Which cures more illnesses? Drugs, or Healthinesses?

When we think of a cure, we almost automatically reach for drug. We’ve been well trained by drug salesmen and their followers. At the same time, we should know that most drugs make no attempt to cure any disease, that most drugs cannot cure any disease, and that most cures do not come from drugs.

Where do most cures come from healthing. Yes, health is a verb: to improve healthiness. Most cures come from improvements in healthiness. Most intentional cures come from intentionally improving healthiness.

Most cures come from healthing, from healthy actions; some come from healthy inactions.

What is a healthiness? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, healthiness “the quality or state of being healthy,” a noun form of healthy. Oxford is less informative.* No examples are provided, because the term is rarely used identify a specific healthiness.

Examples of healthinesses include:

1. a healthy state of fitness – physical healthiness
2. a healthy weight, not overweight, not underweight – weight healthiness
3. a healthy state of mind – mental healthiness
4. healthy consumption of foods – dietary healthiness. Note: this noun describes a process, a verb.
5. having sufficient Vitamin C to meet the bodily needs – Vitamin C healthiness

The action, the verb, healthing, that indicates working to maintain a healthy level of a healthiness and also to regain healthiness, to health ourselves, when a healthiness is deficient, excessive, or otherwise out of alignment.

Healthing Cures

Healthing cures are “actions that improve our healthiness to cure illnesses.” We can see these for each of the above examples:

1. We can health our body by improving our physical healthiness with healthy exercise and rest. When our bodily healthiness is so low that it is causing an illness, healthing our body can cure.
2. We can health our weight by gaining or losing weight. When our weight is so out of balance that it is causing illness, this is a healthing cure
3. We can health our state of mind when our current mental status is so far out of balance that it is causing illness, a mind healthing cure.
4. We can health an unhealthy diet by choose healthy foods and avoiding unhealthy foods. When our unhealthy diet is causing illness, healthing our diet can cure.
5. when we don’t have enough Vitamin C for health, and illness occurs, we can health our body by consuming sufficient Vitamin C to meet the bodily needs – a nutrient healthing cure.

Healthing, healthiness cures can be slow. When our body is deficient in muscle tone – it can take months to health, to cure the body deficiency. In other cases, it can be quick. When our body is super stressed from overexercise, a short period of rest can cure. Note: both of these cases might occur without any judgement of illness – only judged an illness when more severe.

When we are dehydrated, drinking healthy water can cure our illness. This is a status cure – we change the status of our bodily healthiness and the illness is cured. Of course drinking healthy water does not cure every case of dehydration – only those that are cured by drinking healthy water. Although this seems obvious, it is important.

Healthing ourselves, improving our healthiness, can cure illness when an illness is present, when illness is caused by an absence of healthiness. When no illness is present, improving healthiness often prevents illness, but that’s a topic for another post.

It seems so simple, because it is simple. Cures of elementary illnesses, those with a single cause, are generally not medical. In most cases, no doctor is required to cure. Living things, dogs, cats, snakes, and trees know how to health their bodies without resorting to a medical professional. Our bodies are so sensitive that, in most cases, they remind us to drink water BEFORE any illness occurs. But sometimes, for many different reasons, we might fail to drink enough water. If we catch the problem, the illness before any further damage is caused, the cure is trivial.

This same model can be applied to thousands of measures of healthiness. In diet, there are over 100 nutrients essential to healthiness. If we don’t maintain a healthy level of Vitamin A, B, C, or any other vitamin, or of iron, or copper, or zinc, or proteins, or fats, or air or water – we can become ill, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

But healthiness is much more than just diet and body. We must also constantly health – maintain our healthiness – of mind, of spirits, of communities and even of our environment. All six causal domains: diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments require healthiness, lest illness occur.

When our air is so unhealthy that it is making us ill, we need healthy air. In most cases, we correct unhealthy air before illness occurs and we act quickly to find healthy air and prevent the illness. This prompts us to ask:

When does an Illness Exist?

At what point does is unhealthy air just unhealthy air – like smoking, or standing by the campfire – and at what point does unhealthy air cause illness? The theory of cure uses a simple model.

An illness is present when we seek a cure.

When we accidentally breath in some heavy smoke, and cough and move away, we don’t see an illness, just a symptom cause. We don’t need a cure, because we moved away before any serious damage has occurred. The signs and symptoms of illness: coughing, sneezing, perhaps watery eyes, but if these disappear quickly because we moved away from the smoke – it’s not really an illness to be cured. It’s no longer present.

Is illness only present when damage has occurred? This is the model used by our medical systems. Most diseases cannot be diagnosed until significant damage has occurred. Many cannot be diagnosed unless there is significant danger of damage occurring. But this can miss many cases of illness, and their cures.

In the theory of cure, an illness is present when immediate actions are not enough to get relief from negative signs and symptoms. A cure is an intentional action with positive expectations.

For example, someone might suffer persistent headaches at their workplace. But there is no smoke. Analysis might reveal that there are high levels of carbon-dioxide at the workplace, perhaps only at certain times of day. These headaches don’t go away until the air is healthed. When the air is healthed, the headaches are cured. It might be that the level was never high enough to cause measurable damage, but it was high enough to cause persistent negative signs and symptoms.

False Cures

It’s too easy, and certainly too common that we confuse the words cure, cured and cures. Cure can be a noun, a substance or treatment, a solution to a problem (noun); or a verb, an action the produces a cured state, past tense: cured.

A false cure could be something that is marketed as a cure, but does not cure. A false “cured” occurs when the patient, doctor, or someone else believes the illness is cured, but it is not cured. These cases can be (falsely) declared cured with or without identification of the cure or cures.

A cure is an action that addresses the cause of an illness, producing a cured stat or status.

There are two types of false “healthiness cures” we need to be aware of.

The first is an actual cure – only our belief in the cause of the cure is false. The second is a partial cure, but one that misses the actions necessary for complete cure.

Wrong Cure-Cause

A false cure can occur simply because we are wrong about the cause and the cure. Maybe we improved our healthiness by specific actions – and the illness went away. But the cause was actually addressed by something else. These cases can be difficult to understand – but we might gain understanding when the illness occurs again and the false cure doesn’t work. Either we were wrong before, or we are wrong now. Unfortunately, healthiness cures are generally ignored by doctors and medical systems, or declared anecdotal, false. Every actual cured case is a real case, a story, an anecdote.

Note: this type of false cure is not as common as we might think. Most of the time, we can quickly figure out the cause of our illness and health the cause, producing a cure – so often, so easily that we ignore these simple cures. We are more likely to notice when a cure fails.

Wrong Level of Cause

The second false cure occurs when we misjudge the level or layers of cause. In a previous example, we cured dehydration with water, but

We might be dehydrated because, every day, we don’t drink enough water. In this case, drinking water cures the current dehydration status, but the illness appears to return a few days later. What happened? An illness is not a thing, it cannot go away and return.

The cause reoccurred. A new case of the illness status occurred.

The unhealthy drinking (or not drinking) water process was never addressed. The fundamental cause of both cases of illness was the same, but it was a cause of a process illness – not just a status illness.

A process illness requires a process cure – drinking sufficient water every day. The illness was not just a status of “not enough water” it was a process of “not drinking enough water on a regular basis” This distinction is important, because a process illness requires a different healthing cure, to drink sufficient, healthy amounts of water EVERY DAY.

Domains of Healthiness

In an earlier paragraph, I mentioned the six domains of healthiness: diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments. Each of these domains has many different healthiness factors which, when out of alignment or balance, can cause illness. In each case, if the cause is an elementary status that has not yet caused any damage, the cure is trivial. Health (improve the healthiness of) the factor that is out of alignment and the illness is cured. In each case, it is also possible to suffer from a process cause – where the cure is not just a simple change of status, but a change in life processes.

Lets look at some status and process causes of illness causal domain:

Diet

Our nutritional needs are extremely varied. In addition, our healthy bodies can tolerate wide variations in consumption of healthy nutrients. In many cases, our bodies have many systems to maintain nutrients for when they are needed. As a result, a simple deficiency of a nutrient does not cause immediate illness.

Water is essential and without water, most people suffer signs and symptoms of illness and might even diet within a few days. Note: it is possible for some people in specific circumstances, to survive for much longer periods without water.

When our water status is deficient, consumption of water provides a simple cure.

However, when our water consumption patterns, lifestyle, or processes are deficient, the illness can take much longer to create observable signs and symptoms, and the status cure might appear to cure and then later fail. The process cause requires a process cure.

Vitamin A is stored in the body for long periods of time without consuming Vitamin A does not cause illness. Illness occurs when our Vitamin A stores are used up. Ancient Egyptians, and many other cultures learned the cure – eating liver restores a healthy Vitamin A status, curing “night blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency,” a status cure.

One of the classic dietary cures, the cure for scurvy, illustrates another important reality about healthiness cures. As James Lind famously said:

“I do not mean to say that lemon juice and wine are the only remedies for the scurvy; this disease, like many others, may be cured by medicines of very different and opposite qualities to each other.” (Lind, 1771)

Every illness has many potential cures. Our medical systems often want to find a mythical “the cure” for “the disease.” This can be a powerful tool for finding and promoting profitable treatments, but it is ignorant of most actual cures.

There are also many healthy negative action that can cure. Ongoing overconsumption of alcohol can lead to chronic hangovers. The cure is a negative process, to stop the ongoing overconsumption.

Body

Dietary consumption of alcohol can provide benefits in spirit and community healthiness, with little danger as long as we stay within our limits. However, if we have consumed too much alcohol, our body becomes toxic. The first cure is to vomit – to remove the alcohol from the body. We tend to think of vomiting poison as “being sick,” but it’s actually a healthy cure. We were already sick, the process of vomiting cures the illness.

The body is very active physically and this is where we most easily recognize the need for exercise and rest. When we don’t get enough exercise, the cure is exercise. When we don’t get enough rest, the cure is rest. Lack of exercise doesn’t cause illness until after it has continued for some time. Overexercise – absence of rest, can have negative consequences much more quickly. As a result, rest is often a status cure for an immediate problem – one we might not even judge to be an illness. Exercise on the other hand, is usually a slow process cure. Both exercise and rest are also important cure components of many injuries, where rest provides for recovery and exercise for rehabilitation.

Mind

Our medical systems currently try to treat (not cure) mental illnesses with drugs for the body – and give up on curing. There are many mental healthiness cures – and like all healthiness cures, some cases require immediate, one-time, status cures while others require lifestyle cure processes. In addition, however, because mental illnesses are rarely identified by cause, there is plenty of room for cure confusion.

