Secondary Processes:

Primary, upstream causes have a global effect on the body/mind which then leads to many secondary, downstream processes. Ignored and uncorrected the roots of disease grow in a progressive, snowballing fashion. Like falling dominos, countless symptoms manifest throughout the entire body. Treating the multitude of superficial symptoms, and ignoring the deeper (upstream) roots of imbalance is a misdirected, costly and ultimately futile endeavor.

COMMENTARY: THE ROOTS OF DISEASE

1) Chronic psychological and emotional suffering, pain and stress.

At times, everyone experiences mental and emotional turmoil. For many it's a way of life. Chronic worry, heartache, loss, frustration and pain take a toll on the nerves and deplete vital force, depress immunity, disrupt hormones and biorhythms. Childhood stress, relationship stress, job stress... it all adds up and can take a whopping toll on your health. It's a fact, stress kills.

2) Toxemia

Ingested toxins, environmental toxins, metabolic toxins... by the millions. From the dry cleaners and lawn chemicals to the food industry and 'sick building syndrome', we're all exposed to more toxins than we can shake a stick at. This is in addition to the toxins our bodies create as a by-product of work, exercise and STRESS. Over the years the body's elimination of toxins may be insufficient to deal with the load. Disease can result when excessive poisons accumulate in our cells and block normal function. Most notably, we find that people suffer with toxic blood, lymph, intestines, liver, kidneys/bladder, lungs and sinuses.

3) Autonomic Dysrhythmia

Modern culture is 'sympathetic dominant'. This is a serious dysfunction that is practically ubiquitous, affecting even our household pets. No joke. Sympathetic dominance is present when the nervous system is dominated by stress and the classic fight/flight physiology. Volumes of Nobel Prize research stand as testament to the fact that an overactive sympathetic nervous system leads to accelerated aging and disease.

4) Oxidative Stress

A rusty nail, a browning apple, age spots on the hands... it's all the same. Free radicals have been the subject of extensive research and the evidence is clear that oxidative stress won't just rust your pipes, or spoil your food, free radicals do the same thing inside our bodies, essentially rusting our organs from the inside out. Laboratory testing on hundreds of thousands of individuals has demonstrated that oxidative stress is a very widespread and creates an internal environment favorable toward illness, disease and many of the outward signs of unhealthy aging.

Primary sources of free radicals: hyper or non-specific stimulation of the immune system results in excess concentrations of hypochlorite production, exposure to toxins (xenobiotics) which cause the liver and the adrenal cortex, reactions that involve the cytochrome P450 enzyme reaction system, exposure to radiation either electromagnetic or through ionizing, excessive stress which through neuro-transmitters and modulators force both the immune and endocrine systems to produce destructive radicals.

5) Killer Food

How can a nation notorious for overeating protein, carbohydrate and fat have so many people deficient in vital nutrients? The answer is that we are eating too many 'empty calories' from foods grown in depleted top soil, coupled with excessive processing and refining.

Americans, young and old, suffer from multiple trace mineral, macro mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Most common deficiencies include magnesium, zinc, iron, selenium, B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential fatty acids and various amino acids.

Additionally, the Standard American Diet causes blood sugar dysregulation, hormonal disorders, acidosis, and digestive system overload and weakness. The bottom line is that the average person's diet is killing them in more ways than one. Despite loads of media attention and books from our nation's top nutritional gurus, the majority of people in this country are still digging their graves with their teeth.

6) Chronic Dehydration

When we don't drink enough healthy fluids we become dehydrated. The problem is that it's possible to be dehydrated more or less continuously for many years and not even know it. This in turn creates chronic and severe hormonal stress that leads directly to pain and disease. Research indicates that a simple water deficiency afflicts many millions of Americans.

7) Touch Deprivation

Detachment style parenting, body issues, and neglect of the body promotes a condition known as 'touch deprivation'. For millions of people this is a condition to simply accept. However, the stress and pain that results is more than many people can bare and drives them to extreme and desperate behavior in an unconscious effort to remedy a touch deficiency. However, there is no substitute for touch. Without enough skin to skin contact human beings become extremely imbalanced, and mentally and physically diseased.

