I am currently in living Arequipa, Peru, and working on a translation of the Theory of Cure – into Spanish.

Actualmente vivo en Arequipa, Perú, y trabajo en una traducción de la Teoría de la Cura al español. ¿Puede usted ayudar? Necesito ayuda de personas que hablen español e inglés para que me den sus opiniónes.

Thanks for reading Theory of Cure! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Can you help? I need help from people who speak Spanish, and English to give me feedback. You can provide feedback here in the comments, or by emailing me at tracychess@hotmail.com.

The draft paper, in Spanish, can be accessed at this link – Teoría de La Cura. If you wish, you an also view a version that contains both Spanish and English for each paragraph.

Any feedback you can provide is important to me. It might be useful to understand some of the challenges – even in the English version of the theory.

A Summary of the Translation Process

The first problem in creating a theory of cure is simply the meaning of cure. In English, most medical references have no definitions for cure, cures, curing, and cured – much less any standard medical definitions. Most medical references do not even provide a definition of cure. It turns out the same is true in Spanish.

CURA

These dictionaries do not contain an entry for cure (cura)

• MANUAL DE TERMINOLOGIA MÉDICA, Prof. Edwin Saldaña Ambulódegui, 2012
• Diccionario Medico Título original: Concise Medica/ Dictionary de Oxford University Press,
• Traducción y adaptación: Dr. Rafael Ruiz Loro, 1988.
• Diccionario Médico (Barcelona) )by Bello, Jorge, 2001
• Diccionario Espasa medicina by Universidad de Navarra. Facultad de Medicina, Madrid, Spain, 1999.
• Libro De La Vida Diccionario De Medicina Abril 1973
• Diccionario de términos técnicos usados en medicina by Garnier, Marcel, 1918
• Diccionario Médico, Chris Brooker, 2008
• Diccionario Medico Completo, Engais-Espanol, Jorge Carlos Berriatúa Pérez, 2013

The definition for cure in Nuevo diccionario médico by Ruiz Lara, Rafael Publication date 1988 says simply “cura: Ver TERAPÉUTICA“, but there is no entry for TERAPÉUTICA.

I did find Spanish medical reference that claim to define cure. The first is a Nursing dictionary, Diccionario de Enfermería – Segunda Edición (Spanish Edition), Rojas Núñez, Silvia, 2003 which defines cure and curable thus:
“Cura > (Del lat. cura, cuidado, solicitud). Curación.
Curable = (Del lat. curabĭlis). Persona que es susceptible de curar.“

The only Spanish Medical reference where I could find a meaningful definition of cure was written in 1805. which identifies four classes of cures:

1. la conservativa ó vital, baxo la qual se halla también comprehendida la analéptica:
2. la preservativa ó profiláctica:
3. la paliativa ó mitigatoria, que comprehende la urgente; y
4. la radical, que es con toda propiedad el tratamiento terapéutico ó curativo.” –

In English
“1. the conservative or vital, under which the analeptic is also included:
2. the preservative or prophylactic:
3. the palliative or mitigating, which includes the urgent; and
4. the radical, which is properly the therapeutic or curative treatment.”

Has there been no change the medical definition of cure since 1805.

Of course normal Spanish dictionaries define cure, and Spanish-English dictionaries defined cure, but these cures are based on general language usage, not on medical theory, practice nor science.

The second problem to defining a theory of cure, is the question: “What is cured by a cure.” Working in English, I quickly learned that we cannot begin by studying cures of diseases. Most diseases, officially – according to our medical systems are incurable. Even “there is no cure for the common cold.”

In English I chose the word illness. The concept of illness is broader than disease. It is possible to be ill without a disease. It is necessary to have an illness before any disease can be diagnosed. In addition, it is possible to have an illness – and a cure – without any diagnosis of a disease. The common cold is a perfect example. We get a cold. We suck it up. And we are cure by health and healthy actions, without seeing a doctor, without a diagnosis, without a officially recorded case of disease.

What is the Spanish word for illness? I’ve chosen dolencia. In Spanish,

“Una dolencia curable se curaba con una cura.”

Writing the Theory of Cure also required the creation of several new concepts. Modern medicine has no clear definition of cure, much less an agreed scientific definition. As a result, many of the concepts required to support an understanding of cure are poorly developed in English.

My Theory of Cure goal is to create a comprehensive view of cure that can be applied to any type of illness or disease. Starting with a process of simplification, I was able to accomplish much more. The resulting general theory of cure is not limited to diseases – it can be applied to any problem in a goal directed system, like a flat tire.

Because I speak English reasonably well I was able to make effective use of current words and language by selecting some clear definitions already in use and combining well known words to create new ideas.

For example, I have defined cure – in the theory of cure – as

Cured: “the cause has been addressed,” a definition that applies to an elementary illness, one with a single cause.

But, what is to be cured? Many diseases – I eventually learned that most diseases – have multiple causes. Does that mean most diseases require multiple cures?

This required a change in the definition of “cause“. The epidemiological cause of dehydration, or scurvy, or a broken arm, or COVID ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) is in the past. Going back into the past to address the failure to drink water, eat healthy foods, to fall down the stairs, or to avoid be exposed to the virus, is not possible. We cannot cure “past causes.” A cure requires addressing the present cause. Drinking water now, consuming Vitamin C new, healing the injury now and addressing the respiratory distress. The concept of present cause does not exist in modern medicine, but it is required to understand cure.

So the definition of cure became an elementary case of illness is cured when its present cause has been successfully addressed.

After more than a year of researching concepts of cause and effect, I made an interesting discovery. There are two basic types of causes, which we can view as nouns and verbs, the words used in the theory of cure are attribute causes and process causes. This is most clearly understood by studying elementary illnesses.

Translating to Spanish, therefore, is quite a challenge. I started over a year ago with Google Translate, and then let it sit for a year. Google translate has problems with new ideas – the words and concepts don’t exist yet. I have similar problems when I try to use Grammarly to edit my content. It simply doesn’t understand new word usage. In Peru, I found someone to help me with the translation and corrected a lot of the Google problems.

I’m looking for Spanish speakers to give me some input on this draft.

to your health, tracy
Tracy Dean Kolenchuk
tracychess@hotmail.com

Modern medicine suffers from many different and severe cases of curanoia, fears of cures, based on failures to understand cure. It’s not cure phobia, a phobia is an irrational fear without blame. Curanoia is easily and often rationalized and curers are often blamed. Curanoias exist in many forms, in every layer of our systems of modern medicine.

Why Curanoia? Why fear of cures?

Modern medicine has no functional definition of cure, no theory of cure, and is simply unable to cure most diseases – unable even to recognize a cure when it occurs. Doctors are often not permitted to cure, restrained to a Standard of Care which makes no attempt to cure. Few diseases or medical conditions have a Standard of Cure.

A cure is a change in status. An illness or disease was present, and now it is not present. We often think of an illness as a thing, but no. An illness is more like the wind. Illness is something we can neither see nor touch – we might only see or touch its causes and consequences.

An elementary illness consists of a single present cause and the negative consequences of that cause. A cure is an action, not a medicine, that addresses, changes the cause such that the negative consequences fade and disappear, no longer occurring, the illness is cured. Sometimes, an illness passes, like the wind, when the cause fades away. A complex case of illness or disease has multiple causes and thus requires multiple cure actions, one to address each cause.

A cure is a change of cause, producing a change in consequences. However, we often fear change for for good reasons, changes can be dangerous. So we fear cures many.

In the theory of cure, there are two elementary types of cures. We fear them both.

An attribute cure is a one-time cur. It is the result of a change to an attribute. Broken tooth is cured by an extraction, or a filling – both potentially painful and risky. An infection might be cured by a dangerous medicine, or perhaps a surgery. A cancer might be cured by a surgery – with potential for pain and risk based on its severity. Some attribute cures are simple – trivial – so trivial we don’t consider them cures. A minor bruise or cut heals without conscious attention, sometimes without us noticing any illness. An ingrown toenail that we can easily clip ourselves, is hardly considered a cure. If it becomes infected and a medical surgery is required. However, our medical systems generally avoid the word cure, even though surgeries are considered cures. Most attribute cures are not recognized by our current medical systems because they are not brought about by approved medicines or medical treatments.

A causal cure is a result of a change to a life process or habit. Smoker’s cough is cured by stopping the habit of smoking. The changed process (in this case the absence of process) must be maintained to maintain the cure. A scorbutic status illness (an absence of Vitamin C, an attribute) is cured with Vitamin C supplements that change the attribute – although our medical systems refer to this as a treatment, avoiding the word cure. However, a patient who is scorbutic because of poverty, addiction, or an unhealthy diet cannot be cured with supplements. A causal cure, ongoing cure actions are required. But we rarely consider ongoing processes or actions to be a cure. We don’t think of curing alcoholism as a cure for malnutrition, even when it cures. And besides, cured is not medically defined for alcohol nor malnutrition. Like all cures, causal cures also have potential for negative consequences. The cure for smoker’s cough might result in unwanted weight gain. Changing our life processes and our habits is difficult – and we generally avoid such cures. Many doctors know that advising an obese patient to lose weight to cure a skin condition or gout is generally futile, even if the patient believes it will work. There are no placebo cures.

Modern medicine recognizes attribute cures for infectious diseases, where the infectious agent is killed or removed by an approved medical or surgical treatment. Cases of disease cured by non-approved medicines are anecdotal and generally dismissed as unimportant. In all other types of cures, modern medicine has no definition of and no test for cured. No causal cures can be recognized medically, the cure actions are not medicines nor approved treatments.

Why do we Fear Cures, Curing, and Cured?

Patients fear cures because a cure changes the patient. The illness cause is often seen as an essential part of the patient, their life and lifestyle. Changing the cause, addressing the cause, transforming the cause, often transforms not just the illness, but also the patient. Alternative practitioners often refer to transformation as a curative.

Patient curanoias can also emerge from being encouraged to learn to live with your disease. Some patients gradually identify themselves with their disease. Some refuse to acknowledge the disease (thereby avoiding cures) or refuse to acknowledge the cause (thereby avoiding curative actions). Smokers might acknowledge that their smoker’s cough is caused by smoking, but may also believe their overall health, of body, mind, and spirits will drop if they stop.

There are other important reasons why patients fear cures. Searching for cures is shamed, patient are advised:

• “don’t use Dr. Google as your doctor,”
• “don’t trust alternative cures (even in cases where there are clearly no non-alternative cures)“
• “trust your doctor,” “ask your doctor,” (never mind if you don’t actually have a doctor, or if the disease or the cure is outside of your doctor’s area of knowledge.)

Patients also fear cures, even fear claiming to be cured, and claiming to be cured by X, because most doctors dismiss most cures and most cure claims. Doctors treat diseases, but have little experience curing.

Doctors fear cures because curing is medically forbidden. Medical training teaches doctors to avoid the word cure. Medical internship shames doctors that use the word cure. Modern medicine gives lip service to cures, but doctors who dare to cure – and to publicize their cures can be ostracized, can lose their license to practice, or in rare cases imprisoned or run out of town. There are many historical examples where this has happened, the most recent being doctors who dared attempt or succeed in curing COVID. According to WorldMeters.info, over 670 million cases of COVID are recorded as RECOVERED. There is not a single case of COVID cured, much less COVID cured by X. Our medical systems have no techniques to judge a case of COVID cured, much less a case of CURED BY.