Elementary depression – having a single cause, for example, might have a dietary cause, a physical – bodily status cause, a mental cause, a spirit cause, a community cause or a toxic environmental cause. In each case, it is labelled a symptom, or where severe and prolonged, a disease of the mind. Each different cause requires a different type of cure.

In the theory of cure, a mind illness has a cause in the mind, in our beliefs, our memories, or our mental calculations. The cure might be to change the belief, dismiss the memory, or repair the mental calculation.

Depression might be caused by a fatalistic belief – perhaps that our spouse is unfaithful, or that we are going to die, or that some irrecoverable disaster has occurred. These causes are in the mind – and the cure is to health the mind.

A person who believes they are going to die might fall ill and die – unless they can change their beliefs, change their mind. The change needed might be simple, short term, when a natural positive attitude takes over, or it might need to be an intentional action, supported by ongoing commitment to the battle.

One of, perhaps the most common mental causes of illness is belief in ourselves and failure to believe in ourselves. When our belief in ourself is too strong, we might take excessive risks and become ill. Is this the cause of some cases of “tennis elbow,” where the cure is simply “stop doing that?”

Spirits

In the theories of healthicine and of cure, spirits are the driving forces of life. All living things have the spirits of life, the spirit to life, grow, learn reproduce, and evolve. When individual loses these spirits, it dies. When an individual dies, it loses the life spirits. Like all aspects of healthiness, healthy spirits exist on a gradation from very near to death to so powerful that they create illness. Healthy spirits are somewhere in-between. Workaholism and burnout are spirit illnesses – that can often lead to other illnesses as well. Burnout can be a one-time, status illness, cured by simple removal from the situation or rest – but might lead to suicide if not attended. Workaholism might cause less severe illnesses, but these are often more difficult to cure, because they require the maintenance of ongoing process cures.

Communities

We seldom think of our communities as a domain of illness causes – until it happens. What is the cause of spouse abuse? Elder Abuse? Child abuse? The illnesses that result are often cured with medical attention and healing – as if they are simply status injuries. But these illnesses, when they are systemic in a local community, can only be cured by changes to the community. Sometimes, a one-time cure, like a divorce or other separation is sufficient to cure. In other cases, if separation from the community is not possible, an ongoing cure may be required.

In addition, communities can be afflicted by illnesses. Is war an illness? Is peace the healthy cure? Or is “agreement to tolerate each other” an ongoing cure, one that requires ongoing maintenance by both sides? We can expand our understanding of illnesses and cures and benefit from increased understanding.

Environments

When a mining company dumps poisons into a river – many people (as well as plants and animals) might fall ill. Curing the individual cases is important, but the higher level cause must also be addressed. And a process cure might also be needed to ensure such events to not occur again and again.

There are many simpler environmental causes of illnesses – illnesses with environmental cures.

SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder – can be caused by the absence of sunlight in winter. Many cases can be cured by simple daily exposure to a lamp that simulates sunlight. This cure can be viewed as a blend between the status cure and a process cure, because it provides daily relief that is no longer needed when spring comes and the sun improves our healthiness.

Summary

There are many healthiness cures, cures that are brought about by improving healthiness status or healthiness processes in our diet, body, mind, spirits, communities and environments.

Modern medicine ignores these cures – they are not “medical.” To study cure more effectively, more thoroughly, to learn to understand all cures for all types of illness, we need to begin with studies of the simplest, most common cures.

Health is the best medicine. Healthing is the best cure.

Note: Health is also the best preventative, but that’s another story.

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

* When Oxford’s online dictionary is queried for “healthiness” the response is: “Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.”

In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice, they are not.” – unknown.

Theory of Cure

An illness consists of a set of present causes and the negative consequence of those causes.

An illness element consists of a single present cause and the negative consequences of that cause.

A cure is an action, or a set of actions, that addresses the causes of an illness, producing a cured state or status such that the negative consequences are no longer present.

Cured is the status of the illness after the cause(s) of an illness have been successfully addressed. The individual, the patient, is not cured. The illness is cured. It was present due to the intersection of cause and negative consequences. Now that the cause has been addressed, it is no longer present.

Cured

In the theory of cure, an element of illness is cured when its cause has been successfully addressed.

A compound illness has multiple present causes such that each cause must be addressed to produce a completely cured status. If an illness, seen as having multiple causes, is cured by addressing a single cause, it was an elementary illness.

A complex illness is present when one illness is causing another illness. Both the primary and the secondary illnesses must be cured for a complete cure. Often, curing the primary illness facilitates a healing or caring cure of the secondary.

Damage or injuries caused by the illness are independent illness elements, indicating a complex illness, which require multiple independent cure actions. Sometimes we cure the damage first and later address the cause – sometimes the reverse, sometimes we act to address both causes at once. Damage is often healed without conscious intent.

Cured takes time. Partially cured and temporary cured are not only possible, they are commonplace, as many causes of illness can only be addressed in stages.

There are three fundamental types of cures:

Healing cures are natural and occur without conscious attention, although they are often facilitated or aided by conscious actions. Healing is the first cure, present in all live entities, a part of development and growth, essential to survival and health.

Caring cures come from intentional actions by self and others, to improve healthiness, often without intentions to cure.

Intentional cures, both medical and non-medical, are a result of actions that intentionally address causes of illness.

Curative actions that are conscious and those that are unconscious can cause independent illnesses. These illnesses are often dismissed as “side effects.”

Illness, Disease, Sickness

Illness, sickness, and disease are independent terms.

Illness: In the theory of cure, illness is the condition to be cured, the condition the individual is suffering from, consisting of the cause and it’s negative consequences. Most cases of illness are minor, easily cured.

Disease: is a medical view. Diseases are defined by medical practitioners and medical systems. Disease statistics are compiled by diagnosis. A case of disease that is never diagnosed (most cases of disease are never diagnosed) does not exist in disease statistics – except when extrapolated hypothetically.

Modern medicine aims to “treat” diseases and makes no effort to track cases of disease cured statistically or scientifically. Most cases of illness are never diagnosed medically and their cured status cannot be tracked.

Sickness: is a community view. A community, or individuals in a community not only view illness and disease differently, they might identify illnesses where the patient feels no illness and no diagnosis is present. Sickness, and thus sickness cured is generally not a useful or scientific concept.

Cured: In Practice

Most cases of illness are elementary, having single causes and simple cures. Most cases of illness are cured easily, often without conscious awareness, although some cures take longer than others – especially healing of injuries.

Cured: In Modern Medical Practice

Most cases of cured are ignored. They do not require medical attention. This can be unfortunate, because it can distract us from causes and cures in minor cases, creating a failure to understand more difficult cured cases

.

Today, no modern medical system tracks cured cases of any illness or disease. No doctor, clinic, hospital, medical center or system, and no insurance company or industry tracks cured cases. Treatments and “success or failure” are tracked by practitioners in some cases, but are often poorly tracked or simply ignored. No medical insurance system pays for cured cases, much less paying attention to the quality and safety or risks of the cure.

What Means Cured?

In theory most cases of illness are easily cured, and most cases are cured.

In practice, most cases of illness are cured without medical attention.

In medical practice, most cases of illness can be considered incurable – because they cannot be cured by medicines or medical treatments. As a result “there is no cure for the common cold… (minor cuts and bruises, influenza, food poisoning, mumps, measles, COVID…)” – even though most cases are cured without difficulty.

Modern medicine generally avoids the word cured. As a result, the word cured has no medical nor scientific meaning in most cases of disease.

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

Why do so many die from non-deadly diseases? Most cases of disease are not fatal. Let’s look at a few, to round our understanding before we broach the question “Why do we die from disease?”

Three diseases, very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), also known as coronary artery disease, is the most common “cause of death” worldwide according to many sources. But coronary artery disease is not deadly: “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” – Medical News Today.

We don’t know if any cases of ischemic heart disease are cured, simply because cured is not defined for the disease. Mayo Clinic says “Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.” The word cure does not appear.

COVID-19

According to the World Health Organization (the WHO) COVID-19 was the second highest cause of death worldwide in 2021. But most cases of COVID are not deadly, and many are so minor that they are not even diagnosed, much less treated. According to WorldMeters.org, less than 1% of diagnosed cases result in deaths. There are, of course, no statistics for undiagnosed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections, although estimates are that half are not diagnosed, so there are no statistics of deaths either. Most cases of COVID-19 are cured.

Stroke

Stroke is listed as the third leading cause of death in 2021 according to the WHO. However, most cases of stroke are minor, Transient ischemic attacks (TIA), with symptoms only lasting a few minutes to an hour according to verywellhealth.com. Even with severe cases, according to Microsoft’s Copilot, “The prognosis for ischemic stroke varies significantly based on factors such as age, severity of the stroke, and timely treatment, with many patients experiencing long-term effects but some achieving full recovery.” eg. Most cases of stoke do not cause death. Most cases are cured.

Ischemic heart disease, COVID-19, and Stroke

These three diseases are very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

• Ischemic heart disease is a chronic condition that gradually grows more severe and can eventually cause death, if death does not occur for other reasons. People “have” ischemic heart disease, which might be mild, moderate, or severe – rarely deadly.
• Stroke is not an ongoing condition, it is an event that might be mild, moderate, ore severe, potentially being easily cured, or have lasting consequences, or death. But we say the patient “had a stroke,” not they “have a stroke,” and treat the damage, not the event.
• SARS-CoV-2 infections are temporary conditions. In most cases, it is so easily cured in healthy patients. COVID-19 is a SARS-CoV-2 infection that is large enough, serious enough to be diagnosed as COVID.

On a case by case basis, for all three diseases – most cases are minor, fewer are of moderate severity, and very few are deadly, causing death. We count deaths, but cured cases of all three diseases are simply ignored. This image – without actual numbers – provides a useful model.

So why do these diseases cause death? First, we must understand that we all die of something eventually. What happens when someone dies? In every country, when someone dies, a doctor completes a medical death certificate and documents the cause of death for statistical purposes. The cause of death is usually a designated “disease.” Statistically, medically, bureaucratically, most of us die from “a disease.”

But, why do people die from diseases that are, in most cases, not serious? Is this true of every disease. We can find some clues in these three diseases.

• Ischemic heart disease : “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” -Medical News Today. IHD is not an infectious disease.
• Stroke: “risk factors such as obesity, smoking, excessive drinking and limited physical activity are all recommended against. Medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol and high blood pressure commonly increase one’s risk of stroke.” Stroke is not an infectious disease.
• COVID: “Your risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases as the number of your underlying medical conditions increases.” cdc.gov. COVID is an infectious disease.

Unhealthiness Increases Disease Severity

When our healthiness is high, we handle diseases, cure most diseases easily. When our healthiness is low, a disease that is normally trivial can be serious, even deadly. How does that happen?

