measles are not self resolving, as suggested in some medical texts. Our natural healthiness cures these diseases. When our healthiness is lower, their cures take longer and the disease can be dangerous. When we are healthier, we cure them quickly, sometimes – barely even noticing. “I thought I was getting a cold last night, but this morning, it seems to be gone.“
The illness is cured. The patient is cured. But, the cured go missing. These common cures are just a bit of the cured iceberg.
Most cured cases of most illnesses and diseases, go missing.
Healing Cured
It’s not time that heals (cures) all wounds. Some wounds are cured so quickly and easily we hardly notice them. Only a few become chronic, persisting throughout an entire lifetime.
When we sustain a serious wound, we might be stitched up by a doctor or nurse – a surgical cure – healing does the rest. Surgery is a medical procedure, recognized as a cure, although few surgeries are counted as cured. A doctor who removes a skin cancer lesion might tell the patient they are cured. The cured might even be tracked as part of a cure-rate study. But no doctor declares a stitched up accident victim cured, even when the cure is complete, even if it’s better than ever before. Most wounds, and their cures, are trivial. Because they are trivial, we easily ignore the cured. We count deaths, but not cures. Most injuries cured are missing from our medical view. Nobody bothers to count them.
Home Cures
A child falls and cuts their knee. Mom kisses it better, or perhaps removes slivers and small stones from the wound, administers an antibiotic, maybe a bandage – and healing does the rest. The injury is cured. Not all surgical cures are medical. We experience minor cures often, miracle cures rarely, far more trivial cures than challenging ones, because we experience far more trivial injuries than serious ones. Paper cuts, slivers, thorns, bruises from sports or the simple bumps of life. Almost all cured with ease. But, these cured are missing from our current medical view.
Wounds are not the only home cures that go missing. All self-cures are missing from the medical view of cure. Many are dismissed as “just a placebo effect,” (demonstrating that we don’t understand placebo effects either.) I cured my smoker’s cough with a dishrag. But that cured doesn’t count. There was no medical diagnosis and no medical treatment, so the cured is missing – nobody cares to count it. I Cured my Plantar Fasciitis and Nobody Gives a Damn – but in medical theory most plantar fasciitis self-resolves (not self-cures) within six months. My cured, like all cures of plantar fasciitis went missing, even though I had a diagnosis – even though I experienced a cure. No authoritative medical text recommends a cure for plantar fasciitis. All cured cases are simply ignored.
We have an illness, and we cure it ourselves, but all the cured cases go missing. There was no “double blind placebo controlled clinical study.”
This is a blindness to cured. In truth;
“every case of cured is a single case,
a story,
an anecdote,
not a clinical study”
Nutritional Cures
We might be surprised to learn that there is, officially, no cure for scurvy. Almost everybody knows that scurvy is cured with Vitamin C. Except our medical texts. All four general major medical reference texts, Merck, Lange’s, Ferris, and Harrison’s recommend Vitamin C as a treatment for scurvy. The word cure is missing. The same is true for any illness caused by nutritional deficiencies and excesses – even from poisonings.
When we are bitten by a snake we take the antidote, a treatment. No medical text recommends a cure for any poisoning. Poisoning by carbon dioxide, Vitamin A, arsenic, or lead – officially, there are no cures, only treatments. When a poisoning has been cured, the cured go missing.
Alternative Cured
Have you noticed? All illnesses cured by any alternative medicine or alternative medical practitioners also go missing.
Many people claim to have been cured by a chiropractor, an osteopath, a massage therapist, a naturopath, even a shaman or spirit healer. But those illnesses cured are simply ignored, they are just stories, anecdotes, not clinical studies, so they go missing from medical statistics and studies – missing from modern medicine.
A close friend once confided in me, how she went to the doctor because her shoulder locked up. The problem didn’t seem to be healing, didn’t seem likely to go away. The doctor listened and talked, but did not touch or examine the patient. Instead he advised “find a good chiropractor” – and even made a recommendation. The chiropractor adjusted the shoulder (not the back) and recommended some exercises. Within a week, the illness was gone. Cured. Years later, it has never come back, but the cured is missing. There is no evidence of a cure in the medical record.
There are many stories like this. Most cured are missing. It’s not possible to prove that any chiropractor, osteopath, naturopath, or massage therapist cured an illness or a patient. Even when a medically certified rehabilitation therapist cures a patient’s illness – the cured word is avoided. Cured go missing. It might be that most illnesses cured by these practitioners are trivial. Most cures are trivial. Trivial or challenging makes no difference, all alternative medical cured go missing.
Mental Illness Cured
When a mental illness – any mental illness – is cured, the cured go missing. The DSM/5, the bible of mental disorders – does not recognize a single cure due to a strange flaw hidden in the current definition of mental illnesses.
When a mental illness, like depression, is cured by successfully addressing the cause, the cured state proves the illness was caused by the cause. An illness with a real cause, like malnutrition, or stress, isn’t a mental illness, it’s a malnutrition illness or a stress illness. The depression diagnosis was wrong, so the cured case goes missing.
Spirit Cured
Do we believe in spirit cures? Or are they figments of our imagination?