Modern medicine has no medical concept of present cause , of cure cause. The present cause of an illness is the cause, which when successfully addressed, results in a cure. But, without a medical theory of cure, there is no need for an understanding of present cause. Modern medicine studies proximate causes, distal causes, ultimate causes, future causes, past causes, but not cure causes. Why? Modern medicine sees cause and effect as past (cause) and effect (future). However, the cure cause of an illness is present, presently causing the signs and symptoms of illness.

Absence of a scientific or medical definition of cured creates inability to prove a cure and reluctance to claim cured for most diseases.

In addition, confusion around the concepts of remission and reemergence (vs cured and recurrence) increases medical curanoias. A second instance of cause is often describe as the “return of the disease” as opposed to “a new case of the disease.” When cure is defined and attained, the second case is due to a new occurrence of the cause. In most diseases however, there is no distinction between the two concepts, because cured is not defined. For some illnesses – the cause is always present and risk of a new illness is high. As a result, when a doctor claims a cure, a new case of the illness is often judged remission, as a cure failure, as if the cure claim was simply wrong. This focus on disease facilitates causal ignorance. It’s safest to avoid the word cure – to make no curative promises, and avoid potential for any lawsuits.

“Ask your doctor about X” is a common advertising trope, but don’t presume to ask your doctor “How many people did you cure last week? Month? Year?” The answer will likely be denial of cure.

Even though surgeries are commonly described as cures, most surgeons avoid the word cure. No one discusses cataract surgery as a cure for cataracts – although it clearly is so. Cleft lip and hernia cures, are often easily accomplished with surgery, but rarely described as cures. More than half of cancer cases are cured by trivial actions – and thus considered trivial, not even considered to be cancers, much less cures. Part of the problem with surgeries, perhaps, is that almost all surgeries require healing to complete the cure process, so the surgery was not the complete cure. In the theory of cure, only elementary illnesses can be cured by a single action, and most cases of disease are not elementary illnesses. Most diseases require multiple cure actions.

Healing is generally recognized as a cure, but medical and nonmedical actions that facilitate and promote healing are rarely, if ever, considered cures. Rehabilitation is considered to be a treatment or a sequence of treatments, even as it cures with the aid of healing.

No nutritional disease can be cured, simply because they cannot be cured by any approved medicine. Absence of medicine is not a nutritional disease. Cured is not medically defined for nutritional diseases, even when the cure is obvious. Addressing nutritional deficiencies is a treatment for scurvy. The word cure is avoided.

Most alternative medical practitioners also fear curing, or at least the word cure, perhaps in their efforts to appear professional. Professional doctors don’t cure, so an alternative practitioner who dares claim to cure cannot be professional.

The theory of cure defines elementary illnesses as those having a single present cure cause, and being cured by addressing that cause. Compound illnesses have multiple cure causes and require multiple cures. Each of those cures addresses a single element of the illness. A complex illness is present when one illness is causing another, and two cures are required. If the primary illness is not cured, curing the secondary illness might simply result in it being recreated by the primary illness. However, these illness concepts and their associated cures simply do not exist in modern medicine – so none of their cures can be recognized, much less proven. Even with the simplest compound or complex illnesses, doctors avoid the cure word. As a result, a case of depression with multiple causes cannot be seen as partially cured when any single cause is addressed, nor seen as completely cured when all present causes are addressed. Elementary cures of compound or complex illness cures are often perceived as failures because the cure is partial. Modern medicine has no concept of an illness element, nor of a partial cure.

There is another important reason why doctors fear cures – its because medical associations and organizations fear and dismiss most cures.

Medical Associations and Systems fear cures, curing, and cured. Most cancer doctors, surveys have shown, avoid the word cure entirely and advise their staff to do the same. The same is true of many other medical practitioners. If we presume to ask any hospital or medical clinic staff if your illness will be cured – the response might be a blank stare, or perhaps an apology. Their job is to care, not to cure.

Even though over 9o percent of cases of common cold, influenza, measles, and COVID are cured, medical associations proclaim, almost with pride “there is no cure for…“

Medical associations represent the community of doctors. Someone who cures diseases is a threat to the community, because most doctors dare not cure most diseases – and cannot cure most diseases using approved treatments. Even when a case of disease is cured, the cure is rarely recognized. No doctor, medical clinic or hospital keeps statistics on cures and cure failures. Medical associations have no definition of cured for most diseases. As a result, all cure claims, especially non-medical cures or so-called alternative medical cures can be easily dismissed. Proof of cure is simply not possible without a functional definition of cured.

Medical associations often create and maintain a Standard of Care (not cure) for a disease or medical condition, under the assumption that a cure is not possible. The standard of care can become a roadblock against cures, because a cure requires actions different from the standard. Doctors who dare to cure can be accused of ignoring their responsibility to their medical associations. This is nothing new. The history of the Hippocratic Oath reveals similar regulations, “the creation of the (Hippocratic) Oath may have marked the early stages of medical training… by requiring strict loyalty” (National Library of Medicine).

There is another important reason why medical associations fear cures – it’s because governmental organizations ignore cures and dismiss most cures claims.

The USA/FDA forbids cures. Neither the CDC nor the FDA has a useful definition of cure. In FDA language, the word cure refers to products not actions. Products that claim to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent diseases are forbidden unless specifically approved. Such products must be withdrawn, or they ill be confiscated – as if they present a danger to the public. In government, cures simply do not exist unless they are approved products. However, the approval process functions without a definition of cured. Technically, all curative treatments are illegal unless they have been approved by the FDA. However, the FDA has no definition of cured to guide approvals. Submissions by product manufacturers that claim to cure provide clinical studies – each with their own specific definition of cured.

There is a reason for this simplicity. The FDA control of medicines, of medicine approval was a response to medical hucksters, sellers of fake medicines, snake oil medicines, having no ability and no intention to cure. The FDA set up a system of approval that required scientific analysis. However, this was done without any definition of cure. The deficiency – of a definition of cure – still exists today. In addition, no-one in industry, education, or government is working to address it. What is missing – the absence of a definition of cure – is simply not noticed.

There is another important reason why the FDA fears cures – the FDA is largely funded and staffed by drug companies and their representatives – who fear cures. In some ways, it make sense. Who would know the most about drugs – but the drug company representatives. However, it also creates a powerful lever for big money drug companies to control which treatments are approved and which are not approved. Simple cures will not be approved – because are no patents available, so there is no profitable market for simple cures.

Drug Manufacturers fear the word cure, and avoid theoretical or scientific discussions of cure. The simple truth is that most drugs make no attempt to cure any case of disease and cannot cure any case of disease. Another pharma truth is, drugs that do not cure are more profitable than drugs or other actions that cure. People who are cured don’t need drugs. Most cures are trivial. Most cures do not require any drugs. Cures, real cures, are a threat to the drug industry. The word cure does not appear on the product label or information insert of most prescription drugs and most OTC (over the counter) drugs. Curanoia can be profitable.

There are four basic types of drugs, only one of them can cure:

symptomicines – medicines that address the signs and symptoms of diseases like the common cold, but make no attempt to cure.

forever medicines – like insulin for diabetics drugs for depression, and statins for high cholesterol, intended to be taken regularly until the patient dies because they cannot cure.

preventatives – like vaccines, which can be marketed to anyone and everyone who fears diseases that cannot be cured. Note: preventatives that can cure, like foods containing Vitamin C, are not recognized as cures and cannot be marketed as drugs.

anti-infectious – antibiotics, antifungals, and anti-parasites, that cure by killing an invading parasite.

The problem with drugs that cure is easily understood. They are bought once, and if they work, there is no more need. The product works itself out of future sales. The market for medical cures is limited by the fact that they cure. The market for symptomicines, forever medicines, and preventatives, on the other hand, is huge.

Because drug companies fear cures – clinical researchers also ignore and dismiss most cures. Most clinical studies are funded by drug companies.

Clinical Researchers generally avoid the word cure. Most clinical studies do not contain any definition of cured for the disease being treated. These studies are looking for products that provide improvements in the condition of the patient, as opposed to cures. Products that improve the condition of a patient have potential to become forever medicines.

As a result of the absence of a definition of cure in the study plan, if a cure occurs, it cannot be officially documented. Cures are simply out of scope in most clinical studies.

Cure Rate, often measured in clinical studies – is a concept based on curanoias, based on the belief that “cured” should not be claimed, cannot be proven, and should not be documented, in individual cases of disease. Cure rate statistics count cases presumed (but not proven) to be cured. In cases, when cure rates are calculated, cured cannot be proven because no independent test of cured exists.

Clinical studies of preventatives must discount cures. If an illness is easily cured, there is little need for a preventative. The cost and risks associated with the preventative might outweigh the costs and risks of the disease and its cure. Better to simply avoid the question: ignore cures, dismiss cures, fear cures.

Clinical studies of forever medicines, like statins or diabetes medicines, must ignore cures. What if high cholesterol or diabetes can be cured? Every cure shrinks the market for forever medicines. Cures must be ignored, feared, dismissed.

Clinical studies of cures for infectious diseases can accept some cures – those caused by the medicine. However, cures of these diseases that are caused by “not the medicine” must be ignored. There is a perfect historical example of treatments for warts, where the first studies found cures on both the placebo and treatment arms of the study. An embarrassing result. What to do? The study was simply replicated without the test for cured. No cures were found, and the results were secure.

The Media, and Publishers fear cures, curing, and cured. This is easily seen when cure claims are made public. Large media organizations have huge income from pharma advertisers. Discussing cures, opposed by pharma companies, is a serious risk. Drug companies, the FDA, medical associations, doctors and patients all agree. There are no cures for most diseases. There are no cures for chronic diseases. There are no cures for mental disorders. There are no cures for most diseases caused by viruses. So news stories about cures, curing, or cured must be ignored, or dismissed, or opposed. Or, they can be relegated to anecdotal cure status, which translates to must be ignored.

At the same time, the media promotes faith in pharma by publishing frequent reports of potential cures for, of moving closer to a cure of, and other new research suggesting that cures are just over the horizon (which in actuality is constantly receeding.)

Doctors who write medical books are often required to publish cure disclaimers that range from mild advice of “consult with your physician” to wholesale statements like “the material in this book is not intended to prevent, treat, or cure any disease.” I suspect that, in part, this is because publishers do not want to be sued for damages caused by a cure that didn’t work. I currently have a book about cures in Amazon’s publishing platform that is BLOCKED from publication. The book does not recommend a cure, rather it is analysis of curing covid from the perspective of the theory of cure. Publishing information about cures can be forbidden without serious analysis, without any definition of cure..

Summary and Conclusion:

In summary, all of the players in our medical systems, from patients to the most prestigious medical organizations, to and the highest level of government, no-one has a theory of cure. There is no general understanding of cure for the simplest illnesses, much less a definition that covers all types of diseases. This ignorance of cure leads to ignoring cures and over time, to fear of studying cures, curing, and cured logically and scientifically: curanoia.