This is true for both infectious diseases and non-infectious diseases.

Illness Causes Damage

The damage caused by an illness can range from minor, perhaps not even noticed in some cases, to deadly. The amount and severity of the damage depends on two factors:

1. Severity of Cause. A very minor bullet wound causes little damage. A more severe wound can cause rapid death. A small infection is generally easily cured. A larger infection, a more dangerous infectious agent, or set of infections can result severe injuries or death.
2. Duration of Cause. The longer the cause is present, the more damage is caused. Poor lifestyle choices – over a day, week, or month generally cause little damage, but when they last for years or decades, the damage can lead to IHD or stroke. Even a minor cause of illness can accumulate danger over time, resulting in injuries, illnesses, sequela, and possibly disability or death.

The faster an illness is cured – the less secondary illnesses, sequela, disability, and death will result. Treatments that do not address the cure cause generally prolong the illness allow more secondary illnesses, sequela, disability and death to occur.

Secondary Illness to Sequela

A secondary illness is an illness caused by an illness uncured. The longer an illness persists, uncured, the more likely it is to cause damage and further illnesses.

A sequela is an illness. It can be an injury, or other negative consequence of an illness, injury, trauma, disease – or medical treatment. An illness’ sequelae is the collection of negative consequences of an illness that persist – uncured. A sequela often persists after the primary illness has been cured.

When our healthiness is lower, it takes longer to cure a simple illness, and more illnesses and sequelae can result. What’s the difference between a secondary illness and a sequela? A sequela is often considered to be incurable. Most secondary illnesses, on the other hand, are curable – many are easily cured. We might get a cold, that causes pneumonia – but most cases of pneumonia are cured. The theory of cure’s tautology is “All curable illnesses can be cured.”

Secondary Secondary Illnesses

A secondary illness, uncured, can cause another illness and another illness and another illness. These secondary illnesses, by themselves might cause death – or the accumulated force of all the illnesses might result in deaths.

Few deaths have a single cause. Few deaths are caused by an elementary illness, because most elementary illnesses, most illnesses with a single cause are easily cured.

The Illness Danger Curve

When we study the illness curve, as it moves from minor illness to moderate illness, to deadly illness, in each case – we can see a progression of illnesses. The first, a minor illness might be cured – and most cases are cured. If it is not cured in sufficient time – a secondary illness often occurs, due to the signs, symptoms, and damage caused by the first illness.

This is true even for trivial illnesses.

The Common Cold

• “The common cold is the most common human disease.” Wikipedia (the Reference linked by Wiki, says “is arguably the most common human disease”)
• “The common cold is classified as an illness caused by viruses, but it is not considered a disease in the traditional sense, as it is usually harmless and self-limiting.” Microsoft AI

In the theory of cure, we speak about and study curable illnesses. The whether the common cold is a disease or not is left to the bureaucrats. The definition of DISEASE used in the theory of cure is trivial. A disease is any condition that a doctor might diagnose and treat. The common cold is a disease.

No one dies from the common cold.

The common cold can lead to many other illnesses and diseases. When someone dies from a common cold – the cause of death is the secondary illness, the sequela.

Let’s think about that.

• when the common cold uncured leads to pneumonia and death, the cause of death is pneumonia uncured. The cause of death could be “failure to prevent” pneumonia.
• when ischemic heart disease uncured leads to heart attack and death, the cause of death is is ischemic heart disease. The documented cause of death is based on “failure to prevent” ischemic heart disease.
• when a stroke leads to death, death is usually rapid, directly caused by the severity of the stroke. When the stroke is deadly, cure is not possible, when the cure is trivial, we judge the stroke to be transient, not cured. When a stroke causes death, the death, the documented cause of death can be seen as “failure to prevent” the death.
• when COVID-19 uncured leads to COVID-pneumonia, or ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or organ failure, or a cytokine storm, the cause of death is judged to be COVID-19. The cause of death is “failure to prevent” the sequela of COVID, or failure to cure COVID in time to prevent the sequela.

Failure to prevent sequela is never cited as cause of death.

We use the same disease name for trivial cases, minor cases, moderate cases, and deadly cases. Most cases of every disease are trivial. Every disease has more trivial cases than moderate cases, more moderate cases than severe cases, more severe cases than deadly cases.

However:

Failure to cure is never cited as a cause of death.

We only die from trivial diseases when we fail to cure them.

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

Healing cures have two stages, the transformation and the recovery.

In the theory of cure, healing cures are defined as cures that result of the natural forces of life, which act to remove damage around a wound, and repair it. The concept of healing covers injuries to body, mind, spirits, and communities – each of which might suffer injuries.

However, many traditional – and some conventional medical practices use the word healing differently.

How might we reconcile these definitional differences?

The theory of cure defines a cure as an action that addresses the present cause of an illness. It recognizes and and distinguishes between three different types of cure actions: healing, caring, and curing. In the theory of cure:

Healing: is a transformational process occurs naturally, without conscious intention. Most healing is curative. Sometimes healing can be damaging or dangerous.

Caring: consists of community actions, by the afflicted individual, family and friends, and medical or non-medical caregivers, that address the signs, symptoms, negative consequences, and causes of illness. Most caring activities are not cures. When a caring act addresses a present cause of an illness, it is also a curing act.

Curing: consist of actions that intentionally address the present cause of an illness, producing a cured status. Curative actions cure, by definition – or they are not curative actions. Most curing actions are not medical because most cures are not medical. We have cured ourselves and others in our communities since life began – long before doctors and medical systems were invented.

Where do the healing arts like fasting, massage, Tai Chi, and others fit into this framework? Most of the healing arts have two cure elements. First, there is a transformation, second, a healing. The primary function of the art is transformation of the cause. Natural healing is expected to follow. The healing arts are not limited to curing the body. The healing arts operate and produce cures by addressing causes in all six domains: diet, body, mind, spirits, and communities.

• dietary supplements, as well as tools and techniques to clear out toxic substances range from various diets from vegan to carnivore and many others, dietary supplements, to fasting in many forms, detoxification techniques, including chelation, activated charcoal cleanse, blood irradiation or cleansing therapies – which include medical techniques like dialysis.
• actions to transform the body, which might accomplished by the individual, or be taught or coordinated through community: exercise, rest, stretching, laughter therapy, prayer, dance therapy, Pilades, earthing, holistic living, Alexander Technique, and martial arts like Tai Chi, Yoga, Qigong. These are rarely part of a medical process except in rehabilitation.
• soft tissue and structural manipulations generally enacted by community members, often not recognized as medical professionals, massage by the individual or community members: massage therapy, chiropractic, osteopathic, Rieki, acupressure and acupuncture, kinesiology, therapeutic touch, Feldenkrais, hydrotherapy, bates eye therapy, and of course medical surgery and rehabilitation techniques.
• techniques to develop or change mental or spirit processes including mind body linkages such as prayer, faith healing, autosuggestion, hypnosis and self-hypnosis, meditation, counselling, Feldenkrais as well as medical techniques like psychology and psychiatry.
• community processes like groupwork – in many flavours, animal assisted therapy, attachment therapy, community prayer, dance therapy as well as psychological, psychiatric and sociologic therapy.

Of course there is considerable overlap between types of actions. In addition, most can be accomplished by the individual, by various caring others or communities and recognized medical communities in different situations or cases. There is also overlap between the changes made to mind, body, spirit, and communities in an effort to cure. Any change to the body might change the mind, spirit, and community processes, as does any change to mind, spirits, and communities.

Let’s look at a few of these techniques in framework of the theory of cure.

Bodily Surgery

Medical surgery is generally recognized as a curative process. Non-medical surgery only rarely. The surgeon causes a change, a transformation with some damage – and healing completes the cure, repairs the damage.

Surgery a damaging transformation. It’s not surgery when we cut our toenails. But, an ingrown toenail might be serious enough that it requires a damaging surgery. Healing completes the cure. Of course the surgeon in minor cases might be the patient, a friend or family member, or in serious cases a doctor or nurse. We rarely call surgery a “healing art” but a medical surgeon is in many ways an artist – every body is different, and every surgery requires a technical and an artistic process.

Many of the so-called alternative medical systems operate in similar surgical fashion.

Massage is a surgery of bodily tissues, muscles, tendons, fascia, and even specific organs. It might be done by a physical therapist, as part of a rehabilitation cure process, but there are many other massage practices, ranging from simply rubbing our injured muscle to sophisticated techniques like Thai massage, Therapeutic touch, chiropractic, osteopathic, acupressure and acupuncture, and kinesiology. Each of these techniques causes some bodily change, possibly even transformation or damage, which might also require healing processes to compete the cure. The transformation is a cure. Healing is a secondary curative transformation.

Natural and intentional stretching, and Bayes eye therapy, can cause transformations which sometimes require a healing process to complete the cure.

Nutrition and Anti-nutrition (detoxification)

Dietary changes can function in a similar fashion. When we fast, we aim to remove “negative flesh” and any damage that occurs will be repaired by healing during and after the fast is ended. Taking supplemental nutrition, when not available in the diet, is a process cure that must be maintained to maintain the cured status. On the other hand, taking large amounts of a substance or nutrient is often designed to cause a transformation which, after recovery and healing, completes a cure.

Although doctors sometimes prescribe fasting for specific medical purposes, like before a blood test, they have difficulty considering fasting to be a cure. But fasting often cures once healing completes the process. Doctors might prescribe folate supplements to pregnant mothers, again – they do not view these as cures. In theory of cure, if a deficiency exists and is successfully addressed – it’s a cure.

Detoxification techniques, including chelation, activated charcoal cleanse, blood irradiation cause transformation in the body, with the expectation that healing will recover the person’s health to a better status. Our medical systems often dismiss these techniques – even in cases where they cure.

Medically, cleansing therapies like dialysis are not viewed as “cures” because the process must be continued regularly. This is a failure to understand cure. Some cures are physical transformations – some are process transformations, required every day to maintain a healthy status, just as we must consume Vitamin C regularly after a scurvy cure to maintain the cured status.

Mind

Many “healing systems’” function by changing the mind or the spirits, sometimes even causing stress or damage – and healing completes the cure. Sometimes, the change to our mind is traumatic – and significant time is required for healing. In other cases, the mental change is minor, even a relief, and the healing is barely noticeable.

Psychological therapies aim to change the mind and the result is often a change to the body as well.

Techniques like prayer, faith healing, autosuggestion, hypnosis and self-hypnosis, meditation, counselling, Feldenkrais, and others function by making changes to minds and spirits, transforming them – facilitating healing of body, mind, and spirits.