8) Tissue Oxygen Starvation

Ninety percent of Americans are oxygen starved and eighty percent of these don't even realize it. The cause for this widespread problem is twofold. First, few if any of us are actually taught healthy breathing habits, we simply ignore it all together. The second reason is due to a predominantly indoor (and sedentary) lifestyle. Living inside schools, offices, homes, cars, and shopping malls combined with unconscious shallow breathing creates hypoxia, and hypoxia is an anaerobic condition that breeds infection, cancer, heart disease, inflammation/pain and chronic fatigue.

9) Chronic Inflammation, Lesions and Restrictions

Most, if not all, people suffer with multiple inflammations, lesions and restrictions in their various membranes, connective tissues, muscles, ligaments, tendons and organs. Not only do these inflammations and lesions limit mobility and motility, they also add substantially to the body's total stress load, and frequently become the site for accumulated toxins and future cancers. Preventing disease and creating optimal health necessitates that we locate and eliminate these physical problems.

10) Structural Subluxations

Gravity, injuries, sitting in chairs, bad shoes, and poor posture can all cause spinal and joint mis-alignment, which in turn leads to neuro-muscular, multiple organ and system dysfunction. Autopsy research indicates that in most cases, diseased organs are directly linked to subluxated vertebra. Subluxations of the cranial joints (sutures) have also been shown to cause serious dysfunction in body, mind and behavior. For optimal health and disease prevention, alignment of the whole body is vital.

Secondary Processes:

11) Endocrine Dysregulation

The endocrine (or hormonal) system is one of the master systems of the body, controlling all basic metabolic processes. As the roots of disease take hold in the body the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal (HPA Axis) becomes imbalanced and the body begins to lose the capacity for self-defense and self-repair. Thyroid, pineal, pancreas, ovarian and testicular problems will develop manifesting excessive and deficient cycling of hormones. The spectrum of symptoms that result from endocrine dysregulation is vast.

In general, if you have hormonal problems, it is a mistake to assume that the primary problem is with the gland itself. For example, thyroid problems are common, but it is wrong to assume that it is a primary thyroid disease, as this is rarely the case. When the deeper (upstream) imbalances have been corrected, our hormonal system can return to balance. Ignoring the roots of disease and taking hormones is the wrong approach. Balancing endocrine dysregulation by pulling the deeper roots of disease, is the correct approach.

12) Immune Dysfunction

The body does not 'have' an immune system as much as it 'is' an immune system. When ALL our body's systems are functioning properly we are immune to infection, illness and disease. And when our body systems are deeply imbalanced we are unable to effectively resist infection, illness and disease. Building a powerful immune system therefore suggests that we need to pull all the roots of disease and take care of the WHOLE person.

13) Inherent Weaknesses

This is where our genetic constitution enters the picture. If our family tree suggests a history of weak lungs, livers, kidneys, the chances are we have inherited these same weaknesses, whatever they are. In other words, you don't just have your daddy's eyes and your mommy's chin, you have their liver and spleen too! It is said that 'we die from our inherent weaknesses'. This means that as the imbalances in our body's persist, the wear and tear on our organs and systems is not equal throughout. Eventually, it will be our weakest link that finally snaps. Even if our heart had another twenty years of function left in it, when our weakest link finally breaks, it brings the rest of the body down with it. It helps to know your inherent weaknesses so you can be mindful and adjust your self-care routine accordingly.

SOLUTION: PULLING THE ROOTS OF DISEASE

JUMPSTART: 3 POINT PLAN

1) Take Your Supplements

Four Mountains has meticulously examined and tested more than one thousand nutritional supplement brands for quality and above all, clinical effectiveness. As it stands, one company, Standard Process Labs, is hands down, the industry leader. Since 1929 Standard Process has been manufacturing an extensive line of whole food concentrates, including protomorphogen and cytosol extract technology. If you need to nutritionally support, detoxify, fortify, relax or mobilize any organ, system or tissue type - Standard Process has a product that will safely do the job, and do it well.