An illness might be simple. A simple illness has a single cause and is cured when that cause is successfully addressed. However, our current medical establishment has no concept of a simple illness, much less any concept of a simple, compound, or complex cure. Because complex and compound cures are not understood, there is also no concept of a partial cure. All cures, in current non-theory, must be perfect and complete to be valid. So few cures are valid.

What little discussion of cure exists – mostly in fundraiser organizations, not medical organizations, is about single cures for complex diseases, sometime in the distant future. We simply do not understand. It is not possible, by definition, to cure a complex illness with a simple, one-time cure, a complex cure is required, one that addresses multiple connected causes, often in a specific sequence depending on the case.

As long as our medical doctors and organizations fear cures, we will find few, if any cures. It is worth noting that the most prestigious award in medicine, the Nobel Prize, has only once – in its 130 plus year history, given the Noble Prize for a cure. And that was over 70 years ago. Even the Nobel Prize committee appears to have a fear of using the word cure. Since the 1940s, no cure has been recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee.

To your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Is a headache a symptom? or is it an illness, or a disease? Do we cure symptoms? Illnesses? Or only diseases?

Does aspirin cure headaches?

“A headache for example might be the result of a cold, a migraine, high blood pressure, meningitis or a brain tumour, each requiring a different treatment rather than a “cure for headache“. – Craig Thornbur – Theories of Medicine

What does the Theory of Cure say?

In the theory of cure, we cure by addressing “curable cases of illnesses.” A cure is an action, not a thing, that addresses a cause of illness. An aspirin cannot cure – but the action of taking one might cure.

An illness is the intersection of a cause and its negative consequences, the signs and symptoms of the cause. If we successfully address the cause with an action – the negative consequences will disappear. The illness will be cured. If the illness also caused damage – that damage is another illness, requiring another cure. However, a simple headache is just a symptom, not an indication of other damage.

When we only address the negative consequences, the cause is still present. In many cases, the cause will recreate the negative symptoms. The illness was not cured, or perhaps it was only temporarily cured. In today’s medical theory, temporary cures do not exist. In the new theory of cure, temporary cures are common, sometimes effective tools on the path to a permanent cure.

In the theory of cure, an illness is cured when:

• the cause has been successfully addressed,
• when signs and symptoms have disappeared or dropped below the level of an illness, and
• no more medicines are needed for that illness.

Is cured vs Has Been Cured

Sometimes a case of illness “is cured” without conscious actions. Sometimes an illness “has been cured.” The phrase “has been cured” indicates that the cure was a consequence of intentional actions – by ourselves, family, friends, or others – perhaps professional medical assistance. Healing is unconscious, unintentional curing. Curing is a conscious action to cure. “Is cured” is a statement that the cause is no longer present, no longer causing illness. “Has been cured” refers to intentional curative actions to address the cause.

The common cold is cured when
– the infection is gone,
– when the signs and symptoms have disappeared, and
– when no more medicines are needed.

However, we can only say that a case of the common cold “has been cured by…x” when we believe that the action x is responsible for the cured status. At present, our medical systems claim “there is no cure for the common cold” because they do not believe any action can be responsible for a cold cured. Most cases of the common cold are easily cured, without medicines. The same is true of most illnesses.

Most cases of headache are easily cured, without medicines.

In many cases, the signs and symptoms of a headache are the only present cause of the illness. The other causes are stresses in the past, not accessible to present cure actions. Some cases of headache are best viewed as simply symptoms of distress, without a cure cause. When our health, healing, or time, addresses the stress – the headache is gone. Cured. In these cases, an aspirin cares for the pain as the headache passes.

Some cases of headache have a present cause, causing signs and symptoms of the illness. Addressing the signs and symptoms, without addressing the cause, does not cure.

Healing is curing. Curing intentionally, is not healing. Curing and healing address the present cause of the illness. Caring only addresses signs and symptoms, but not cause, as illustrated in this image.

The overlapping areas indicate situations where a single healing, caring, or curing accomplishes multiple goals . Sometimes, caring addresses cause – with or without intention. The distinctions between healing and curing are not always clear. Sometimes, a single action might be healing, curative, and caring.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Dehydration Headache

The presence of dehydration can cause a headache. If we take an aspirin to deal with the pain, but do not address the dehydration, then once the aspirin wears off – the headache will reoccur. In this case, the headache is the symptom, dehydration is the cause. The illness is only cured when the cause is addressed. In this case, the aspirin is only a temporary cure.

Dehydration can be caused by excessive consumption of alcohol in the past “the morning after the night before.” A hangover is often cured by healing and our natural life processes. We wake up in the morning, drink some water, juice, coffee, or tea, and gradually, the dehydration fades away. We might take an aspirin to diminish or stop the pain – but we don’t expect it to cure the headache, nor to cure the dehydration. We take the aspirin – and see that the headache is cured. But we understand that taking the aspirin was not the cure. If it helped us to get moving, helped us to re-hydrate. Perhaps it was a part of the cure, an action of caring for the sufferer, alleviating the suffering as the natural cure progresses.

Like the common cold, many people want to find a miracle cure for a hangover – even though most hangovers are easily cured by healthy actions, and few by medicines, and none by miracles.

The dehydration that causes a headache often causes other negative signs and symptoms. We ignore the dry mouth, the muscle aches, the nausea, because the headache is the most severe. If we cure the dehydration illness – all of the signs and symptoms will disappear. But an aspirin can’t do that.

“Diseases which arise from repletion are cured by depletion; and those that arise from depletion are cured by repletion; and in general, diseases are cured by their contraries.” (Hippocrates)

The only dehydration cure is re-hydration.

Injury Headache

A whack on the side of the head can cause a headache. In this case, the “whack on the side of the head” is in the past. We cannot go into the past to address it. The head is aching because it is injured. It may take time for the injury to heal – and depending on the damage, it might never heal completely.

In this case, taking an aspirin is a palliative treatment, a symptomicine, caring – not curing. We don’t expect it to cure. It makes us feel better. We understand that the aspirin will wear off and we will decide to take it again, or not, as the symptoms fade.

Stroke Headache

Having a stroke can cause a headache. The stroke that causes a headache might be mild, almost invisible, moderate, or severe and deadly. Taking an aspirin for the headache not only cannot cure – it might cause the patient to avoid medical attention for some time. The aspirin might allow the condition to grow worse by making the person feel better.

Can stroke be cured? The short answer is yes, stroke can be cured — but it occurs in two stages. First, doctors administer specific treatment to restore normal blood flow in the brain and stop further damage. Then, the patient participates in rehabilitation to cure the secondary effects that result from the stroke.
Flint Rehab: Can Stroke Be Cured?

In this case, the stroke is the illness to be cured. A headache is a sign or symptom. An aspirin might appear to cause a temporary cure, but it does not address the cause of the pain, the damage of the stroke.

Unknown Cause

What if we don’t know the cause of the headache, and we take an aspirin, and it goes away?

When we view the headache as the “cause of our discomfort” and the aspirin addresses that cause, then taking an aspirin is a cure. If there is only one headache – and now it’s gone, that’s sufficient. Some might argue that the cause of the headache was not addressed by the aspirin, but such debate is moot. The headache is gone. Maybe it was just a temporary status, a temporary pain, cured by the aspirin.

Chronic Headache

When a headache is chronic, or repeating, we can view the series of headaches as a higher level illness with a higher level chronic or repeating cause.

The cure of a chronic or repeating illness is to address the chronic nature of the cause.

If, for example, someone gets a hangover headache every Sunday morning, we might guess the cause – excessive drinking on Saturday night. If we successfully address that cause, by eliminating the Saturday night excesses, the chronic or repeating headaches will be cured. This cure does not fail when -next year – the patient drinks too much and gets a headache. A single case is not a chronic or repeating headache. The chronic headache was cured.

The cure for chronic or repeating headaches does not cure any specific case of headache. It also does not stop the patient from occasionally overindulging and getting a new, non-chronic headache.

Cure-ious Quotes

The theory of cure gives us a wider perspective, a way to look at quotes about cure in different ways, from a broader perspective, helping us to develop a more comprehensive view of cure.

The Theory of Cure website has a random “cure quote generator” that presents a random cure quote from a growing library of over 2700 quotes about cure from hundreds of different authors. Cure-ious quotes is a set of posts that explore those quotes from the perspective of the theory of cure.

To your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

We can compare a flat tire to an illness, and its repair to a cure. Why should we make this comparison?

Medical cures are, frankly, full of baggage. It is illegal, for example, to market a cure in the USA unless it has been approved by the FDA. The FDA, however, has no guidelines for approval – nor for refusing to approve any cure. The FDA does not even have a complete definition of a cure for most diseases, nor for many cases of curable diseases. Neither does any current or historical, conventional or alternative, medical theory or practice. Perhaps this is the reason many, perhaps most doctors avoid the word cure, are uncomfortable talking about cures with their patients, and advise their staff to avoid the word.

The concepts of the new theory of cure (there is no old theory of cure) are general enough to be applied to any intentional system and to any component or process of an intentional system. Living things are intentional systems. Humans create use, and take advantage of intentional systems ranging from short term creation and use of a stick tool to complex interconnected economic systems of countries. Any physical or process component of an intentional system might be faulty or broken, judged sick and in need of a cure.

The theory of cure applies to intentional systems, not to things. We cannot cure a rock. It dead. It’s not a system, much less an intentional system. We cannot cure the solar system, nor the system of air movement that creates a tornado or hurricane either. We call these systems because of their complexity, but they have no life intentions.

A tire is part of a transportation system, has many components, and is connected to many other components. It might function poorly or fail for many reasons. In each case we can view the problem as an illness to be cured.

By studying flat tire illnesses, their causes and cures, we can better understand many illnesses and their cures, without encountering the contradictions and the baggage of our current medical systems. Let’s begin.

Most illnesses are trivial, easily cured. We get a cold, a cut or bruise, minor indigestion, or the flu – and our body cures it with little conscious attention. We might scratch it, patch it for a while, rest to recover, or exercise to loosen up a stiffness. It is cured. We forget about most of our illness. They are cured so easily we rarely call them a cures. We think all cures are hard, impossible, miracles.

As we study flat tire illnesses, we will learn that most flat tires are also trivial, easily cured. We might even design, or buy “self-healing” tires. Some flat tires cures are more difficult, requiring assistance from our communities, and some require the work of a professional, a tire doctor. Some are only cured by replacement, or transplantation. Some are not worth curing, or incurable. The same is true of our illnesses.

1. Jen’s Tire is Flat: An Illness

Last Tuesday, Jen noticed her front bike tire was flat. A quick examination revealed a thumbtack. Jen, a serious biker, has seen flat tires before.

The Cure – Jen took out a patch kit. Removed the tire and tube, found the hole, roughed it up with the sandpaper, brushed it clean, applied the glue and held the patch to the tire for a few minutes while the glue cured. She put the tube and tire back on the wheel and pumped it up with a hand pump. It held. After a short ride, , no problems. A few days later, Jen had completely forgotten the flat tire and its cure. It was gone. Not important. It was no miracle cure, just a fact of life and bikes.