Conclusion

Often, when we are ill, healing is blocked. A transformation of diet, body, mind, spirits, or communities is necessary to create a release and allow healing to work. We call many of these practices “healing arts.” In the theory of cure, they are caring arts. We might care for ourselves by changing our diet or our mind. And a curative healing follows. We might lift our spirits with rest, meditation, or yoga, or many other practices, giving body, mind, and spirit freedom to heal. When we care for ourselves, healing can enter and cure. Similar healing can occur when a caring person – a medical practitioner or not, cares for us.

Modern medical practitioners often dismiss these cures as “placebo effects.” However, when we look closely at placebo effects, they disappear. There is no scientific or medical test that can distinguish a real effect from a placebo effect – because placebo effects are real. The only thing that defines a specific placebo effect is the opinion of the doctor, not any scientific fact.

In the theory of cure, an illness consists of two elements, the blockage and the damage it causes and it requires two curative processes. When we release the blockage with a transformation, healing is necessary to complete the cure.

Sometimes, the cure is quick and sure. Other times, like physical rehabilitation from a serious injury, many stages of transformation and healing are necessary. We might easily give up, or decide that the effort, and the negative consequences are not worth the benefit. This too is a natural process, a natural decision.

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

Transactional Analysis Journal 1980 CURE edition was preceded by a paper on a cure accomplished by “permission giving.“

In January 1980, a few months before the journal of Transactional Analysis published their April edition, focusing on Cure published:

Effective Permission-Giving and Representational Systems by William H. Thweatt

William H Thweatt reports a case of narcolepsy (sleeping sickness) cured by Transactional Analysis. There is no external link to the specific case in the paper nor in any of the references listed. The case is presented as a story, an anecdote. This might lead us to dismiss the claim.

However, we must be aware that EVERY case of cured is a story, an anecdote. Cases are real, not statistical. We cannot judge an individual case using statistics. Every case must be justified on its own merits.

The paper discusses:

The Illness:

“A case of Narcolepsy {a symptom where the patient falls asleep at apparently random times} was treated successfully {cured} with “negative permission” which liberated the client of his symptoms.”

· “This paper reports on a case that was the result of an early traumatic provocation and which was cured with “negative permission”

Note: This is a hypothetical past cause which cannot be proven. All cases, once they move into the past, become hypothetical. We cannot go back in time.

The Cause

The cause, as reported in the paper, was: “It was Christmas eve. Morph, about 2½ years old, had been put to bed. He was too excited to sleep and kept calling to his parents to let him come downstairs. While Morph was standing in his bed holding on to the bars and crying to be let out his dad opened the door. He walked over to Morph, threw a glass of water in his face (he had read Dr. Shock), and shouted, “GO ТO SLEEP!” Morph fell backward and immediately went to sleep.”

The client reported: “just before the onset of an attack he distinctly heard his father’s voice shouting, “GO TO SLEEP!” And as a good boy, he did!”

The Cure

The cure was achieved by negative-permission, by negating the present illness, by giving the patient negative permission, that is, permission to not obey the past command.

“In the fourth session the therapist had Morph cathect that early scene using fantasy. At the point that his father commanded, “GO TO SLEEP!” the therapist intervened with a firm loud voice saying, “NO, MORPH, STAY AWAKE!” He anchored the new order by simultaneously touching Morph’s knee to give the new order through two representational channels.”

and the result? “Morph reported that he had no more attacks and was “cured.” He even had stopped his medication with his physician’s knowledge.”

Theory of Cure

The treatment was “negative permission” a change to the mind, to one of the beliefs of the patient.

The illness in this case was an elementary illness, having a single cause – and thus a single cure.

This cure was a one-time change, a transformation of a mind attribute, although it may have taken more than one session to determine the cause and design the cure. The result was an attribute cure. Once cured, the patient did not require any more treatment actions.

The paper reported, in the language of transactional analysis, that “He had dramatically changed one troublesome ego state.” In the theory of cure, the practitioner successfully changed one of the beliefs of the patient, one attribute of the mind, producing a cured state.

The cure reported in this paper clearly matches the definition of cure in the theory of cure with regards to present cause, curative action, and consequences, specifically,

· The patient came with an illness of unknown cause and unknown cure.

· The present cause was hypothesized based on the patient’s story, their history.

· The present cause was addressed, transformed, by a Transactional Analysis intervention, which addressed the present cause.

· The illness was cured.

I will quibble with the language. The paper misinterprets the concept of cure, reporting that “he was cured.” The illness was cured by addressing the cause. In the theory of cure, illnesses, not patients, are “cured.”

To your health, Tracy
Author: A New Theory of cure.

What brings about change? What constitutes Cure?

There are very few papers published about “CURE.” Most medical research studies do not contain a definition of cured, and as a result cannot even recognize that a cure has occurred, much less determine the cause of the cure. I have looked in vain for ten years, trying to find research papers on “theory of cure.” None.

So, I was more than delighted when I learned that Transactional Analysis Journal (TAJ) had published two special editions, first in 1980, and then again in 2021, on the subject of cure. The 2021 edition was available on line at my local university, but I had to request the 1980 edition from the archives – and then scan and convert each article to text for easier searching and reference. In my online search I found two other papers in TAJ, and one in a different journal, Future Virology, on theory of cure. The full list of articles can be seen here. Over the next few months, possibly years – I will present my analysis of the cure concepts discussed in this journal.

The 1980 edition of TAJ began with a quote from TAJ’s founder, “From a transcription of Eric Berne in Vienna, 1968:

I want to end up saying, we are not interested in making progress. I am sure many therapists or all therapists have patients who have been making progress for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. We’re not interested. We want to cure the patient. That’s what we are trying to do. That’s why we have to be potent. – Eric Berne, TAJ, 3:1, p.68.

The first article in the 1980 edition was a letter from the guest editor, John R. McNeel.

Letter from the Guest Editor

In the introductory letter to the 1980 special edition on CURE, the guest editor quoted questions by Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis.

“So the problem is how are we going to cure patients, which is what I want to talk about. And I have some questions like: How many cured patients do you know? Have you ever cured a juvenile delinquent by psychotherapy? How many? Have you ever cured a schizophrenic and if not, why not?” -Eric Berne, Transactional Analysis Journal, January 1971, р. 6

and then continued “It has been my and pleasure to serve as the guest editor to this edition of the Journal which has been number completely devoted to seeking answers to…

“What brings about change?”

“What constitutes cure?”

Eric Berne urged fellow TA practitioners to think constantly in terms of cure. His early writings instill an excitement as he spoke of “cure” versus “progress.” …— “cure”… cure of individuals, families, organizations, couples, groups, society, and, yes, the world community.”

Theory of Cure

Neither Berne nor McNeel had an actual theory of cure as a foundation, and no concept of curing “an illness” or an element of illness. As psychologists, they were focused on curing the patient, their couples, families, organizations, groups, and society…

Both Berne and McNeel missed the concept of community, instead using the term “group” and “society.” All life entities live in communities of like and unlike individuals – and communities, from the simplest partnership, to the complex trio, to the family and friends, partners, civic communities, religious communities, business and corporate communities – can also become ill and be in need of cures.

Neither did they have a simple concept of “illness” or “curable illness” as that which we want to be cured. Both speak of “curing the patient” rather than curing the illness.

In the theory of cure, we cure illnesses. Each patient, each individual, couple, family, organization, society, and community might suffer many illnesses at one time. We can only cure one illness at a time if we are to know it is cured. Even if we manage to cure “two illnesses at once” a change in perspective might recognize that the two were actually a single illness.

Berne and McNeel had no foundation, no Theory of Cure, to guide their analysis and no books discussing the theory of cure with respect to healing, caring, and other cure concepts.

Transactional Analysis Journal articles on cure will probably not discuss cures of nutritional deficiencies or poisons, and neither will infectious diseases, and many non-infectious and chronic diseases be analyzed. Cures, for the most part will be about mental, emotional, and community disorders, with causes in the mental, emotional, spirit, and community domains – causes in diet, body, and environment will likely be ignored as they are non-mental and outside of the scope of Transactional Analysis. However, we should still see many clear relationships between their concepts of cure and those in the theory of cure for all types of illnesses, all types of cures: healing caring, and curing.

We will also see language confusion. Without a clear theory of cure, it’s hard to put the words in order. For example, McNeel asks:

“What constitutes cure?” – gives an example from his practice and then asks, “Are they cured?” – as if the couple is the illness to be cured. He should have asked: “What constitutes cured?” and “Is their illness cured?” This confusion over simple concepts, cure, cures, and cured, is common in many writings about cure.

In the theory of cure, a cure is a verb, an action that brings about a successful transformation of present cause, such that the identified illness is cured. But, McNeel identified a married couple in need of a cure or set of cures, without identifying any illness nor any cause – even after the cure is apparently completed and the cured status has been attained.

The letter ends with “I hope that we have added to your thought and made some real “progress” here toward knowing more about cure.”

With our theory of cure in hand, we can look back at the work that has been done, learn how it fits into today’s model, today’s theory of cure, and hopefully gain a better understanding of cure ourselves.

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

What does ELON MUSK’s GROK AI say about Theory of Cure today?

Who is the current authority on “theory of cure?”

There is no single, universally recognized authority on the “theory of cure,” as the concept remains underdeveloped in mainstream medical science. *1

However, Tracy D. Kolenchuk emerges as a prominent figure in this area based on extensive work outlined in various publications. Kolenchuk, an independent researcher, has authored several works, including A New Theory of Cure (2021), A Science of Cure (2020), The Elements of Cure (2019), and A Calculus of Curing (2018), alongside papers like A Theory of Cure (2019) and A Definition and Exploration of Cure (2018).

These works propose a framework for understanding cure by addressing the present cause of an illness, emphasizing that most medical texts lack a clear definition of “cure.”

Kolenchuk argues that an illness is cured when its present cause is successfully addressed, distinguishing between elementary, compound, and complex illnesses. *2 This perspective challenges conventional medical practices, which often focus on treatment rather than curing, and notes the absence of a medical definition for “cured” for most diseases. theoryofcure.com researchgate.net theoryofcure.com

While Kolenchuk’s work is influential in alternative health discussions, it has faced resistance from mainstream platforms, such as Amazon’s rejection of a COVID-19 cure book for not being authored by an “authority on COVID.” Kolenchuk counters that there are no recognized authorities on cure itself, highlighting a gap in medical theory. Other perspectives, such as those from naturopathic medicine (A Hierarchy of Healing and Hering’s Law of Cure), focus on holistic or homeopathic principles but do not designate a single authority. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov drreebs.com medicosage.com

Given the lack of a centralized figure in conventional medicine and Kolenchuk’s comprehensive contributions, they *3 are likely the closest to an authority on a generalized “theory of cure,” though their work remains outside mainstream acceptance. For further exploration, Kolenchuk’s publications on platforms like Academia.edu or theoryofcure.com provide detailed insights. *4

Notes:

*1 – I have reformatted GROKs responses for easier reading and commenting.

