Dear friends of Therasage,

In our last post, we discussed the importance of awareness and education. Now, it’s time to continue our reflections on the mission of Therasage by considering the importance of the definition of variables and the selection of tools.

Defining Variables

We understand the difficulties posed by many chronic health challenges and the general infectiveness of Western medicine to deal with them. However, even the best integrative or functional medicine protocol has its inherent limitations. The lab work and double-blind studies upon which they are founded are presumably solid, and we certainly want to believe in the good intentions of those who conduct them and go on to formulate treatment plans.

Lost in Translation

However, even the best protocol is one thing on paper and another in practice. Unfortunately, execution is where things get lost in translation. A protocol in theory is one thing; it’s entirely another thing once put in practice on a living human being with unique needs and responsive potentials.

The Cattle Effect

So, one problem with many protocols is that they get wrongly applied, especially with regard to treatment time and dosage.

There is a singular reason for this improper application: namely we live in a world of homogeneization. A particular challenge of modern times is what we like to call ‘the cattle effect.’ We get treated all the same. However, the truth is that each one of us is unique and very special, irrepeatable, actually. So, results can be optimal or merely mediocre, and homogeneization breeds mediocrity.

Timing and Dosage

In order for any protocol to be successful you must address timing and dosage. On the one hand, there is the minimally symptomatic person who receives a positive diagnosis for, say, Lyme disease, follows a prescribed course of antibiotics, and is subsequently judged to be free of B. burgdorferi. On the other, there is the highly toxic and complexedly symptomatic patient who, following the exact same protocol experiences a severe Herxheimer reaction that lands him or her in bed for the next three weeks. Same protocol, different patients.

Moreover, most chronically sick patients are sick of being sick. Some are living under virtual death sentences, without the time to wait for a generalized protocol to help them. Yet, they often are treated by doctors who are paid to prescribe, not to care. Our conventional medical system is set up in such a way that most doctors simply do not have the time to invest properly in each patient.

So, in applying any protocol, it’s important to understand likely time-based outcomes: short, middle, and long-term.

Listen Up!

What does all this mean? Patients need to listen to their own bodies and, in effect, be their own doctors. What does this look like? How does this sound? “Okay, doctor, thank you for your diagnosis and prescription. But, can we please fine-tune this to me? To my bloodwork? To my already antibiotically-battered gut?” Doctors, for their part, need to stop treating diagnosis and their clinical presentations and start treating people and their specific symptoms.

So, the optimal application of any protocol becomes that which best fits the needs of an individual patient and his or her situation and lifestyle. The theoretically optimal is not the same as the practically probable.

Building a New Image

A new picture of healing needs to be painted . . . a new tapestry needs to be woven. The canvas, or background, is made of the protocols available. The pigments and threads are the individual applications of those protocols, as unique as the human beings to whom they are applied.

For our part, here at Therasage we’re all about producing real products that really work and that get real results for everyday people.

Warmly,

The Therasage Team

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