Discussion:

1. Most flat tires, like most illnesses, are trivial, easily cured. Many illnesses are cured by our own actions, often aided by unconscious processes or actions. Unconscious growth is a powerful curative. Jen diagnosed and cured her flat tire illness without a second thought.
2. There were many possible cure alternatives. There are manufacturing standards for tire patch kits – or Jen, being resourceful might have made one from an old inner tube and some adhesive from a hardware store. Jen might have decided to use a glue patch, or a non-glue patch, faster but not as effective. Maybe it was time to buy a new tube – a more expensive, time consuming cure – but perhaps more reliable and effective in the long term. Every case of illness has many potential cures.
3. The cure is to address the present cause or causes. In this case – the causes were simple, elementary – a tack that caused a hole in the tire. This is similar to a small skin puncture or wound from a thorn or a nail. Remove the tack or thorn, if it is still present, and promote healing. A bodily cure takes longer because it is accomplished by healing, but the process is the same. We clean it off, maybe apply some approved antiseptic, or perhaps vinegar or moonshine, protect it with a bandage while it heals, cures. The injury is the present cause of our problem, the cause of the illness – when the injury is addressed, healed, the illness is cured.
4. We might use the phrase “has been cured” when the cure was a result of conscious actions. Many illnesses “are cured” entirely from unconscious actions or processes. Jen didn’t have a self-healing bike tire – so the tire puncture required conscious actions. Even a self-healing tire might require some assistance from an air pump.

2. Jen’s Granddaughter’s Cure: A Sickness

A few weeks later, Jen’s granddaughter, Joey (short for Josephine) had a similar flat tire, but she kept riding the bike, unaware, unconscious of any problem. Jen saw the bike swaying wildly and took a closer look. The tire was deadly flat.

The Cure: Jen took the time to show Joey the problem, the flat tire illness, and how to cure it. First, she asked Joey to find the nail, the cause of the flat tire – which Jen had already seen. She gave Joey a pen to mark the spot and then asked if Joey could pull it out with a set of pliers. Done. Then they took the bike into the garage and Jen explained how to remove the wheel and the tire, and watched as Joey did it herself. Jen explained how track the hole to the tube, and how to find it exactly by rubbing some spit on it. Joey roughed up the tire, picked a patch, and spread some glue, as Jen advised – not to thick, but covering an area wider than the patch. Joey applied the patch – getting some glue on her fingers – not a problem. Tire repair glue is not crazy-glue. She held the tire and patch together it for a few seconds and left it to cure for a few minutes.

Joey already knew how to pump it up. Jen explained the need to check the patch before putting it all back together. It held. Let the air out, and put the wheel back together. Joey was off again, wiser for her tire’s illness. She had hardly noticed the flat tire, and now she understood the symptoms, the signs, and the cure.

Discussion:

1. Many diagnoses and cures come from individual actions. Some come from our communities. It’s hard to understand everything by ourselves – our communities bring intelligences together.
2. In the theory of cure, an illness is what the individual suffers from and wants cured. A sickness, on the other hand, is an illness judgment by someone else and a disease is an illness judgement by a professional. Joey didn’t even know her tire was flat, much less how it was cured. No mechanic was consulted. Grandparents often cure ignorance – as well as illnesses – with knowledge and vision gained from life experiences.
3. Most illnesses are so trivial we don’t go to a doctor. Many cures come from personal and community actions – without assistance from a professional or medical community.

Bob’s Flat Tire: A Disease

Bob learned to ride a bike as a child, but never really spent much time at it. Now, as an adult, he decided to buy a new bike and explore the parks near his home. One day, when he was nearing home, he noticed his rear tire was making a strange noise and dragging. Flat tire. Knowing nothing about bike tires – he took it to the bike doctor at the store. There were lots of people there, buying bikes and bike parts. Bob was asked to leave the bike for repair. He walked a short way home.

The Cure: The mechanic examined the tire, removed a nail, and made a phone call to Bob.

Bob: “Hello?”

Mechanic: “Hey, this is Judy, at the bike store. Your bike tire has a hole from a nail. I’ve removed the nail. I can recommend two alternatives.“

Bob (wondering what’s to come): “Yes?”

Judy: “We can patch the tube, and it will hold up quite well. But patches are not perfect cures. Sometimes they work loose, or stiffen up and cause other problems. Alternatively, I can replace the entire tube and it will be as good as new.“

Bob: “What’s the cost?“

Judy: “Patching is $22. The tube is a bit more expensive, but not a lot. Installed, it’s $25.30 with tax.“

Bob: “That’s hardly any difference. Go ahead with the new tube. Thanks.“

And the tire is cured – good as new, just as Judy promised.

Discussion:

1. Sometimes even a simple illness prompts the attention of a professional. This is more likely to occur for problems we haven’t yet experienced or don’t understand.
2. Most flat tire illnesses – even those at the bike shop – are trivial, easily cured.
3. The bike shop, however, is in the business of selling things. A flat tire has many alternative cures – and some of them are more profitable. By replacing the tube, Judy can make money on the repair and on the tube as well. Replacing a tube is faster than patching a tire, less error prone, and less likely to lead to side effects or remission in the short term or the long term. The sale is easily justified. In Jen or Joey’s case, replacing the tube would have necessitated a trip to the store, some extra expenses, and a longer wait, but for Bob – it’s the best cure.

Summary: Illness, Sickness, Disease

We’ve seen three similar illnesses from three perspectives – an illness (cured by Jen), a sickness (cured by Jen, a grandparent) and a disease (cured by Judy, a professional, a bike doctor). This diagram illustrates the three perspectives – and the agreement reached by different participants.

This diagram helps us to understand that an illness is not a “thing” it is something we observe and judge, which can also be judged cured. In the first case, no agreement was required. In the second, the child came to an agreement with Jen. In the third, the rider and the bike mechanic came to an agreement. If it was a car tire, and Bob had insurance – an additional agreement would be require to reimburse the expenses. Most of our illnesses are minor, not requiring community involvement, never seen by a doctor.

Although the past cause – the nail, and the initial signs and symptoms of these three illnesses were identical – the tire was flat -the perspectives, the specific situations, and the cures varied. In the case involving the bike mechanic, a new cure appeared. In many cases of illness, there can be disagreement about the actual illness and the best cure. Joey, for example, did not consider her bike to have any problems until it was pointed out by Jen.

There were also three different cures for the illnesses. Jen’s tire was cured with a simple patch. Joey’s tire required external advice and assistance. Bob’s tire was cured by a professional, with a new tube. Of course, all three needed to be reinflated as well. These curative actions addressed different causes of illness and different cure expectations.

Theory of Cure

In each case, the cure was to address the present cause and causes. Once an illness, or a flat tire occurs – prevention is of no use, a cure is needed. None of the riders could go back in time and avoid the nail. A flat tire might function badly for a short time, but failure to cure can result in more damage. The cure improved the healthiness of the tire, improving the bike’s functionality.

As we explore 101 flat tire cures, we will see many more types of flat tires – and encounter many types of cures.

to your health, tracy

Author: A New Theory of Cure

“It has been observed that scientific medicine is being replaced by scientistic medicine, with an accompanying collapse in the imperative to care as well as to cure, so that the human dimension of medicine is becoming lost and with it the fundamental purpose of medicine.”
J.P. Sturmberg and A. Miles, Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health , 2012

What does the Theory of Cure say?

Modern medicine, for all it’s claims of “scientific” has no theory of cure, and little interest honest in cure, cures, curing nor cured. In reality, we have neither “scientific medicine” nor “scientistic medicine,” we have commercial, corporate, medicine for profit. Cures are not profitable. Modern medicine tracks payments for treatments. No doctor, medical clinic, hospital, healthcare system tracks cures. The World Health Organization has no statistics for cures.

In modern scientific (or scientistic) medicine, cured is not defined for most diseases. No cures can be detected, much less proven or disproven.

In the theory of cure, every curable illness can be cured. A cure occurs when we successfully address the cause of an element of illness. Healing is a cure without conscious intention.

Understanding Cure-ious Quotes

The theory of cure gives us a wider perspective, a way to look at quotes about cure in different ways, helping us to develop a more comprehensive view of cure.

The Theory of Cure website has a random “cure quote generator” that presents a random cure quote from a growing library of over 2700 quotes about cure from hundreds of different authors. Cure-ious quotes is a set of posts that explore those quotes from the perspective of the theory of cure.

To your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Does an aspirin cure a headache? Sometimes? Some headaches? Sometimes? All the time? How might we know? The answer is not found in the aspirin, but in our definition and understanding of cure.

In the theory of cure, we study cures of illnesses, not diseases. An illness element has a single cause and many consequences, most of which are seen as negative, but sometimes an illness has positive consequences as well. It is cured when the cause has been successfully addressed such that the negative consequences stop occurring.

Most diseases are complex or compound illnesses, defined as having multiple causes and requiring multiple cures. Most diseases are considered medically incurable – partly because we want to find a single cure for an illness with multiple causes, and partly because most illnesses are not cured by medicines.

Healing or Curing?

A cure is an action, not a drug, not a medicine, not a health product. The cure action addresses the cause of the illness, the cause of the signs and symptoms of illness – such that those signs fade and disappear. Healing often cures by addressing injuries, the causes of pain, distress, and danger.

In many dictionary definitions, healing is curing – but curing is not always healing. Can doctors cure? Many medical dictionaries do not even contain an entry to define cure. Many doctors avoid the word cure. Can doctors heal illnesses? Can psychologists heal our damaged minds and spirits? Does love heal? Does it cure? What’s the difference between healing and curing?

Curing vs Healing is defined by Intention

Healing is natural, always active, without need for conscious intentions. We don’t think about healing, it just works, patching up the smallest illnesses invisibly, curing small wounds easily, invisibly, and curing the most severe (curable) wounds slowly. As we age, healing gradually slows and we develop more illnesses that are incurable within our lifetime. Healing sometimes makes mistakes – as do medical doctors. Life and health are complex, healing and curing sometimes cause illness.

In the theory of cure, curing is intentional. Cures are intentional actions that address the present cause of an illness, curing the illness. This distinction is a gradation between healing and curing, based on intentions.

Healing is the original cure. Healing forces are always active, even when no illness is perceived. Curing occurs when we intentionally address cause. Medical cures occur when our medical systems address present causes of illness.

All living things heal injuries, illnesses. and the damage caused by illness. Healing is the natural, unintentional, curative act of an individual.

Many animals also perform curative actions. A dog licks a wound clean, aiding the healing cure. Curing often comes from community. A monkey pulls the lice off its neighbor or child, curing one tiny infection at a time. A grandchild, sister, or grandmother clips an ingrown toenail. A doctor surgically cuts out a cancer.

Sometimes healing or curing causes changes that cure other illnesses. We might get an injury which heals over time, and then notice that another illness has disappeared, cured. The cure was not intentional, but it wasn’t really healing either.

Caring or Curing

Nurses care for our illnesses, as do many caregivers. A husband cares for his wife when she is ill, a mother for her child, a child for her aging grandmother. Are these actions cures?

Caring is intentional, only sometimes curative. Most caring actions only address the negative consequences of illness – not the cause. As a result, they do not cure. Of course, sometimes, caring actions cure. However, we can care for someone without any intentions to cure. When we clip an elderly person’s toenails, because they can’t reach them – we are caring for their health. But if they have an ingrown toenail – our actions can cure it. Often, no medical diagnosis is required to cure.