Most nutritional supplement companies use synthetic raw materials and only fragments of incomplete nutrient complexes. Supplying the body fragments of inert nutrients is a poor substitute for nutrient complexes as found in nature. We urge people to stop ingesting synthetic nutrients and consume only the most pure and natural form of food concentrates.

At Four Mountains, we are of the opinion the optimal health is only possible by taking advantage of these unique nutritional formulas. Hard as it may be for the skeptic in you to believe, there is only one nutritional supplement company in the world that can be trusted. Of the thousands of products we have tested, only Standard Process delivers the goods. Visit www.standardprocess.com for detailed information, or call Four Mountains at 1-800-736-0904 to request our FREE SUPPLEMENT GUIDE and for help with ordering. You need this!

2) Low Stress Diet

Read hundreds of diet books and sort it all out for yourself, or call Four Mountains and we'll send you a FREE COPY of THE LOW STRESS DIET - a summary of everything you'll ever need to know about a healthy diet.

3) Yoga

Don't mistake Yoga for a trend or fad, as it's older than the hills and has proven itself the world over as the most awesome of healing traditions. Heal every system, organ, nerve, gland, muscle and bone in your body. That's the power of yoga.

Get rid of a lot of tension and you'll be like a new person after only one week. Of course that's the quick fix. Do it for ninety days and you'll cure most diseases. Do it for two years and you'll turn into the person you always hoped you might become but didn't know how to get there.

Give it a whirl. We enthusiastically recommend you study several yoga systems to derive maximum benefit and find your personal best routine. Start with Ashtanga, Bikram, Kundalini and Somatic Yoga. If you explore just those four styles, you'll be very well taken care of, and you'll never have to look any further.

LIFELONG HEALTH MANAGEMENT: YOUR WELLNESS LIFESTYLE

1) Self-Awareness & Self-Regulation (SA/SR)

Face it. Your body is a lifelong responsibility. Therefore, if you intend to take care of it the way you should, a little knowledge is indispensable.

Your body is very much like a GARDEN. Neglect it and the roots of disease will take over and destroy it's inherent design, health and beauty. However, tend it with the appropriate Wellness Tools and enjoy the health, beauty and vitality that is yours to enjoy.

For your Wellness Lifestyle to be effective, it will necessarily have to include some self-awareness and self-regulation in the following areas. This just means that you need to think about these four areas every so often and make sure that your doing a pretty good job keeping each area balanced. Imbalances in one or all of these four areas will have you running to a doctor, so the more you keep an eye on it yourself, the more self-reliant and healthier your GARDEN will become.

Think of your body and your health as involving four key areas. These are the four areas for which you are already responsible, whether you want to be or not. Sounds harsh, but there's nothing any of us can do about it.

a) Metabolic Self-Management

b) Nutritional Self-Management

c) Mental/Emotional Self-Management

d) Structural Self-Management

2) Turning the Wheel of Healing

The Wheel of Healing is the principle model for effective natural health care and healthy aging.

a) Detoxification

Reduce the body's toxic load with wholistic interventions that support all the channels of elimination and safely remove accumulated debris from your system

b) Fortification

Achieve nutritional competence by furnishing the body with the essential raw materials needed for normal function.

c) Relaxation

Dispel biological distress with proven techniques and tools that remove layers of tension from the mind and body.

d) Mobilization

Cultivate vigorous circulation, powerful nerve force, balanced musculoskeletal strength, and visceral health with daily therapeutic movement and low-stress body alignment exercises.

3) Wellness Tools

As there are many and diverse ways to turn the Wheel of Healing, Four Mountains has cataloged and innovated approximately eighty Wellness Tools specifically to facilitate these four vital processes. Our Wellness Tools are the bricks and mortar of our Wellness Programs, designed to provide maximum care for your body's twelve systems.

About The Author

Dr. Ward Coleman, N.D. is President of Four Mountains, Inc. a privately held Clinical & Research Laboratory dedicated to synthesizing all available data in the fields of alternative medicine, disease prevention, wholistic mind/body health and anti-aging technology.