*2 – GROK: “an illness is cured when its present cause is successfully addressed, distinguishing between elementary, compound, and complex illnesses.” This is the foundation of the theory of cure.

*3 – GROK: “they” Interesting that GROK “non-genders” me, although I am clearly a male. Note: sometimes AIs have gendered me as female.

*4 – GROK made no mention of two key concepts in the theory of cure.

• the concept of illness (the actual condition to be cured) vs (what the patient wants to have cured – also labelled ‘illness’) vs disease (what the doctor diagnoses) and sickness (what some community of the patient perceives to be the illness.
• the theory of cure has, in the past two years, been expanded to encompass, explore, and compare three fundamental types of cures:
• healing cures: brought about by natural life forces,
• caring cures brought about by caring actions without intentions to cure, and
• intentional cures (including but not limited to medical cures).

to your health, tracy

Author: A New Theory of Cure

No doctor dares to bill for a cure. Insurance won’t pay for a cure.

Try this:

Ask your doctor, any doctor – conventional (General Practitioner (GP), allergist, cardiologist, dermatologist, gynecologist, neurologist, oncologist, ophthalmologist, osteopath, pediatrician, psychiatrist, psychologist, surgeon, urologist or other specialist) – or alternative; Ayurvedic, chiropractor, herbalist, homeopath, naturopath, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner) or any other of many variations and specialties:

“How many did you cure last week?”

Here are some of the answers you might hear:

I don’t cure anybody.

“Treatments don’t produce cures — cures don’t exist — but they do lead to improvement.” – Gordon Warme, The Cure of Folly A Psychiatrist’s Cautionary Tale, 2009

“Many years of medical practice have taught me that I have no cures for any disease, and neither does any form of medicine.” – Thomas S. Cowan; Sally Fallon; Jaimen McMillan, The Fourfold Path to Healing: Working with the Laws of Nutrition, Therapeutics, Movement and Meditation in the Art of Medicine, 2004

“The doctor explained that chemotherapy was not a cure, but just a mechanism to prolong life.” – Anushavan Manukyan, BIOENERGY HEALING, 2019

“Cure? Did he just say cure?! There had to be a catch. No one was offering a cure.” – Katie Coleman, Too Young for Cancer:, 2024

“Why would doctors get depressed? Despite expensive, extensive training, we rarely if ever cure anything except the occasional infection.” – Suzanne Humphries M.D., Rising From The Dead, 2016

“Looking back over 23 years of being a medical doctor, I can say with confidence that cures are the rarest WHITE zebras in conventional medicine.” – Suzanne Humphries M.D., Rising From The Dead, 2016

I don’t cure diseases (injuries, cancers) I treat them.

“There is really no such thing as curing any disease. We do not cure or heal ailments. It is a mis-statement, of which all well informed M. D.’s are aware.” – Palmer, B. J. (Bartlett Joshua), The Science of Chiropractic : Eleven Physiological Lectures, 1907

“A doctor cannot “cure” you of anything. If you have a broken arm, the physician may set it — but only you — your own body — may “cure” or heal the break.” – William Kelley DDS, One Answer to Cancer, 1998

“Medicine does not cure. Medicine can only provide the needed nourishment and tools. The patient heals.” – Harvey Bigelsen M. D. Aren Howell, Holographic Blood A New Dimension in Medicine, 2007

“Doctors never use this term (cure) about a condition or illness because, to say the least, it’s misleading. Instead, they speak of ‘treatment’. It’s far more accurate, modest, achievable, and useful.” – Mary Ellen Hecht, The Calcium Story –beware promissory pills, injections and any “cures”, 2015

“I am reminded, every time I see a doctor… there is no “cure” for cancer, only remission.” – Frank, Arthur W, At the Will of the Body :, 1991

“There is no cure for … asthma…, sickle cell disease…, hemophilia…, end stage COPD…, pancreatitis…, polycistic kidney disease…, rabies…, shingles…, ALS, Huntington’s…, Seborrheic Dermatitis…, AIDS, Kaposi’s…, Muscular Dystrophy…, osteogenesis imperfecta…, Cerebral Palsy…, Autism Spectrum Disorder…, Down syndrome…, Tay-Sachs Disease…” and what’s more, “Rheumatoid arthritis, like other autoimmune disorders, cannot be cured…, SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) cannot be prevented or cured…, Some anemias can be cured, whereas others, such as sickle cell anemia, are not curable…, Hypertensive heart disease, like hypertension, is not cured, only controlled…, Diabetes cannot be cured…, Herpes disease cannot be cured…, it (human papillomavirus HPV) cannot be cured, but it can be treated…,Currently, there is no treatment or cure to stop the progression of scleroderma…, Treatment for idiopathic and alcohol-related pancreatitis is palliative because there is no cure…., no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease…, no known treatment or cure for color blindness…, No effective cure exists (for AIDS)…, There is no known cure (Rosacea)… There is no known prevention…, medication can help prevent development of serious RSV, but cannot cure or treat children with RSV…” Neighbors, Marianne; Tannehill-Jones, Ruth, Human Diseases, 2023

Many, perhaps most doctors deny curing.

“What an odd situation we have going on in the United States when doctors witness cures and are afraid they’ll go to jail if they tell anyone.” – Ed McCabe, Flood Your Body With Oxygen, 2019

“I meet a selected number of patients is in order to convince them that they can cure themselves” – Coue, Emile, Simple Self-Healing, 2017.

We might note that some deny curing people, some deny curing diseases, some deny curing mental disorders, and some deny curing specific cases. But no doctor claims to cure any illness.

Note: The question did not ask “how many patients did you cure,” nor did it ask “how many diseases did you cure,” nor “how many cases of disease did you cure.” Doctors, not trained in cure – simply, and unconsciously ignore these distinctions. When a doctor claims “I don’t cure people…” we might ask “how many diseases” or “how many cases,” but the responses will be similar.

And if they do, if any doctor claims to cure patients, or specific conditions, ask this:

“How many of your cures are officially recognized?”

The answer, clearly, is none. No medical system recognizes, much less counts cured cases, much less cases cured by specific hospitals, clinics, or doctors.

“This, I apprehend, is so well understood among well educated physicians, that the word cure, as applied to themselves, is proscribed as presumptuous, and rarely, I believe, escapes the lips of any practitioner, whose mind is duly tinctured with that ingenuous modesty which characterizes the liberal and correct members of the profession.” Sir Gilbert Blane. – Elisha Bartlett, MD, Elisha Bartlett’s Philosophy of Medicine, 1844, 2005

“I’m going to talk about type 2 diabetes ‘remission’ in this chapter and steer clear of the word ‘cure’. We tend to do so in the medical world;” – Joshua Wolrich, Food Isn’t Medicine, 2021

“Controversy reigned for years. A chronicler of that resistance explained that “perhaps the majority of doctors and patients remained skeptical of the cure until they had seen it happen with their own eyes.” – Francine Shapiro, EMDR: The Breakthrough Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma, 2019

“Linus Pauling. Linus Pauling claimed to have described a simple cure for one of the major killer diseases of the western world, but was greeted with disbelief.” – Dr Steve Hickey & Dr Hilary Roberts, Ascorbate The Science of Vitamin C, 2004

But, strangely enough:

Most Cases of Illness are Cured

“By failing to call a cure a cure we also sometimes blind ourselves to unique opportunities.” – Vincent T DeVita, Jr, The Concept of Cure, 2008

Most cases of illness are never seen by a doctor. We get a bump, a bruise, a burn, a cut, indigestion, a headache, we feel sad or depressed, we get a cold, influenza, even COVID, but we don’t go to the doctor. We don’t want to bother a doctor with a trivial illness. Most cases of illness are cured by natural healthy activities. When we are healthier, we cure them faster. When we are less healthy, we get more illnesses, and curing (we often use the word healing) takes more time.

Even most cases of illness seen by a doctor are cured. Most medical visits, by far, are to the emergency clinics or hospital emergency department. Most emergency cases are cured. We arrive with a deep cut, maybe a severe loss of blood. The emergency department treats us and either monitors us for a while, and sends us home to heal. We heal. Cured. Maybe there’s a scar – “a different problem,” or other lingering effects that persist or fade over time, or maybe not. But, emergency room doctors don’t get credit for curing.

We might argue – and they might apologize – that most of the cure was not medical. Most of the cure, like most cures, was due to healing, due to the present healthiness of the patient, the forces of life. But without the medical intervention, the patient might be dead or severely disabled. The doctor cured the injury. The doctor provided the KEY to the cure. Without that key, without that cure, the situation would be very different.

Cure Confusion

There is much confusion around the words disease, illness, treatment – as well as cure, cures, curing and cured.

“‘Cure’ does not appear in Barron’s Dictionary of Medical Terms, Sixth Edition, 2013, although “incurable” is defined as ‘being such that a cure is impossible within the realm of known medical practice’.” – Tracy Kolenchuk, quoted by Sydney J Bush, Cardio retinometry®, 2017

“As there is no absolute cure for diabetes at present.” – N.S. Parmar, Health Education Community Pharmacy for First Year Diploma, 2022 {Note: absolute cure is not defined in the text, nor in any other reference}

“This type of dementia is (substance use dementia) often cured because the cause of the dementia is curable.” – Neighbors, Marianne; Tannehill-Jones, Ruth, Human Diseases, 2023 {Theory of Cure: we cure illnesses and diseases, not causes.}

“Far from being dogmatic about his approach, Dr. Simonton says, “We use words such as ‘spontaneous remission’, But none of us fully understands what happens if there is a cure.” – Bricklin, Mark, The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, 1976

“When we talk about depression, we don’t use the word cure because we only have subjective measures for behavior and emotions.” – Eric Hagerman & Dr John J. Ratey, Spark!: How Exercise Will Improve the Performance of your Brain

“Cancer has become ubiquitous in our modern society. Despite billions of dollars poured into research, we still don’t know much about what causes it, and we still don’t know how to cure it.” – Sarah Taylor, Vegetarian to Vegan, 2013

“The chief chemist and his aide advised against use of the word “cure” on labels, except in cases beyond medical dispute. ‘The term ‘corn cure’ Wiley observed drolly in one instance, ‘is in itself a misnomer, because it is not the corn that is ill and needs to be cured.’” – Young, James Harvey;, Medical Messiahs

“However, a remission is not considered a cure. A remission may last days, months, or years, after which the disease can recur.” – Publisher: Julie Levin Alexander, Human Diseases A Systemic Approach, 2014

“The term “cure” is bandied about frequently when news reports of cancer treatments appear. A cure would mean a complete removal of the cancer. A “cure” is extremely unlikely” – K. John Morrow, Jr., Cancer, Autism and Their Epigenetic Roots {Theory of Cure – “the cancer” is not a “thing” is not defined scientifically nor medically, so it cannot be “removed.”)