A causal cure is a preventative cure, a caring cure. Scurvy is cured with Vitamin C. But once cured, a healthy diet of Vitamin C is required to maintain the cured state. Causal cures are accomplished and maintained through caring, through taking care of self and others.

Caring or Healing

Sometimes, caring actions are also healing. Is self care more about caring? or healing? Is a healthy diet, with intentions to facilitate healing, a caring act, or a curing action?

Healing, Caring, Curing

Healing came first. All living things must heal or die. All living things perform healing cures. Caring came with community. All animals that live in communities care for and cure each other in many ways. Humans study healing and curing with conscious intention – to cure self and others. Medical doctors and medical systems study more complex cases of injuries, illnesses, and diseases with ongoing intentions to care and cure. Unfortunately, our medical systems sometimes lose sight of common, simple cures.

These three concepts can be combined into a single image of healing, caring, and curing.

The areas of overlapping circles are the gradations between healing, caring and curing discussed herein. Sometimes, all three overlap when a single action brings about healing, caring, and curing. Healing is unconscious. Caring is conscious – self caring and caring for others. Curing is conscious attention to and focus on the present cause of an illness.

Healing, caring, and curing are not limited to the medical professions, they are natural actions of life and community. There is no alternative healing, no alternative caring, and no alternative curing. Healing, caring, and curing are about success, about helping ourselves and others, not about competition.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

This is one of many quotes by or about well meaning scientists who believe that their research might lead to wonderful new cures for mystery diseases.

What does the Theory of Cure say?

Most diseases are trivial. Easily cured. When we study the entirety of diseases, this is easy to see. Our medical systems focus on incurability, not on cures. Cures are ignored. Most diseases, curable and incurable both, are treated – without intentions to cure.

Most cures are ignored. We don’t study cure. We don’t collect statistics of cases of any disease cured. How many cases of the common cold are cured? How many cases of COVID? Most cases of measles are easily cured. But we ignore cures. The book even acknowledges this with the quote:

According to Lydia Lynch, thanks to cancer immunotherapy,
“we are now using the taboo word [in cancer research]: cure.”

Searching for cures in genetics will not help us find cures – because we cannot recognize, much less acknowledge cures that are present for most diseases, much less those for some vague diseases in some fuzzy future.

Most medical research studies don’t even contain a definition of cure, much less a testable definition of cured. We are talking about cures, as if they will be found in the future. Most cures today are present. We ignore them.

We have no functional medical definition of cure, cures, curing, or cured. Most medical references, and many medical dictionaries don’t even have an entry to define cure. Most of today’s cures are simply ignored.

The same will probably happen to any cures these researchers find. We have no functional medical definition of cure. Cures are disappearing from modern medicine, not being found. The Nobel Prize committee has awarded the Nobel prize in medicine to a single cure in 130 years of prizes. Every other year’s prize is for a not-cure. If Selina and Chris are hoping for a Nobel, they are dreaming in technicolor. Nobel does not recognize cures.

This type of quote is often made, by many different sources – even medical ones – with little thought. For example, the current, authoritative, fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, by the American Psychiatric Association, contains a meaningful reference to “cure” only once, in the phrase:

“monitoring of the descriptions and explanatory text is essential to improve understanding, reduce stigma, and advance the treatment and
eventual cures for these conditions.”

Eventual Cures?

The entire DSM/5 does not contain nor reference a single cure for any mental disorder. Cured is not only not defined for mental disorders – cured cannot be defined for mental disorders. This should not be surprising. Most medical reference texts do not even define cures, much less list any cures. The Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-5 contains the word cure once, in dismissal fashion, “The patients were described as clinging and dependent, and as expecting magical cures and medication“. And it’s not just mental diseases that are without cures.

Modern medicine’s dreams of “eventual cures” are simply wishful thinking, without substance, like the belief wearing a pin representing a leg will cure arthritis in the leg.

To find cures, we need to define cured for every disease and every medical condition. How can we find a cure if we cannot recognize cured?

Understanding Cure-ious Quotes

The theory of cure gives us a wider perspective, a way to look at quotes and thoughts about cure in different ways, from a broader perspective, a more comprehensive view of cure.

The Theory of Cure website has a random “cure quote generator” that presents a random cure quote from a growing library of over 2700 quotes about cure from hundreds of different authors. Cure-ious quotes is a set of posts that explore those quotes from the perspective of the theory of cure.

To your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Now it was back. My right eye was quite itchy. The problem waxed and waned, over a few weeks, never going completely away.

The left eye was starting to show some itchiness as well. Being in Canada, I decided to go first to my optometrist, with whom I had developed a trusting relationship, to see what he said. When I go there, he was a she. Or, perhaps more accurately, he was on holidays and I saw someone else. I was pre-examined and then sat down in the room where, normally, my eyes would be tested for glasses.

The optometrist entered and asked a few questions. Looked at some pictures and at my eyes. Frankly, I don’t remember much. But, I remember what she said. I remember her cure.

“Your eyes are really dry. We could prescribe some eye drops…”

I replied that I’m not fond of medicines and less fond of putting them in my eyes.

So, she offered another recommendation, with a bit of explanation;

“The problem is probably that your tear ducts are not flowing smoothly. As a result, your eyes are dry and irritated – the right eye a bit more than the left. You can try this and see if it helps.”

1. Wet a facecloth with hot water, or heat a wet facecloth in the microwave.
2. Press the hot facecloth onto your closed eyes for about two minutes.
3. Do this twice a day for two weeks.

Like much doctorly advice, she finished with “Try, and see if it works for you.”

Interesting. No drugs. No surgery. No glasses. Just a simple exercise. I’ll do it. And I did.

As soon as I got home, I tried it. Not much difference. Again the next morning. My eyes felt a bit better. Again at mid-day. The itching was fading. Again in the evening.

The next morning, as I heated up the facecloth, there was almost no irritation. This was working.

The next day, less irritation, but still a bit. Day by day, better.

After a week, I also noticed that my eyelids were open wider than before, less wrinkled somehow.

I knew I should follow the prescription to the end. “Two weeks,” she said. By the time two weeks had passed, the itching was completely gone. My eyes felt like new? Was it cured? Was I cured?

I waited three days without any itching. The fourth day, a small scratchiness in my right eye. Left eye – no problems. I did the facecloth again, and the problem was gone.

Over the next few weeks, I did several tests. It seems I need the hot facecloth exercise every two or three days to keep my eyes happy. I’ve been good for over two months now. Sometimes, I can go for four or five days. If I’m going to be driving a long way, or doing other things that stress my eyes – I make a point of doing the exercise.

I Did my Own Research

I found this picture on Wikipedia. It shows the eye ducts and mentions that they are larger in males than in women. I wonder if women have more problems with dry eyes than men – or do the larger ducts tend to fold or collapse more often?

A University of Utah post says that women suffer from more dry eyes than men, but does not mention plugged ducts, nor the cure recommended to me. The word cure is not mentioned – only treatments that don’t cure.

The Not a Dry Eye Syndrome Foundation is dedicated to promoting awareness of Dry Eye Syndrome. but clearly states on their front page “does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.” Instead, they say “Our mission is simple, to raise awareness of the disease and to give people hope.” Although they want to raise awareness of the disease – the don’t recognize any cure. One post says “Finding a cure is something many Dry Eye patients wish for,” but no cures are found, and if found, no cures can be recognized. Dry eyes cured, apparently is not medically defined. They discuss the hot towel treatment, which they name Warm Compresses, but it give several warnings, advising “not too long and not too hot. Overuse of compresses… can cause irritation“.

Obviously, dry eye syndrome, like an illness from the common cold to cancer, might be mild, moderate, or severe. It might have one or many causes – requiring one or many cures. Once case study diagnosis listed 8 different problems.

Massage

I wondered about massage? Would it help if I massage my eyelids before, during, or after the hot towel? NotADryEye.org offered this advice, “Some doctors recommend lid massage after applying warm compresses to stimulate meibum secretion,” followed by a list of potential risks. Should I be happy to massage? or afraid? No useful guidelines are offered.

Is this a cure?

We often think of a cure as perfect, final, and permanent. However, this simplistic view, a set of cure myths and misunderstandings.

“What cannot be cured must be endured.” –
The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling by Peter Ackroyd

In the new theory of cure, there are two basic types of cures. Sometimes, the cure is a type that must be endured, a causal cure.

An attribute cure is a change to the cause of illness, resulting in a permanent cure. If the cause appears again, a new illness will occur. Most surgeries are attribute cures. The wound is stitched and heals, the hernia is repaired, or the tooth cavity is filled. These cures are generally permanent, until another wound, another hernia, or another cavity appears. The cure for an infection is similar. An antibiotic provides a cure – until another infection occurs.

Attribute cures are one-time actions, one-time cures. Almost like magic.

A causal cure is a process that must be maintained to maintain the cured status. A causal cure is a preventative cure, an action that cures and prevents future occurrences. We can’t cure scurvy with any amount of Vitamin C, only the scorbutic state. Scurvy is caused by an unhealthy eating process. Curing scurvy requires an ongoing process to maintain a healthy level of Vitamin C. The same is true of any nutritional disease. However, modern medicine, for all its power, cannot recognize causal cures, has no technique to distinguish treatments from cures.

Causal cures are ongoing actions. The cause of illness is an ongoing process, or absence of process, so the cure requires a matching process.

At first, the facecloth seemed like an attribute cure. Two weeks of heating my eyelids, and I was cured. But no, I’m not twenty any more. My eyelids are 50 years older than that youngster. I can clear the ducts with heat, but they will clog up again in a few days. I need a causal cure. I need the process of applying a hot facecloth every few days to maintain the cured state, to prevent my eyes from itching anew.

I have a causal cure. It’s not in remission, it’s cured. If I stop, in a week, or two years, a new case of illness will likely occur. As long as I maintain the new process, my itchy eyes are cured. There is little difference between this cure and eating healthy foods to maintain a cure of scurvy, malnutrition, or to avoid poisoning. Before the illness, no conscious action is needed. Once the illness occurs, it can be cured. Once cured, in many cases, the cure action must be maintained to maintain the cure. If a one-time action works, it was an attribute cure, not a causal cure – a temporary blockage, not an ongoing blockage.

However, modern medicine, for all its power, has no concept of an ongoing cure and cannot recognize my cured status, nor my curative actions as a cure. If I write a book about curing dry eyes, the publisher would require I insert the standard medical disclaimer “this book does not provide medical advice – consult your physician….” that we see today in ALL books written about cures – even those by the most authoritative doctors.

There is no cure for Itchy Eyes

It’s not hard to find remedies for itchy eyes. There are many different medicines, eye drops, that provide relief. There are no cures. Part of the reason there are so many cures, is simply that there are so many causes. Itchy eyes is a symptom, not a disease. To cure, we must find and address the cause. There are many cause for itchy eyes.

• if the cause is temporary, like smoke or dust, tearing, or rinsing the eye will relieve the problem. But this is not called a cure. It’s too simple. It didn’t require a medicine, so it’s not a medical cure.
• when the cause is an allergy, avoiding the allergen, if possible, provides relief. It’s a cure, but not medically recognized as a cure. The allergy is still there. Uncured – even if the patient has no signs or symptoms for the rest of a long life. This is simply cure-misunderstanding, or perhaps cure denial.
• or, when the cause is an allergy, then allergy medicines can help (medically, a treatment for signs and symptoms, but not cure).