To understand spirit cures, we need to study spirit illnesses. Unfortunately, our medical systems hardly acknowledge spirits, much less spirit illnesses, and therefore, cannot see spirit cured.
What is a spirit illness? Spirits are intentions. Our hopes and dreams, and our fears are our spirits. Ephemeral. Changing. Sometimes positive, sometimes negative.
When a cat feels is going to die, it often goes away. Its life-spirit, the cat’s life intentions change. And the cat decides and goes away to die. We live and die by our spirits. We can also cure with them, just not every case.
Most cases of spirit damage, like most injuries – are trivial. When minor hopes and dreams, spirits, are frustrated or injured, we are encouraged to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again“.
But sometimes, when our spirits are dashed, when we are forced to adjust, we develop an illness – often labelled a stress illness. We might develop depression, or an addiction. How can we tell if it’s a spirit illness?
The cured proves the cause. When we cure by improving our spirits – we had a spirit illness. But today, we can’t see spirit illnesses, so we can’t see spirit cured either. All cases of spirit illness cured are missing from conventional medicine.
Cancer Cures Missing?
Many years ago I met a woman, a nurse, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had been tested and found cancer free – every year, and then suddenly – breast cancer. Her doctor and her surgeon, who she knew well on a work basis, recommended surgery. She balked and started to research. It wasn’t long before she found some leads and cured her cancer. But the cured illness went missing. Neither her doctor, nor her surgeon would talk to her about it. I blogged about her as The Case of The Incredible Disappearing Cancer Patients. She didn’t disappear, only her cured status. I have since met other cancer cured patients, who consistently report “my doctor ignores the cure.” Sixty-three percent of cancer doctors openly admit they would never use the word cured. How might we find the cured?
Wart Cures
One of the most common cure mysteries are warts. No medical text recommends a cure for warts. Andrew Weil, writing in Health And Healing, says “Miraculous cures of cutaneous warts are as commonplace as they are curious. Ask about them in any group of people, and you will easily collect typical stories.” adding, “It is revealing of the limitations of materialistic science that no serious research exists on wart cures in response to treatments based on belief.”
Partially Cured
Is it possible to partially cure an illness? In our current medical systems, partially cured does not exist. However, it’s not difficult to understand how partial cures might occur. There are two basic ways:
A present illness has a present cause, or a set of present causes, which when addressed produce a cure.
- When a cause is partially addressed, the result is a partial cure – which might lead to fewer, lesser signs and symptoms and perhaps to fewer and less severe long term consequences. For example, someone with smoker’s cough might not “stop smoking”, but instead limit themselves to two cigarettes a month, a week, or a day. Over time, the lungs and throat will heal considerably and the smokers cough might go away completely or almost completely.
- When an illness has several causes, and some of the causes are addressed, the result is partially cured. A patient who has vitamin deficiencies, even scurvy, because of poverty AND drug addiction can be partially cured when the poverty is addressed. The extent of the partial cure might range from minor – when a weaker cause is addressed, to almost perfect.
However, current medical theory does not study cures scientifically and as a result, partial cures do not exist. The failure to see, understand, and study partial cures of illness – results in our inability to understand many cures.
Temporarily Cured vs Permanently Cured
Do temporary cures exist? The question is not difficult to answer.
An illness has a present cause. When the present cause of illness is temporarily addressed – the cure is temporary. When the cause occurs again – maybe days later, maybe years later, a similar illness will occur again. Of course that’s a simplified view – but it is a starting point to define temporary cures.
If we know that we have only addressed the cause temporarily – we have only a temporary cure. For example, a person who develops SAD (Seasonally Affective Disorder) might be severely depressed during winter. Their illness might be cured by a winter vacation in Mexico, which lifts their spirits and allows them too finish the winter without illness. Or, the illness might be cured by use of a SAD light, which provides light similar to sunlight, until spring comes. But this temporary cure might only be effective until the next winter. However, if the person moves to Ecuador, or Tanzania, where the sunlight does not change so dramatically from summer to winter – they might be permanent cured.
When we believe we have addressed the cause permanently – we believe we have a permanent cure.
If we are not sure, then we are not sure what type of cure we have. Our ability to distinguish between temporary and permanent cures does not depend on the disease, or on the case, or on the cure action, but on our beliefs about the temporary or permanent nature of the cure consequences. At the same time, we must be aware that when the common cold is cured, the cure is permanent – in the sense that a new case of the cold has a new cause.
Many illnesses are complex or compound, having multiple causes or multiple layers of cause. With these cases, it is more challenging to judge temporarily cured vs permanently cured. However, many illnesses are trivial. We can begin to build understanding by study of the simple cases.
Perfect Cures
Do perfect cures exist? No. Even when the result of a cure is better than ever before, it’s not a perfect cure. No living thing, plant, animal, or human is perfect. Life is not perfect. Life moves forward, not backwards – cures do not reverse the disease, they move it forward. Cures are not perfect.
Finding the Cured
To cure, to recognize cures and cured, we must study the concept of cured.
When an illness is cured, there was a cure, regardless of the treatments used or attempted. But as long as we ignore most cured – we will fail to see most cures.
to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure.