Some people mistakenly believe that health is the absence of disease
and illness, and as long as they do the minimum to prevent disease
and illness, they conclude that they must be healthy. I feel health
is much more than just the absence of disease and illness, more than
doing just the minimum to prevent disease and illness, it's
optimizing the health so one can function at one's best, given all
the challenges that confront us on a daily basis. It's also not
settling for just okay, and doing the minimum, but demanding the
maximum as humanly possible, to get us as closes to optimal health
as we can.

Let's look at a disease cascade as one example, of many. When one
has an optimally functioning immune system, opportunistic foreigner
invaders like a bacteria, virus, fungus, or parasite, has a far less
chance of affecting us. But when we don't have an optimally
functioning immune system, then even a bug bite can potentially set
off a disease cascade.

Opportunistic invaders are all around us. While we can take some
preventive measures to keep a clean environment, and practice great
hygiene (and I don't mean being a clean freak), it is still up to
our immune system to be the catch all system to take care of
invaders before it has an opportunity to affect us.

Here's how the Disease Cascade might look, for someone with a weak
immune system.

Very Poor Diet, Unhealthy lifestyle habits, leading to

Poor Immune System, leading to

Opportunistic Invaders take hold, leading to

Low or High Grade Infections ensue, leading to

Immune System triggers inflammatory response, leading to

Some infections abate, but no permanent cure

Some people mistakenly think inflammation was the problem, and take
inflammatory inhibitors to address this symptom. But this only
compounds the problem by creating additional problems where none
previously existed. By inhibiting inflammation with toxic drugs,
the host has just crippled the Immune System and removed a tool for
dealing with infections. Not surprisingly, without this tool, the
host is now even more vulnerable to systemic infections. The host
may compound this mistake even more by now thinking the problem is
the infection, and go on antibiotics. A heavy dose of antibiotics
long-term will now destroy gut balance, creating intestinal
dysbiosis. The friendly bacteria in our gut are absolutely
necessary for good health and a strong immune system.

This is an extreme example of just treating symptoms without fully
understanding the disease cascade (the original problem that
triggered this cascade), as the progression was further up the
health hierarchy. What if instead of just treating symptoms,
instead of just inhibiting inflammation, instead of just taking
antibiotics to cope with infections, we instead go back to the
beginning, the start of this cascade, might we take a different
course to prevent this cascade from forming in the first place. Of
course, since healthy people do this everyday.

Here's how this Cascade might look, for a healthy person with a
strong immune system.

Great healthy diet, with all the nutrition necessary, together with
healthy lifestyle habits, leading to

Great Strong Immune System, leading to

Opportunistic Invaders trying to take hold, but is stopped by our
strong Immune System, leading to

No infections since nothing is taking hold, leading to

Immune System already stopped the Invaders so there is no need to
trigger inflammation, leading to

No inflammation, no infections, no problems

What a different picture, and a different outcome, and it began at
the top! Understand and accept the disease cascade so you can begin
to treat the causes, and not just the symptoms.

Health Note: I do understand there are times when some people are
faced with life-threatening infections, and do require immediate IV
antibiotics, or very strong antibiotics to save their life. Don't
misunderstand me, as I know there are times when it is absolutely
necessary to use antibiotics. But may I assume that since you are
reading this article right now, that you have the luxury to consider
your next choices, of truly understanding whether you are treating
symptoms, or addressing the root causes to stop this disease
cascade. I write this article not in judgment (since I've been
there, done that too, confusing symptoms and causes), but I write
this article to encourage people to see the differences and
hopefully take the correct actions accordingly.

Good Luck and Happy Healing!