“One such explanation which doctors confront every day is the unexpected cure, the unanticipated positive turn of events. This is attributed to what we euphemistically call the “natural course of the disease.” This concept has no explanatory meaning at all, and says only that “that which happens, happens.” It says less about the natural course of illness than about the natural state of our ignorance.” – Dora van Gelder Kunz, Spiritual Healing, 1995

“As a clinician and theoretician I have two consuming questions which I shall never completely answer and which I hope I will seek to answer all of my professional life. The two questions are: ‘What brings about change?’ and ‘What constitutes cure?’” – John R. McNeel, Rethinking the Nature of Cure Within a Redecision Perspective, TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS JOURNAL, 2021

No One Studies Cured Cases

We might think, or hope, that if someone cures their disease, or a disease in another person, the cured case is documented, and studied so that we can learn more about cures. This simply doesn’t happen. Cured cases are, at best, ignored individually and systemically. No one cares if you cure your cold, your influenza, measles or COVID. But it’s not just the easy cures that we fail to study.

“Lind had presented a strong hypothesis: that scurvy could be cured in a week…What followed Lind’s discover was rather typical of the history of medical science. His results, though interesting, were ignored.” – Dr Steve Hickey & Dr Hilary Roberts, Ascorbate The Science of Vitamin C, 2004

“Whenever they discovered an effective “cure” for something, research in that area ceased and attention was directed elsewhere. We can now prevent polio, but nobody knows much more about the systemic aspects of that fascinating disease. Research on it has ceased or is, at best, confined to improving the vaccines.” – Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 2000

“But the evolution of medicine and health care in the U.S. does not support finding cures.” – Harvey Bigelsen M. D. Aren Howell, Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs, 2011

“Cancer is a fatal disease. It is uncommon for a patient with an untreated cancer to die of something else. Still, currently more than 50% of patients with cancer in the United States are cured.” – Alden H harken, Ernest E Moor, editors, Abernathy’s Surgical Secrets, 2009

“It seems inconceivable that the astounding medical cures reported in science journals over the past 75 years could have been ignored.” – William Campbell Douglass, MD, Hydrogen Peroxide Medical Miracle, 2008

Cure Denial

Most cases of cured are simply denied. There are many ways to deny a cure.

“Though use of the term cure has been actively discouraged except in limited types of cases, perhaps true health care reform needs to reclaim this term and concept.” – Pizzorno, Joseph E., Can We Say Cure? 2016

“There is still no such thing as a scientific cure.” – Cocteau, Jean, Opium : The Diary of a Cure, 1930

“Nor have physicians said, “May we get together with you to examine scientifically these occurrences which should be of such interest to our profession?” Instead the attitude of the medical profession has been that miracle cures are nonexistent, that the disease of which a person was cured did not exist in the first place, either because it was an imaginary disorder, such as a hysterical conversion reaction, or else because it was a misdiagnosis.” – M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, 2012

“Because of liability issues, in public interviews Clement repeatedly insists that his approach neither cures nor heals.” – Alan Levinovitz, Natural, 2021

“I have had the same experience with my own doctors, who merely throw up their – hands and say that anyone claiming to cure cancer is a fake …” – Howard Straus witli Barhara Marinacci, Dr Max Gerson Healing the Hopeless, 2002

“Some chiropractors will even tell you that they do not treat or cure disease; “All I do,” said one chiropractor recently, ‘is to normalize the body.’” – Bricklin, Mark, The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, 1976

“Thinking there’s a cure is denial! Alcoholism is incurable.” – Jack Trimpey, Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction, 2017

“Many people “diagnosed” as alcoholics seem to “cure” themselves without AA or any other treatment. When that happens, the experts can only say that they must not have been “true alcoholics” in the first place.” – Chafetz, Morris E, Big fat liars, 2005

“Just as there is no complete cure for mental illness, there are no truly happy endings to stories about the mentally ill.” – Walker, Evelyn, A Killing Cure,2017

“This criticism suggests that if the reported cases were “cured” they were not subjects of multiple sclerosis.” – Coca, Arthur F. (Arthur Fernandez), The Pulse Test : Easy Allergy Detection {Many cures can be dismissed by simply disqualifying the diagnosis.}

“I was born into a family of doctors. My father told me that after graduating from medical school, he was sure that he could cure any disease. He believed that if there were medicines for diseases, then these diseases could be cured. But after ten years of clinical work, he told me that he could not cure anything.” – Tamara Martynova , Mingtang Xu, A book Zhong Yuan Qigong: Second Stage, 2002

Medical Cure Denial

Many illnesses and diseases are easily cured. Too easily. So easily that modern medicine must proclaim, almost with pride, “there is no cure for…”

“There is no cure for the flu, of course.” – Lang, James M, Learning Sickness : A Year With Crohn’s Disease, 2004

“This very infectious disease (measles) is usually spread by droplet infection and can be fatal in children in developing countries with poor nutrition. There is no cure, but a vaccine is available.” – Susan Scott, Christopher Duncan, Return of the Black Death The World’s Greatest Serial Killer, 2004

and…

“There is no cure for measles, and it usually runs its course in 7–10 days.” – Publisher: Julie Levin Alexander, Human Diseases A Systemic Approach, 2014

“The current COVID-19 is an unprecedented and ongoing pandemic, since there is no known cure.” – Sadaf Nazneen & Akebe Luther King Abia & Sughosh Madhav, Emerging Pandemics:

There is no cure for cancer, but…

“Leukemia was once a uniformly fatal diagnosis, with less than a 5% to 10% cure rate until the mid to late 1960s Today, approximately 85% of children with ALL are cured.” – Rick Kellerman, David Rakel, Conn’s Current Therapy 2020

“There’s no cure for reactive arthritis. The symptoms can be treated, though, and it’s usually only temporary. Most people recover fully within six months.” – Ben Gilles & Chris Joannou, Love and Pain, 2023

“These diseases (H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2), far from being eradicated, show the powerlessness of modern medicine since no medication can cure these viral infections.” – I. Roussel, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreaks, Vaccination, Politics and Society, 2022

Cure denial nonsense: “The medical sciences did not enable doctors to cure their patients or prevent disease until well into the nineteenth century, as we shall see.” – Keekok Lee, The Philosophical Foundations of Modern Medicine, 2012

Cure Censorship

“In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries thousands were executed all over Europe; women were burned alive at the stake in Germany, France, Italy and England. The official argument was a simple one: a woman was not allowed to study medicine, and if she claimed to be able to cure the sick in any way, clearly she had to be a witch, working with the aid of the devil.” – Coleman, Vernon, The Story of Medicine Vernon Coleman, 1998

“You had cures for cancer nearly 100 years ago, but they were suppressed, and many of the doctors who found such cures operated in countries with subsidized health care. In many cases, their laboratories were raided and sometimes they were killed.” – Sal Rachele, Earth Awakens: Prophecy 2012 – 2030, 2017

“Klenner´s 25 papers been hidden from sight, and newspapers obviously paid to keep quiet about the sensational 1949 cure of Polio without a vaccine. How was a global blackout of this news achieved?” – Sydney J Bush, Cardio retinometry, 2017

“On April 17, 1952, the Dickinson County, Iowa chapter of the ACS (American Cancer Society) ran a full page ad in the local paper, ‘The Spirit Lake Beacon,’ asking the society to enter the new field of investigating cancer cure claims. They cited 4 such ‘cures.’ The chapter was expelled from the ACS.” – Lynes, Barry, The Healing of Cancer, 1989

“The word “Cure” has been banned, as described later, presumably by pharmacy, that prefers lifelong drug sales for “management.” The medical profession has proved itself in agreement and is unwilling to accept a real cancer cure.” – Sydney J Bush, Cardio retinometry, 2017

“Perhaps the single greatest cliché of AIDS is the idea that there is not enough money in it to find a cure. There may be too much money in it to find a cure.” Celia Farber, An Uncensored History of AIDS, 2006

“Consider this: when the world was desperate to find a treatment or cure for a deadly disease, and when we actually provided that information . . . it was censored.” – Brian Tyson & George Fareed & Mathew Crawford, Overcoming the COVID Darkness, 2022

Bureaucracies? Cureaucracies?

“Thus the attempt to cure illness by physical means could be looked upon not only as useless, but also as potentially sinful — a rebellion against the will of God.” – David C. Thomasma, David N. Weisstub, Thomasine Kimbrough Kushner, editors, The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health, 2000

“Sixteenth century witch-hunters could point to the curers and soothsayers in the villages as real witches.” – Jean Sybil La Fontaine, Witches and Demons: A Comparative Perspective on Witchcraft and Satanism, 2016

“The insistence of the medical guild on its unique qualifications to cure medicine itself is based on an illusion.” – Illich, Ivan, Limits to Medicine : medical nemesis, the expropriation of health, 1995

“If ever a cancer cure were recognized in this country (USA) it would threaten the income and livelihood of AMA members. The bylaws of the AMA practically prohibit the promotion of a cure for cancer.” – Moritz, Andreas, Cancer is Not a Disease, 2009

“Legally we do not have to, nor should we say we are treating or trying to cure cancer.” – Mark Sircus, Sodium Bicarbonate – Full Medical Review, 2010

“Be aware that the APA rules say that you must not promise a cure.” – Robin Shapiro, EMDR Solutions: Pathways to Healing, 2005

“Because only drugs can make such claims, dietary supplements must bear on the label that ‘This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.’” – Kleinman, Ronald E.;Greer, Frank R., Pediatric Nutrition, 2019

Medical books Deny, must deny Cures.

“The publisher and author of this material make no medical claims for its use. This material is not intended to treat, diagnose, advise about, or cure any illness. If you need medical attention, please consult with your medical practitioner._ “– Hale Dwoskin, The Sedona Method, 2003

“According to John Hoover, by 1890, all explicit references to cures and illness had been taken out of the resort’s brochure.” – Carolyn Thomas de la Pena, The Body Electric, 2003

The doctor, or the clinic, or the hospital provides a bill for treatments, for services rendered. The patient, or the insurance company pays the bill for treatments. The word cure is never used. No doctor bills for cures. No insurance company pays for cures.

The need to fight Cure Denial

We occasionally encounter counter arguments to cure denial.