Amazon lists 54 products for “itchy watery eye relief.” Not one claim to cure. An Amazon search for “itchy watery eye cure” produces only 15 products. One even has “cure” in the name (Origin Cure), but none make any claim to cure. Cure claims are illegal without official approval. No approval process is possible for itchy eye cures or dry eye cures. Dry eyes cured is not medically defined.

One product offers the cure MY eye doctor recommended: Microwave Activated Warm Eye Compress for Dry Eyes, Blepharitis & Stye Eye Treatment. However, the word cure does not appear — except in the phrase “have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition,” which might have been added by Amazon. Does not (dare claim to) cure. Is not intended to cure. Similar products are provided by many companies. Not one dares use the word cure.

A google search for cure for itchy eyes even produces lists of remedies, and treatments that avoid the word cure:

• 10 Itchy Eyes Home Remedies
• Home Treatments for Itchy Eyes
• 5 Remedies for Dry Eyelids – Beat the Itch with These Tips

Official Medical Sites, offer expert advice and recommendations, but the word cure is avoided.

• Johns Hopkins Medicine “Why Are My Eyes Itchy? Answers From an Expert” – but no cures.
• The Mayo Clinic advises treatments, for dry eyes, adding “You’ll likely need to take these measures indefinitely to control the symptoms of dry eyes.” The word cure is not used.

The Dry Eye Truths

Most illnesses are trivial, easily cured, so easily that we simply move on, ignoring the fact that we had an illness, ignoring the cure. Who can remember how many colds they had last year? How many days it took to cure them? Very few cases of the common cold require medical attention. The same is true of many illnesses.

Most cases of dry or itchy eyes are trivial, easily cured, so easily that we simply move on, ignoring the fact that we had an illness, ignoring the cure.

I cured my itchy eyes. The cure proved the cause. No doctor can diagnose the cause of itchy eyes perfectly, without the proof of a cure. “Try this.” – and if it works, that was the cause – and if it works, that was the cure.

My ophthalmologist cured, or helped cure my itchy eyes with her advice. But the cure is not medically recognized. I was not diagnosed. I was not treated. No cure for itchy eyes has been approved. If she dares to claim a cure, she might lose her license.

I can claim to be cured – nobody cares. My story is just a story, an anecdote. Anecdotal cures are not scientific, not worthy. Note: Every case of a cure, every true case of a cure is a story, an anecdote.

to your health, tracy

Author: A New Theory of Cure

Apparently, Microsoft’s Bing AI knows who I am. Google’s ChatGTP? Not at all.

BING: “Theory of Cure” Response Analysis

Bing’s response to “theory of cure” leads with a reference to a Harvard University article titled Care, Cure, and Context which contains the word “cure” only once outside of the title and “theory” only once – in reference to the “germ theory of disease.” It contains no reference to any “theory of cure.”

Next, Bing references my paper on Theory of Cure with, “Another theory of cure is presented in a paper by Tracy D Kolenchuk. The paper presents the foundation of a theory of cure.” However, Bing managed to mess up the link – which instead links to the third point.

Bings third reference is perhaps one of the most quoted theories of cure, “Lydia Hall’s Care, Cure, Core Theory of Nursing,” which is actually a theory of nursing, not a theory of cure. However, in the absence of any medical theory of cure – much less any authoritative medical theory of cure, Hall’s writing is often referred to as a theory of cure.

Bing then offers four links to further information, the first is a link my paper, “A Theory of Cure” published on Academia.edu in November 2019 and updated on March 2020. Bing makes no reference to the book A New Theory of Cure,” published in July 2021, nor to the updated paper published in 2023. The second link is to the Harvard article, published in 2021, which contains no reference to any theory of cure. The third and fourth links are to writings about Lydia C Hall and her Theory of Nursing – but without any link to her actual writings.

ChatGTP: “Theory of Cure” Response Analysis

The response from ChatGTP reminds me of American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in his short book On Bullshit. Frankfurt advises that “bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth. The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn’t care if what they say is true or false.” Frankfurt also gives a warning – one important in this case, advising that:

Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require
someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus
the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s
obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more
excessive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that
topic.

ChatGTP’s response is full of waffling phrases like “the ‘theory of cure’ is a broad concept that can have different meanings depending on the context”, “the theory of cure often involves,” “the theory of cure might revolve around,” “the theory of cure may involve concepts related to psychotherapy, behavioral change, and emotional healing,” “They (alternative medical practices) may emphasize the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and spirit, and posit that healing involves restoring balance and harmony in all these aspects of a person’s life,” “the theory of cure can involve strategies and interventions aimed at preventing diseases,” and “the theory of cure may involve acknowledging the importance of the patient’s own beliefs, values, and experiences in the healing process.”

It all sounds so logical, but when we look closer, it actually says “may involve….blah, blah, blah,” “may emphasize….blah, blah, blah,” “can involve….blah, blah, blah,” and again “may involve….blah, blah, blah.”

The ChatGTP response actually avoids saying anything definitive, while giving the impression that it has a lot to say.

A second look is even more revealing. In each case, where ChatGTP used the phrase “theory of cure” we can substitute “cure” or “curing” with no loss of information – and a gain in clarity.

ChatGTP’s quote, “Theory of cure is a broad concept that can have different meanings depending on the context” becomes simply “Curing is a broad concept that can have different meanings depending on the context.”

ChatGTP’s quote, “theory of cure may involve concepts related to psychotherapy, behavioral change, and emotional healing.” becomes “curing may involve concepts related to psychotherapy, behavioral change, and emotional healing.“

ChatGTP’s “Some healing traditions and alternative medicine practices take a holistic approach to the theory of cure,” becomes “Some healing traditions and alternative medicine practices take a holistic approach to curing.”

In short, ChatGTP, like the proverbial BSing politician, simply said whatever it wanted, substituting the word I wanted to hear.

After ChatGTP spews several paragraphs of credible nonsense without references, it finishes with this vague, non-committal, bafflegab: “It’s important to note that the theory of cure can vary greatly depending on the specific disease or condition being addressed and the discipline or field of medicine or therapy involved. Additionally, medical science is continually evolving, and new theories of cure may emerge as our understanding of health and disease advances.“

Which we now understand actually says, “It’s important to note that the cure can vary greatly depending on the specific disease or condition being addressed and the discipline or field of medicine or therapy involved. Additionally, medical science is continually evolving, and new cures may emerge as our understanding of health and disease advances.“

Conclusion:

On a topic like “theory of cure,” where the answer cannot be found in Wikipedia, AI systems don’t do very well. The problem is simply that modern medicine, for all it’s pretentions of scientific progress, has no recognized theory of cure.

Bing managed to collect two useful references – and one erroneous. It failed to acknowledge many historical and other so-called alternative theories of medicine that propose theories of illness, disease, and cures. One of the links to references was simply WRONG. Another was a link to a reference of a reference, not the original source (Lydia Hall).

ChatGTP, on the other hand, having nothing to say, simply resorted to saying a lot of nothing. Sounding intelligent and authoritative, without actually making any commitment to fact. ChatGTP presents a perfect response for a bureaucrat who needs to sound intelligent without saying anything substantial. In short, bullshit.

Neither mentioned the theories of Hippocrates, who said simply, “The patient himself must bring about a cure by combating the cause of the disease,” and “Diseases which arise from repletion are cured by depletion; and those that arise from depletion are cured by repletion; and in general, diseases are cured by their contraries.” He also said “To sum up in a single sentence, opposites are cures for opposites.” Nor did either mention the theory of “like cures like” made famous by Hahnemann is his homeopathic writings of the Law of Similars, or Freud’s talking cure, which his been described as a theory, as a therapy, and as the historical foundation of psychoanalysis.

Strangely, if we ask Google about theory of cure, it references Lydia Hall’s theory of nursing first, followed by the book A New Theory of Cure, then again Lydia Hall references with other links to random pages like the published paper “Unconscious Fantasy and Theories of Cure.” None of these are discussed by ChatGTP.

Microsoft’s Bing, in similar fashion, when asked about theory of cure, references Lydia Hall’s nursing theory first, and has several references to my work in the book A New Theory of Cure and various published papers on ResearchGate, but makes no reference to Hippocrates nor Hahnemann on it’s first page. Freud’s talking cure makes a few appearances in later pages. Hahnemann’s like cures like is relegated to page 7 of the search. Hippocrates does not appear in the first 10 pages.

In short, both Google search and Bing search know more about theory of cure and offer more on the first page of their search results, than either of their heavily promoted AI systems.

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BING: response to “Theory of Cure”

In modern medicine, the concept of cure has evolved to encompass a wide range of practices and philosophies. For example, the Care, Cure, and Context theory developed by Harvard Medical School emphasizes the importance of social factors such as poverty and inequality in determining who gets sick, who gets better, and who dies ².

Another theory of cure is presented in a paper by Tracy D Kolenchuk. The paper presents the foundation of a theory of cure, beginning with elementary illnesses and laying a framework to understand and cure compound illnesses, and to recognize cures when they occur or are achieved ³.

Lydia Hall’s Care, Cure, Core Theory of Nursing is another example of a theory that emphasizes the importance of caring for patients as individuals rather than just treating their symptoms ⁴.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

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ChatGTP: response to “Theory of Cure”

The “theory of cure” is a broad concept that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In general, it refers to the underlying principles or theories that explain how a particular treatment or intervention leads to the resolution or improvement of a medical condition or disease. Here are a few different perspectives on the theory of cure:

1. Biological/Physiological Perspective: From a biological or physiological standpoint, the theory of cure often involves understanding the mechanisms by which a treatment or therapy affects the body. This might include concepts such as targeting the root cause of a disease, restoring normal physiological function, or eliminating pathogens (in the case of infectious diseases).
2. Pharmacological Perspective: In the context of drug treatments, the theory of cure might revolve around how a specific medication interacts with molecular targets in the body, such as receptors or enzymes, to bring about therapeutic effects. Understanding the pharmacokinetics (how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes the drug) and pharmacodynamics (how the drug affects the body) is crucial in this context.
3. Psychological Perspective: For certain conditions, especially those with a significant psychological component (e.g., mental health disorders), the theory of cure may involve concepts related to psychotherapy, behavioral change, and emotional healing. It may focus on how therapy helps individuals change their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to achieve better mental health.
4. Holistic Perspective: Some healing traditions and alternative medicine practices take a holistic approach to the theory of cure. They may emphasize the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and spirit, and posit that healing involves restoring balance and harmony in all these aspects of a person’s life.
5. Preventive Perspective: In preventive medicine, the theory of cure can involve strategies and interventions aimed at preventing diseases before they occur. This may include vaccination, lifestyle modifications, and public health measures that reduce risk factors for diseases.
6. Patient-Centered Perspective: In patient-centered care, the theory of cure may involve acknowledging the importance of the patient’s own beliefs, values, and experiences in the healing process. This approach recognizes that a patient’s active involvement and engagement in their own care can be essential for achieving a cure or better health outcomes.