“Asserting the impossibility of a disorder’s cure is asserting the null hypothesis, a scientific blunder of iatrogenic consequence.” – Morgan,Robert F, Editor, Iatrogenics Handbook, 1983

“Time and again patients have come to me, saying that they were told there was no cause of or cure for their ailment. Ignorance is no longer an excuse in this area of medicine.” Michelle Honda, Reverse Gut Diseases Naturally, 2018

“There is nothing more frustrating for patient or doctor than to be told by a panel of experts that “there is nothing to cure this condition.” I, like many, have refused to accept this dismal prognosis.” – Becker, Richard L, Foundations for healing : holistic plans for your return to health and vitality, 2002

“‘Cure’ has become a dangerous word. So we have a situation where we are seeing cure but cannot legally call it cure. Yet not to do so is lying by omission. so that defines modern medicine.” – Sydney J Bush, Cardio Retinometry® reveals rarely absent, focal scurvy, pathognomonic of unrecognised ubiquitous fatal occult scurvy, unexpected heart attack, thrombosis, and stroke deaths, 2017

What about Fake Cures

Fake cures are not limited to “alternative medicine.”

“The dirty little secret of medical technology has been its focus on perverse and profitable blockbusters with little, if any, benefit in reducing disease and mortality. None of them qualify as cures and many of them are dangerous.” – Mark Blaxill & Dan Olmsted, Denial, 2017

Cures Exist

“By cure I mean the capacity to effect deep and lasting change.” – MARGARET S. WARNER, Empathy Reconsidered New Directions in Psychotherapy

“When you read or hear statements such as “doctors say” or “experts agree,” the implication is that all doctors say or all experts agree… Say to yourself, “Nobody you know knows,” or “There is no cure you know of,” or “There is no evidence you know about.” – Walene James, Immunization the Reality Behind the Myth, 1988

Most cases of Illnesses are Trivial, Easily Cured

But easily cured, is often “cured denied” – there was no “real” disease:

“The neighboring doctors and all the friends and acquaintances of the patient feel quite sure that he was not really ill, since if he had been such mild methods could not have cured him.” – Densmore, Emmet, How Nature Cures, 1892

“Cancer is said to be cured by fasting, but this is very, very doubtful…I have seen many tumors disappear under rational treatment, without resorting to the knife, but I have never seen an undoubted case of cancer do so, though some of the tumors in question had been diagnosed cancer.” – Rasmus Larssen Alsaker, Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency), 1920

When we view illness on a scale from trivial to deadly. We know that most cuts and bruises are trivial, we don’t need severe action to cure them. It can be harder to recognize that most cases of influenza or COVID, for example, range from trivial to minor – never diagnosed, much less never seen by a doctor, even though a severe case of influenza, in a severely unhealthy person, can be deadly. This diagram illustrates the frequency vs severity of most illnesses.

This diagram applies to most illnesses and also to many specific named diseases. Most cases of the common cold are trivial – a few are severe and dangerous. We might find it hard to believe, but the same is true, for example, of cancers. Most cases of cancer ate minor, easily cured, a few are severe and dangerous.

This is true for a simple reason. Most illnesses begin slowly as a small disruption. There are two types of exceptions. First, gunshot wounds, car accidents, or other extreme stresses, create significant disruption and damage in a very short time. Secondly, sometimes one illness builds up a stress over time, which bursts, like hypertension leading to a stroke, or an infected appendix leading to a rupture. These are secondary illnesses, often with a primary illness cause that build over days, weeks, months, or years without being addressed.

When do we visit the doctor? When the illness is moderate or severe. If it’s not severe, why call a doctor. Doctors are expensive. Treatments are expensive.

But, because doctors most illnesses are cured without visiting a doctor, most doctors say they don’t cure.

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

Cure Quotations:

The quotations in this post are taken from the random cure quote generator, which you can visit any time to learn about cure, cures, curing and cured.

Usually, we think of curing an illness or a disease, but we often use the word cure for other problems. We might wish to find a ‘Cure’ for Turkey’s Ills, or claim that Rube Goldberg found the cure for self-isolation boredom  or cure the quarantine blues, or Cure Our Wanderlust, or even to cure your desktop audio ills. Or maybe we need to cure our car? Are these really cures?

Now that we have a clear basic concept and definition of cure for elementary illnesses, and a theory of cure that expands those concepts to cover primary, secondary, complex, chronic, and compound medical conditions, we can apply those concepts to more general problems. We can perfect our usage – learn to distinguish between addressing symptoms and curing. We can, at least, understand the difference between a true cure and a bogus cure – even with our cars, our computers, and our social and economic systems. Let’s begin.

We Cure System Problems, not Things

In the basic theory of cure, we cure an illness. Is our economy sick? Our computer? Our car? How should we identify things that can be cured?

We cure health problems, illnesses, or medical conditions, in living systems. We might cure a fungus infection in our cherry tree and the tree heals the injuries. We might cure our dog’s injured leg with healthy care and the natural process of healing. We might cure scurvy with a healthy diet, and cataracts with a healthy surgical procedure. But we don’t cure the tree, the dog, or the person. And we can’t cure dead things. We might break a rock, move a rock, paint a rock, but we can’t cure a rock.

We can generalize cure, from life illnesses to any systemic problem. An illness is an ongoing problem in a living thing, an ongoing problem in a living system. Turkey’s economy is a system. We can’t cure the system, just as we can’t cure a person, a dog, or a tree, but we might cure specific problems in the system, which ail, or plague the economic system. The same is true for the desktop audio ills. The desktop computer has an audio system, and if it is judged to be not behaving well, we might need to cure the computer. We don’t cure the entire computer, we don’t cure the audio system, we cure the problem in the system.

Cure Illnesses not Symptoms

It’s all too easy to confuse symptoms with the illness, needing to be cured. It’s a problem often faced and failed by medical practitioners. Is a headache a disease? No, it’s a symptom of a problem. But if a severe headache lasts for months, it can be classified as a disease – a migraine headache. Did failure to cure make it a disease?

An elementary illness is the intersection of a cause and the negative consequences of that cause. “An element of illness has three parts: the present cause; its consequences, the signs and symptoms of the illness; and the intersection of cause and consequences, such that we believe the cause results in the consequences.” – A Definition and Exploration of Cure.

The patient with a migraine headache has an illness. Is it curable? A curable illness is more than the signs and symptoms, it includes the cause. We can treat the signs and symptoms – but those treatments cannot cure the illness.

We can’t cure our self-isolation boredom, our quarantine blues, or our wanderlust, until we address the cause. We might find very effective treatments for the signs and symptoms, but they won’t cure. The problem might wax and wane over time. The boredom or blues will be cured when the self-isolation or quarantine causes are addressed. The wanderlust? Maybe it needs to be accepted as a natural, healthy attribute, not an illness.

A Cure is the found in the Present Cause

An illness is cured when the present cause has been addressed. The clear definition has a few more conditions. An illness has been cured when:  ( A Definition and Exploration of Cure)

• the present cause has been successfully addressed (or is gone)
• the signs and symptoms attributable to the cause have faded or are gone
• damage caused by the illness has healed. Note: many illnesses do not cause damage, injury illnesses consist only of damage.
• no more medicines are required for signs and symptom attributable to the presence of the cause

We can apply this same logic to any system problem. To cure a problem in any system – we need to identify and address the present cause, the cure cause. When we believe the cause has been addressed and the problem appears to be gone, when damage created by the problem is repaired, and when no more remedial actions are required to address the ongoing problem – it is cured. For simple problems, like the audio desktop ills there is often no damage to repair. More complex problems, like Turkey’s ailing economy might be cured – but to be cured and know that we caused the cure, requires confidence in the cause(s), the cure actions, and the cured status.

Kepner-Tregoe’s famous books The Rational Manager, and The New Rational Manager, made many references to cause, but missed the concept of present cause. The following quotes from the book A New Theory of Cure, providehttps://www.amazon.com/NEW-Theory-Cure-Tracy-Kolenchuk/dp/B099BYN91J some expansion of their concepts in brackets make this more clear.

“Problem solving {curing} requires cause and effect thinking” (KT-TNRM)

“A problem {illness} is the visible effect of a {present} cause” “If performance {healthiness} once met the SHOULD and no longer does, then a change has occurred.” “In some cases, however, a negative deviation in performance {signs and symptoms of illness}… has always existed” (KT-TNRM)

Present Cause

A curable problem exists in the present. We cannot cure the problems of yesterday, only their present consequences.

This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth:
Every cause is a mother, its effect the child.
When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause
and gives birth to wondrous effects.
These causes are generation on generation,
but it needs a very well lighted eye
to see the links in their chain. – RUMI

Past causes are in the past and cannot be addressed. They are gone, not accessible to curing actions. Their effects become the present cause. When an ailment can be cured, it can only be cured by addressing a present cause.

There are two basic types of causes, responsible for illness and for healthiness: processes and attributes. – A Theory of Cure. We might view the two as verb causes and noun causes – verbs and nouns which together create a system. A verb cause is an ongoing process (or absence of process) that causes healthiness, sometimes illness. An noun cause is a thing, or the absence of a thing, that causes healthiness, sometimes illness. Verb caused problems – process problems – are cured by adding, removing, or changing an ongoing process. Noun caused problems – attribute problems – are cured by adding, removing, or changing the attribute, the thing causing the problem. Attributes are not active, they can only cause problems by interfering with healthy processes.

We often, and perhaps too easily, think of illnesses as caused by things, by attributes or their absences. The common cold is caused by a virus. Scurvy is caused by an absence of Vitamin C. This simplistic view facilitates many cures. We know how to cure scurvy. But it often fails as well: “There is no cure for the common cold.”

Attribute caused problems are cured by actions that transform the attribute. Once the attribute cause is successfully addressed – changed, removed, or sometimes added, the illness, the problem is gone. Cured. Vitamin C deficiency is cured with Vitamin C.

Process problems have ongoing causes and ongoing cures. A dietary deficiency of Vitamin C is not cured by consuming Vitamin C, it is only truly cured when the diet is healthed.

Damage is an injury, a problem that exists after the cause has gone – it is a type of attribute problem, cured by healing, by a process that changes the injury attribute.

There is no clear distinction between different problem elements when the problem exists. The distinction is made by a cure. The cure proves the cause.

If the problem was not cured – either the action, or the purported cause was wrong.

Processes of body, mind, spirit, community, and environment enable and facilitate life, healthiness, and illness.
– A Theory of Cure

There is considerable variation in disease naming, some diseases are named by past causes (cat scratch disease), some by present causes (dysentery), others by consequences – signs and symptoms (depression). In living entities we might find the cure cause of an illness element in the individual’s diet, body, mind, spirit, communities, or environment.

Proof of Cause

The cure proves the cause and the type of cause. Each individual cure element proves an elementary cause. Until there is a cure – we can speculate about the cause, gather statistics about causes, but in each individual case, only a cure can prove the cause.