It’s important to note that the theory of cure can vary greatly depending on the specific disease or condition being addressed and the discipline or field of medicine or therapy involved. Additionally, medical science is continually evolving, and new theories of cure may emerge as our understanding of health and disease advances.

Quote Summary:

• Long COVID is a condition affecting a small number of COVID patients
• Long COVID patients were considered “previously healthy“

• Long COVID appears to be a consequence of severe or many overlapping entities although COVID.GOV refers to them as an infection with SARS-CoV-2
• different Long COVID conditions have different sets of risk factors and outcomes

TLDR: (too long, didn’t read)

• Long COVID appears to occur when healthy people with asymptomatic, mild, moderate or severe COVID wear a mask while COVID is present
• quitting the mask will not cure COVID nor Long COVID
• getting rid of masking might cure the epidemic of Long COVID – but cured is not medically defined for epidemics

Long COVID (according to WHO)

The World Health Organization’s ICD11 (International Classification of Diseases – 11th Edition, the “global standard for diagnostic health information has a single disease code RA02 Post COVID-19 condition which says, “Post COVID-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms, and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction but also others, and generally have an impact on everyday functioning. Symptoms may be new onset following initial recovery from an acute COVID-19 episode or persist from the initial illness. Symptoms may also fluctuate or relapse over time.” (italics mine) As one of my old bosses used to say “Clear as mud?”

NORMAL COVID

We appear to have a fairly clear, understanding of COVID, defined by the World Health Organization as “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus..” NOTE: the SARS-CoV-2 infection is not the disease, it is the cause of the disease, a cause which, in many cases is not serious enough to cause any disease. The ICD-11, has dozens of codes referencing COVID, including codes for SARS-CoV-2 variants, QC42.0 Personal History of COVID-19, RA03 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome associated with COVID-19, RA01.0 COVID with pneumonia. However, many – perhaps most are not the disease COVID-19 and instead are codes like RA01.1 Virus Not Identified (might be the flu, or something else), the XM-series – containing more than 20 codes for COVID vaccines, QA08.5 screening for COVID, and with PL00 Drugs, medicaments, or biological substances associated with injury or harm in therapeutic use. Note, MB41.0 anosmia – loss of smell often associated with COVID-19, is an independent disease code, not linked to COVID, as are COVID-pneumonia (COVID was initially referred to as COVID pneumonia by some researchers) and COVID treatment iatrogenics like post intubation PTSD, and organ damage or failures, none of which have ICD codes linked to COVID. ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome) the most common cause of COVID patient hospitalization and intubation – also has a disease code that is not linked to COVID – CB00.

There WHO ICD is a tool for collecting disease and treatment statistics and has no clear definition of a disease, much less of a disease like COVID or Long COVID and is of little use in diagnosis or treatment.

Causes of COVID

Every illness has two types of causes – past causes and present causes. COVID is no exception.

Past Causes are in the past and cannot be accessed or changed to cure a present illness. We might blame a case of COVID on visiting a sick friend, or being in a restaurant or church with someone who has COVID. We might judge it to be caused by failure to wear a mask, or failure to sanitize, or social distance. But these causes are in the past. When COVID is present, addressing them does not cure.

Present Causes are in the present, with the illness. Addressing them cures or moves towards a cure. If a COVID patient has a SARS-CoV-2 infection, then addressing the cause cures the infection illness. If they are deficient in nutrients necessary to fight viral infections, then addressing those causes will aid the cure process.

A normal COVID infection follows a simple path. When healthy people are exposed to an invisible quantity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it begins to multiply. SARS-CoV-2 is a single virus. A case of COVID, might begin as a single SARS-CoV-2 infection in one nostril, one nasal passage, or one lung. If the amount of virus encountered was larger, there might be multiple infection sites, however, this possibility is rarely documented or studied for most diseases.

Moderate and serious cases of COVID have secondary causes, like anosmia, ARDS, and pneumonia, which require additional cures. From the perspective of the COVID, these are consequences of which the cause – the SARS-CoV-2 infection – might be in the present or the past. From the perspective of a cure, they are causes of distress, needing to be cured.

The virus attacks, or feeds on a specific type of cell, one expressing ACE2 the receptors necessary to enter the cell and reproduce. These cells are more common in adults than children, and more common in people who are overweight, or have diseases like hypertension and diabetes. They can be present in many bodily tissues. In children and in many healthy individuals, the virus has a limited amount of “food” and can only multiply very slowly. As it multiplies, it kills cells and runs out of food. Our immune system consist of many systems that respond quickly to identify eliminate infected cells and the virus. These systems also learn and remembers how to defeat the infection for future infections. Because RSV infections evolve rapidly, our immune system forget them quickly as well, avoiding the baggage of out of date information.

Because our immune systems quickly notice, isolate and defeat similar infections, SARS-CoV-2 infections are often cured within a few hours, days or weeks. In many cases, especially in small children, an infection is defeated before any diagnosis is possible, and the person has developed natural immunity. This is referred to as an asymptomatic infection.

Most normal adults have some ACE2 cells, we might refer to those people as “normal COVID unhealthy.” They have an unhealthiness that facilitates SARS-CoV-2 infections, but otherwise is considered normal.

In most cases – our immune system steps up and deal with the infection. COVID is medically defined as having a single cause, the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This cause is a “cure cause.” When the cause is addressed, the illness, SARS-CoV-2 infection, has been cured. Note: Our current medical systems use the word RECOVERED and avoid the word CURED. There are complications in this view of cured. The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses a toxic spike protein to enter the cells, and a viral infection leaves these toxic proteins in the victim. Sometimes, these and other infection consequences require further cures. This diagram illustrates some possible progressions of COVID-19.

A case of SARS-CoV-2 infection might progress to stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and be cured, or to death:

1. Stage 1: an asymptomatic infection is present, where the patient does not feel any symptoms of disease. This is the most common stage in children and we are not sure how common it is in adults. The infection leaves a small amount of damage and spike protein poisons. If it ends at this stage, it can hardly be described as cured, because no observable illness was present. Many, perhaps most cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially those in children, end here.
2. Stage 2: a minor infection has grown to cause symptoms of illness to be noticed by the patient. In many cases, this illness passes quickly or lasts a week or two, cured. This infection can leave a larger amount of damage and spike protein poisons which take some time to clear. Many cases end at this stage. We don’t know how many, because these patients might not even know they have COVID, don’t consult a doctor. There is no record.
3. Stage 3: a moderate infection has progressed to a point where the patient misses work or other activities. This too is typically cured within a few weeks. Even at this stage, many cases of COVID-19 are not recorded. I myself have taken 13 COVID-19 tests, of which one was positive. The positive test was a home test. I followed the government instructions and isolated for two weeks. But there was no reporting requirement. My COVID case is cured, and but undocumented.
4. Stage 4: a severe infection is present when the infection’s negative consequences are so severe that the patient cannot breath freely and needs to be hospitalized. This typically occurs only in some patients with other diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Stage 4 requires medical treatment to be cured and has more serious consequences, requiring further cures. Many of these consequences are iatrogenic, related to the treatments used, not directly related to the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. Dangerous or potentially iatrogenic treatments are sometimes needed when the patient’s condition is urgent.
5. Stage 5: Death. Death does not typically occur due to the direct actions of the virus, but to the body’s reaction and other factors like physical damage, an overabundance of toxins, or damaging treatments. However, at present, cause of death is typically ascribed to COVID. Of course once death occurs, a cure is no longer possible.

COVID-19 is like many other RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) infections. According to the CDC, “Most RSV infections go away on their own in a week or two.” Few cases develop in to more severe conditions or long term consequences, fewer lead to death, typically only in patients with other underlying diseases.

Viral Transmission

As the virus finds fuel (ACE2 cells), it multiplies and begins to leave the body through the breath, attempting to infect other people – even before symptoms appear. According to the World Economic Forum, in May 2020, an average case of COVID infects 2 and 6 people. Measles, on the other hand, infects 12 on average. Normal influenza about 1.3. The transmission rate of COVID is still under study and under debate, and varies depending on many factors, but that’s a different topic than cure.

COVID patients are infectious before signs and symptoms of disease appear and normally remain infectious for up to 10 days. Medical News Today reports “infectiousness itself, both in the sense of how much someone will transmit the virus to others and how long they can do so, is highly variable.” Infectiousness depends on the number of viral particles being generated and their ability to escape the body.

The Long COVID Demon

There’s no Long COVID in those diagrams. Long COVID is “previously healthy individuals… experiencing lingering symptoms and… not fully recovering from an (SARS-CoV-2) infection” – COVID.GOV? This is not a normal case of COVID. “The signs, symptoms, and conditions are present four weeks or more after the initial phase of infection; may be multisystemic; and may present with a relapsing– remitting pattern and progression or worsening over time, with the possibility of severe and life-threatening events even months or years after infection. Long COVID is not one condition. It represents many potentially overlapping entities, likely with different biological causes and different sets of risk factors and outcomes.“

Is Long COVID an independent disease, with different causes? Or many diseases, with many causes? Unfortunately, modern medicine’s concepts of both disease and of cause is weak, and as a result, defining Long COVID is a challenge, understanding it – is more of a challenge, curing it – is simply impossible at present. Of course, that’s not news. CURED is not defined for COVID either. Long COVID is a mysterious disease, poorly defined, poorly understood. Even the name is fuzzy. The CDC definition page refers to Long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC), long-term effects of COVID, and chronic COVID. Why is Long COVID so mysterious?

Understanding the Causes of Long COVID

With many illnesses, we might occasionally get two of the same illness – at the same time.

Someone might break both arms, and requiring two separate slings or plaster casts. We might get an infection in just one, or in both ears. Sometimes we might get a cold and the flu at the same time – caused by two different viruses. It is possible to get two different influenza virus infections in different locations, even on the same lung – at the same time.

It is also possible to have two or more infections of the same bacteria or virus, like SARS-CoV-2, at the same time. The virus might infect us through our nose, our mouth, or even our eyes. An infection might take hold in our nasal passages, one or both of our lungs, even in independent areas of a single lung. As the virus multiplies, in addition to spreading to others, it can spread to other tissues and organs in the same person, creating secondary and tertiary infections.

We might get two infections at the same time, because the concentration of virus in the air is high, or if, after we are infected, we encounter the virus again, it can cause a second infection in another location. A care worker or nurse, constantly working with infected patients, might encounter the virus again and again before they develop natural immunity, leading to a number of infection sites in the eyes, nose, nasal passages, and lungs which can advance to other organs. These infections might overwhelm a patient’s immune system defenses and result in the situation described by COVID.GOV as “multisystemic” infections. This is a compound illness consisting of two or more illness elements with two or more causes and thus needing two or more cures.

The growth of a SARS-CoV-2 infection also creates of toxic spike proteins. The presence of many SARS-CoV-2 infections in different areas of the patient creates spike proteins in many areas of the patient’s body. These toxic proteins can enter the lymphatic system and the bloodstream, traveling to and accumulating in other areas, requiring additional curative processes.

When a virus spreads throughout the body, it might find places to hide, to incubate. We do not understand how long the virus can persist in our bodies. It’s hard to study in live patients.