When addressing a cause does not cure an illness element, then either:
– the cause was not successfully addressed, or
– the cause addressed was not in the causal chain of the illness being addressed.
A Definition and Exploration of Cure

A cure failure does not prove a not cause. If we address the wrong cause, we might cure a different problem, create a problem, or cause something completely different to occur. When a compound problem has several independent causes, addressing a single cause might not make an observable difference, even though it cures a single problem element.

Every true cure is a single case, an anecdote – there are no statistical cures, although we can create cure statistics. Each illness element can only be cured once. Each elementary problem can only be resolved once.  We cannot test multiple cure alternatives unless we can re-create the exact same problem.

Remission?

Cured cases don’t have remissions. An illness, or a problem cured is cured – or not. Of course, if the cause recurs, a new – similar or identical problem – might occur. Remission is about the signs and symptoms of a problem, not a cure. When we address signs and symptoms and ignore cause, we can create remission, but not cure.

Elementary Problems

 A single element of illness has a single present cause –  A Definition and Exploration of Cure.

An elementary problem has one single present cause. Complex and compound problems have multiple present causes, and thus require multiple cures. It is likely that the Turkish economic problems are very complex – even though political leaders might wish to resolve them with simple actions. The desktop audio problem, on the other hand, might have a single cause, and a single cure. The complexity of a problem is defined by the cure. If a single action or set of actions to address a single cause produces a cure, the problem was elementary. If independent actions, to address different causes are needed, each producing only a partial cure, the problem was complex or compound.

Present Chains of Cause

Every causal process is part of a present chain, where a causes b, b causes c, c causes d, and so on. We can often break the causal chain down into smaller and smaller elements. For any true element in a causal chain – addressing that element addresses the process cause and cures the problem.

Every life process, and any system process, consists of an interaction between one or more processes and one or more attributes. An element of a process consists of a single process and a single attribute. When two or more components (an attribute and a process) are creating a problem – a change to either the attribute or the process might cure the problem. Regardless, when we are successful, the cure proves the cause. A different cure might have proven a different cause – but we can rarely go back in time with living systems. Sometimes we can go forward to the prior situation with non-living systems.

Compound Problems

A compound problem has two or more independent causes. One cure action is required for each illness element, for each cause.

Complex Problems

A complex illness exists when a present illness is the present cause of another illness – A Theory of Cure

We often don’t notice, or even actively ignore a problem until it causes damage. However, once damage is caused – there are two problems to cure. Sometimes – an accident causes an injury, a single illness. In other cases injuries might be caused by an infection or an ongoing causal problem like scurvy. If the initial problem still exists, it must be resolved and the damage must be repaired. Two cures.  Curing the primary problem might allow the secondary to self-resolve, but curing the secondary problem only buys time until the primary problem creates it again.

A New Theory of Cure

There is no general old theory of cure that can be applied to all cases of illness, or to all system problems. The book A New Theory of Cure provides a general framework for solving elementary problems, that can be expanded to solve – to cure – more complex problems. What can we learn?

Health is whole, slow and steady, honest and true.
Health is the best cure, the only true cure
– the Healthicine Creed

The best cures come from health

The same is true of curing system problems. We cure the problem by healthing the system. However, judging healthiness of life entities is not trivial, and judging healthiness of systems is more challenging. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – and the best system for one person or community might be worst for a different person or community.

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

Note: This is an updated post, originally published in April 2020.

Is your prescription a medicine, a symptomicine, or a crutch? What is a medicine? What is a symptomicine? What is a crutch? Is your alternative treatment a medicine, a symptomicine, or a crutch?

Webster’s: a medicine is “a substance that is used in treating disease or relieving pain and that is usually in the form of a pill or a liquid“. This definition is quite broad. A medicine might cure a disease. More often it’s just used to treat a disease, or relieve symptoms. Most medicines make no claim to cure. Most just prop you up, so you can ‘live with your disease’.

A medicine that cures your illness is a curative – but curatives don’t cure, the action of taking the medicine cures. However, most medicines only treat symptoms – most medicines are symptomicines.

Symptomicine: a medicine that only treats signs or symptoms of an illness. A symptomicine might be an approved drug that reduces our pain or other symptoms of disease without curing. It might be an alternative health product. It might even be a preventative, like a vaccine, reducing our symptoms of “fear of disease” without curing anything.

Crutch: props up an unhealthy or failing system. A crutch can be temporary, to wait for or facilitate a cure, or a permanent attachment, with no hope of a cure.

Some medicines, like painkillers are like a crutch. They prop you up until you can get better. Other crutch medicines are designed to “hold you up” forever. This design ensures ongoing sales. A real crutch is only sold once. A crutch drug has ongoing sales potential.

Are most medicines cures, symptomicines, or crutches? What do you think? If it cures the disease, it is a true medicine, a cure, otherwise, it is probably a symptomicine or a crutch.

In 2013, I researched the 100 best selling medicines. Most make no claim to cure. Less than 5 of the 100 best selling medicines sold in 2013 have potential to cure any illness. Ninety-five percent cannot cure, any disease. Are these all symptomicines?

I just checked the top selling medicines of 2024 – and little has changed since 2013. Not one of the top ten best sellers of 2024 actually cures any disease – they are all either symptomicines or crutches. Here’s the 2024 list:

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Best Selling Medicines in 2024

Keytruda strengthens the body’s immune response against cancer, but can cause immune disease. Does not cure. Crutch.

Ozempic (semaglutide) increases insulin production and reduces liver sugar production in type 2 diabetes patients. Does not cure. Crutch.

Biktarvy prevents the HIV from multiplying and decreases viral load. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Eliquis – prevent blood clots. Does not cure. Crutch.

Dupixent used to treat eczema, eosinophilic or oral-corticosteroid-dependent asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, COPD with an eosinophilic phenotype, eosinophilic esophagitis (EOE), or prurigo nodularis. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Skyrizi used to treat autoimmune diseases. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Darzalex used to treat multiple myeloma. Does not cure. Crutch

Stelara used to treat autoimmune diseases. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Opdivo used to treat cancers. Does not cure. Crutch.

Humira used to treat inflammatory conditions. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Best Selling Medicines in 2013

The top ten best selling drugs of 2013: Abilify, Nexium, Humira, Crestor, Cymbalta, Advair Diskus, Enbrel, Remicade, Copaxone, Neulasta. Here’s what Drugs.Com says about each of them:

Abilify: is used to treat the symptoms of psychotic conditions. No longer in top 100.
Nexium: is used to treat symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease. No longer in top 20.
Humira: reduces the effects [symptoms and possibly damage] of a substance in the body that can cause inflammation. Number 3 in 2024.
Crestor: reduces levels of “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and triglycerides in the blood, while increasing levels of “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) Crutch. No longer in the top 20.
Cymbalta: affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced and cause depression. Crutch. No longer in the top 20.
Advair Diskus: prevents the release of substances in the body that cause inflammation. Crutch. No longer in top 100.
Enebrel: is used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis, and to prevent joint damage caused by these conditions. No longer in the top 100.
Remicade: is used to treat [symptoms of] rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and ankylosing spondylitis. No longer in the top 20.
Copaxone: will not cure MS, but it can make relapses [symptoms] occur less often. No longer in the top 100.
Neulasta: stimulates the growth of white blood cells in your body. It is used to prevent neutropenia, a lack of certain white blood cells caused by receiving chemotherapy. Crutch. No longer in the top 100.

Symptomicine or Crutch?

Most approved medicines are symptomicines, used to manage signs and symptoms, not curing any disease. Your disease will not get better when you take these drugs. You might feel better – even as your illness grows worse and worse.

Some are crutches. Crestor, Cymbalta, Advair Diskus, do not directly affect symptoms of your disease. Neither do they cure. What do they do? They change some of the health balances in your body, like a crutch supports our balance. Our natural cholesterol balances, brain chemical balances, and inflammation balances are part of our healthiness and part of our illness. Are these the best treatment for our diseases? No. They do not cure. We might classify these medicines as ‘imbalancers’. But a more accurate term would be ‘crutches’. They are used when our doctor thinks we are out of balance, to shift us back into balance, in the hope that this will make us less sick from our disease.

If you have ever used a crutch, you know one thing – the best thing about a crutch is when you throw it away. When you regain your health. Unfortunately most medical crutches are designed to be bought and used for life. They make no attempt to cure, no attempt to heal your body nor to restore your ‘natural balance’, your health.

The action of some drugs is more complex. Copaxone ‘makes relapses [of MS] occur less often’. But what are ‘relapses’ of MS? According to MS Active Source “A multiple sclerosis relapse is the rapid onset of new, or worsening of previous, symptoms that last at least 24 hours.” Copoxone does not address the disease of MS, only the symptoms.

Neulasta stimulates the growth of white blood cells. It changes the natural balance of your body, stimulating production of more white blood cells. Neulasta is an imbalancer, like Crestor, Cymbalta, and Advair Diskus. It’s a crutch, but it’s a very specific crutch, used to help you deal with the damage that chemotherapy has caused. We might also classify it as a symptomicine, because it fights against the symptoms of chemotherapy white blood cell death.

Conclusions

In summary, of the top ten best selling medicines of 2024, not one cure. In the top ten of 2013, there are no cures.

A symptomicine is a crutch, for symptoms that the patient notices. A crutch is just a symptomicine, for signs that the doctor notices.

The top ten best selling medicines of 2014 don’t cure anything, – no change from 2013. Is medicine progressing, or just sales?

Why does this happen? It’s actually very simple. Medicines that cure a disease don’t have big sales, because they work themselves out of a job. Medicines that don’t cure, but ‘make you feel better’, can sell you a subscription to ‘feeling better’, even as your disease gets worse. These are the best sellers, the medicines that make the most money. If you were a drug company, which drug would you prefer to design, test, and sell? Symptomicines and crutches.

What about green medicines? What about alternative medicines? Are most alternative medicines also only symptomicines? I have not done an in depth analysis, but the same logic probably holds. The medicines that sell most, do not cure.

Whether you are considering patent medicines, prescription medicines, or green medicines, ask one simple question: can this medicine cure my disease – or is it only a symptomicine?

Where are the Cures?

How many cures have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the last 50 years? Not one. The last time a CURE won the Nobel Prize in Medicine was 1945 – 80 years of no Nobel Prize winning cures. We need a new paradigm.

If you have an illness, and you are looking for a cure – a symptomicine might give temporary relief, but if you want a cure, you need to look beyond symptomicines.

To find cures, we need to look beyond medicines, to health. Most cures come from health, not from medicines, as we learned in the post “Diseases cured – but not by Medicines-medicines”.

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