A normally healthy nurse might suffer multiple SARS-CoV-2 infections in a short time period, resulting in a moderate or severe case of COVID, which might lead to Long COVID consequences. However, if the infection is so severe that they die – they don’t get Long COVID.

But many Long COVID patients are not nurses. Many are healthy athletes – or other healthy people who were not working with COVID patients. How might these “normally healthy people” suffer multiple overlapping infections?

Breathing

Normally healthy people breath a lot. When they exercise, they breath more heavily. The virus naturally multiplies and leaves on the out-breath. But, what if the out-breath is blocked? What if a normally healthy person, with a normal, Stage 1, Stage 2, or Stage 3 SARS-CoV-2 infection is wearing a COVID mask?

Some of the virus particles in the breath are blocked by the mask. Some squirts out at the sides and top. Some stick to the mask. Some pauses and whirls around inside the mask for a few seconds. Then, on the next in-breath, it is sucked back into the nasal passages, back into the lungs, most likely to a new location, potentially creating a new infection. When the immune systems are not yet primed, this infection can grow. This might happen again and again, perhaps only a small amount at a time, but on every breath.

This is not news.

A letter published in theBMJ in May 2020, stated “If masks determine a humid habitat where SARS-CoV-2 can remain active because of the water vapour continuously provided by breathing and captured by the mask fabric, they determine an increase in viral load (by re-inhaling exhaled viruses) and therefore they can cause a defeat of the innate immunity and an increase in infections.” Note: it is more accurate to replace the first word “if” with the word “when.“

When a normally healthy person, who has an asymptomatic (Stage 1), minor (Stage 2), moderate (Stage 3), or severe (Stage 4) SARS-CoV-2 infection, exercises while wearing a face mask, they can significantly increase the number of infection sites and the severity of the infections.

Which masks are most likely to cause Long COVID? Do the N95 style masks, with the larger breathing space, create a better SARS-CoV-2 incubator? Or are standard pleated medical masks, or customized personal masks more dangerous? And what about face shields, are they better, or worse? What about double masks? Face shields? Does a tighter mask make the problem better? or Worse? Are these questions relevant? The more effective a mask is at holding back the virus, the more likely it is to create multiple infections.

As far as I am aware, these questions have never been studied scientifically. People who are wearing COVID masks to protect others, might be risking damage to their own health – not just with COVID, but with any RSV infection, any cold, or flu.

What is the Cure for Long COVID?

In current medical paradigm, we cannot cure COVID. Hundreds of millions of COVID patients have RECOVERED. The word CURED is studiously avoided. We don’t study COVID cures. We cannot expect to cure Long COVID until we change our medical paradigm, until we begin to study a theory of cure.

Curing Long COVID is more difficult than curing COVID-19 because Long COVID is more complex than any stage of COVID, even when it is less dangerous.

A compound case of COVID consists of many concurrent infections, as illustrated in the above diagram, and is more likely to lead to signs and symptoms of Long COVID. For a complete cure, each individual infection and its consequences must be cured, which often takes a considerable amount of time – and might never be completed.

Cures are Better than Preventatives

To prevent COVID, we wear masks. Vaccinate. Sanitize. Social Distance. But it’s difficult to analyze preventatives – when a specific case of disease is prevented, we have no proof. Prevention is a statistical calculation. Cured, in comparison, is a specific case.

Once someone has COVID, the time for a preventative is past. We need a cure. Unfortunately, COVID cures are not studied.

Curing COVID appears to be impossible – and even when COVID is cured, the cured word is avoided. The same situation occurs with too many diseases.

What is the best preventative for Long COVID? – a COVID cure. As quickly and efficiently as possible. Long COVID is caused by COVID uncured, by our failures to cure COVID, a disease that is easily cured in most cases.

If the COVID patient is frequently wearing a COVID mask, the best preventative for Long COVID is to take off the mask. We have plenty of debate whether COVID masks do much to prevent COVID. But it is clear they can cause more severe COVID, leading to Long COVID.

What about Long RSV?

COVID is an RSV. If Long COVID is a disease, surely there is more general condition – Long RSV. RSVs have been with us forever – but we have no evidence of a disease called Long RSV. Why not? Perhaps it’s because we haven’t worn RSV face masks for normal colds and flu.

Maybe this has been studied in Japan, where masks have been used with RSVs for decades to limit infection. Maybe Japan, with it’s concept of kamikaze sacrificing one person’s life to protect many, this has been studied and considered a natural consequence of protecting the greater community? Or maybe not. Most cases of RSVs, and most cases of COVID, are minor.

If a mask prevents infections, but increases the severity of infections, it might simultaneously prevent infections in minor cases, while increasing infections in severe cases. A comprehensive study might find the serious illnesses created in infected people by mask wearing is more damaging to the overall community than the minor cases of illness it prevents.

The best cure for Long RSV is the same – cure the RSV before it becomes more severe. Wearing a mask when you have an RSV can increase the severity of the infection.

A Cure is the Best Preventative

Preventatives are statistical.

They have statistical benefits and statistical risks. The BMJ letter about COVID masks Covid-19: Important potential side effects of wearing face masks that we should bear in mind: (Note: these are risks, not “side effects” as described in the letter.)

• Wearing a mask may give a false sense of security
• People must avoid touching their masks and adopt other management measures, otherwise masks are counterproductive
• The quality and volume of speech between people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously come closer (possibly infecting each other)
• Wearing a mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an impulse to touch the eyes. If your hands are contaminated, you are infecting yourself
• Face masks make breathing more difficult… This may also worsen the clinical condition of infected people if the enhanced breathing pushes the viral load down into their lungs
• therefore they (people wearing masks) can cause a defeat of the innate immunity and an increase in infections

The letter concludes “It is necessary to quantify the complex interactions that may well be operating between positive and negative effects of wearing surgical masks at population level. It is not time to act without evidence.“

Of course, Long COVID might also be caused by other factors. People who are bedridden, for example, might not be breathing freely, and might re-infect themselves as a result. However, these cases are harder to notice, they are not healthy people, so we have less expectation of a full recovery, of a full cure. Their infections are more likely to reaches Stage 5, where they can’t get Long COVID because they are dead.

Two Types of Preventatives

Preventative actions can be holistic or reductionist. Holistic actions, like healthy nutrition, waste excretion, exercise, and rest prevent and cure illnesses by helping the body, mind, and spirit to fight infections and heal. Reductionist actions, like wearing a mask, sanitizing, and social distancing reduce healthiness in the hopes of avoiding disease.

Wearing a mask is a reductive preventative, reducing our healthiness in hopes of preventing disease. Statistically, it can also cause or worsen a case of disease if we are already sick. Sunshine is a holistic preventative, improving our healthiness. Statistically, it can cause another disease if we already have too much sun – sunburn.

Holistic preventatives sum in their improvements to healthiness. Healthy nutrition, exercise and rest make a person healthier, more able to avoid and fight disease. When holistic preventatives are combined, they sum and synergize their improvements in healthiness.

Many holistic preventatives are also cures. Drinking water and eating healthy foods prevents dehydration and malnutrition – and cures when simple dehydration or malnutrition are present.

Reductionist preventatives sum and synergize in their reduction of healthiness. Wearing a mask combined with social distancing doubly reduces social healthiness. Great care must be taken when combining reductionist preventative actions.

Two Types of Treatments (and cures)

Modern medicine generally refers to treatments rather than cures. All COVID treatments are statistical, containing both benefits and risks. Sometimes they cure. Sometimes they cause other problems. A single treatment might have benefits, even produce a cure, while also having negative consequences.

As with preventative actions, there are two types of disease treatments, thus two types of COVID treatments, holistic and reductionist. We need to study both. Our current medical concept of holistic treatment is often fuzzy. In healthicine, and in studies of cures, holistic is clearly defined.

Holistic Treatments are those that add to the health of the patient, making it more whole. Supplementing Vitamin D, Vitamin C, or zinc, is needed when the patient is deficient, or deficient from the perspective of the SARS-CoV-2 infection. A holistic treatment often cures multiple diseases. Supplementing Vitamins can CURE scurvy, beriberi, night blindness, and more. However, because we don’t study cures – this knowledge is easily ignored or forgotten.

Reductionist Treatments are those that fight the present cause, the infection, but also reduce healthiness. Most medicines that fight infections are poisons, reducing the health of the patient in the hope of a cure.

Some treatments can be holistic in some ways, reductive in other ways. We might debate the holistic or reductive nature of specific treatments. That would be a step forward. Sometimes the holistic and reductive nature of a treatment or cure depends on the specific situation or case. Taking Vitamin A can cure Vitamin A deficiency, but worsens Vitamin A toxicity. All preventatives, treatments, and cures have individual variables to that can change in a specific cases. Each case is anecdotal. Each of us need to look after ourselves first, then others.

CURED is anecdotal.

Every cure is an anecdote, an individual story. Every case of cured is a real case, not a statistical probability. The cure might be claimed by some, and dismissed or denied by others – but it is still a single case, not a statistic.

When a person has COVID or another RSV, a timely, effective cure is the best preventative of Long COVID and Long RSVs.

A cure is the best preventative.

A cure is the best preventative.

The Long COVID Demon

Diseases are not demons, not evil spirits. Every element of illness has a present element of cause. A cure is an action that successfully addresses the present cause. Causes are not demons, although we might perceive them as demons or evil spirits when they are invisible.

Cures are not impossible. Most illnesses, most cuts, bruises, common colds, and flu are easily cured. Most cuts and bruises are trivial, easily cured. Some can be dangerous or difficult to cure. Even minor cancers are so easily cured that we ignore the cures. Long COVID and Long RSVs are similar. Some cases might be minor, naturally cured over time. Some might require some intentional action or medical attention – and some cases might be difficult, taking a long time to cure.

Long COVID is not a demon. We might view it as meta-COVID, or as caused by metasticised multiple SARS-CoV-2 infections, in multiple bodily systems, requiring multiple cures. Long COVID can be more difficult to cure that simple COVID. It has more illness elements, so it requires more cure elements. But, like any illness, some cases might be easy to cure, some might be almost impossible.

A case of Long COVID can have many past causes. But cures need to address present causes. Unfortunately, our current medical systems generally avoid the concept of cure, even more so with COVID. Modern medicine has no theory of cure.

We prevent Long COVID by curing COVID-19. Most cases of COVID are easily cured. There are many ways to prevent Long COVID. Every preventative is a statistical analysis. If it works, we cannot prove any disease was prevented, because there was no disease. But we do not need to fear Long COVID, we need to study it and work harder to prevent it, and work harder to cure COVID before it becomes Long COVID.

We cure Long COVID by addressing the present consequences of a past COVID infection. These might include the toxic remains of SARS-CoV-2 infections, the cellular damage caused by the infection and by our body fighting the infection, and even the possible presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus hiding in our body and emerging to cause further infections. The cure might occur in stages. It might take time. When we study cure, we can cure.

to your health, tracy
I am not a doctor. This material was written based on the contents of the book A New Theory of Cure. Modern medicine has no old theory of cure.

Tracy D Kolenchuk
Founder: Healthicine
Author: A New Theory of Cure
Author: COVID-19: From Causes to Cures (banned by Amazon)