Are Chronic Diseases Incurable?

That’s a multitrillion-dollar question. According to the CDC, “90% of the nation’s $4.1 trillion in annual health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions.”

By ‘definition’, chronic diseases such as diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and mental disorders are incurable – that is why they are called chronic diseases.

But why are they not curable? Well, because all the pills we are asked to swallow are not intended to cure. With the exception of antibiotics and antiviral agents for infectious diseases, how many of the 20,000+ FDA approved prescription drugs are intended by design to treat root causes and cure diseases rather than palliate the symptoms? If you have depression, take drugs to change the chemistry in your brain. If you have autoimmune disorders, take medications to suppress the immune system. If you have high blood pressure, swallow pills to expand your blood vessels. If you have type 2 diabetes, take medications to reduce the liver’s ability to make and release sugar. If you have pain, block the production of some enzymes so you don’t feel it. If you have cancer, let’s kill it with chemotherapy or radiation without asking what caused it.

The medical establishment, including the corporations, organizations, and individuals profiting from chronic diseases, has been promulgating the notion that chronic diseases, once onset, are perpetual motion machines that can never stop — the only solution is to palliate the symptoms by taking prescription drugs.

To the contrary of this no-cure dogma, mounting research and clinical evidence have shown the manifestation of chronic diseases are a direct result of active triggers or root causes (e.g., stress, infections, and environmental toxins) constantly assaulting the body; and our body heals itself once the root causes are resolved. This is what Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, observed and preached 2,400 years ago. And this is also consistent with a simple but profound fact: People don’t get sick without reason — our body systems are resilient and will not malfunction unless being assaulted heavily or repeatedly even though we may not be aware of it.

Curing chronic diseases by managing root causes isn’t just a theory or wishful thinking – it’s substantiated by real-world evidence as shown in the articles on this website and in the book Road to Health.

Of course, the word “cure” is very controversial – the medical establishment would vilify anybody mentioning it. Here, by “cured”, I mean all symptoms have disappeared, prescription drugs are no longer needed, and all lab tests become normal. It’s perfectly fine if you want to say the disease is in remission, reversed, or healed.

When it comes to curing chronic diseases, we also need to understand the difference between the disease itself and the damage it causes. The disease can be cured or healed, but the damage may not be reversed. Type 1 diabetes is a classic example, where the immune system mistakenly produces antibodies killing the beta cells in the pancreas. The autoimmune disorder can be healed or cured (returning the immune system to its normal state), but the destroyed beta cells can’t be regenerated because the beta cells only grow once in a lifetime. As a result, even if the autoimmune disease is resolved, type 1 diabetes remains a lifetime malady.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is another example — the immune system mistakenly produces antibodies attacking nerve fibers and the myelin sheath in the brain and spinal cord. Again, the immune system can be reset to normal, but the damage to the fibers and myelin may not be reversed and the patients may remain paralyzed depending on the degree of the damage. Unfortunately, the mix-up of the disease and the damage it causes reinforces the notion that chronic diseases have no cures.

The greatest challenge to heal chronic diseases is to de-educate ourselves of the notion there’s no cure which the medical establishment has insinuated into our trusting minds. 

One of the most pernicious smokescreens for the no-cure and drug-centered healthcare is the theory that chronic diseases are a result of gene-environment interplay, which has misled patients and doctors alike to believe genes are destiny and therefore chronic diseases have no cure. But this could not be further from the truth. All kinds of chronic disease have soared for the last 80 years, have the genes changed? Even if the genes changed, they did so to make the diseases less likely – the process and result of evolution. And keep in mind, the prevalence of the rare genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis has not increased for the last 80 years.

Don’t blame the genes for the ills. Even for the individuals carrying BRAC1 or BRAC2 mutations, the risk of getting breast cancer was 24% before 1940, but now it is nearly 80%. In fact, as discussed in the article The Cure for Cancer, studies on identical twins have demonstrated less than 10% of all cancers can be attributed to genetic factors.

Another example is the deletion of GSTM1 (glutathione S-transferase M1) and GSTT1 (glutathione S-transferase T1) has now been found to be associated with high risk of various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Paradoxically, about half of all Asians carry the mutations. If GSTM1 and GSTT1 deletions were deleterious to health, why does half of the Asian population carry the mutations? Evolution should have eliminated those carrying these mutations long ago. The inescapable conclusion is these mutations were not harmful until recently. GSTM1 and GSTT1 are members of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene family which play a critical role in the detoxication process getting all the toxins out of our bodies (read Chapter 10 of Road to Health for more information). Obviously, GSTM1 and GSTT1 null were not a health problem in the past because environmental toxins were much less of a problem compared to today – if you don’t get a lot of toxins into your body, you do not need GSTM1 and GSTT1.

Bear in mind, except for rare mutations, genetic variations from person to person are normal and indispensable – without variation, there would be no evolution – humankind could be wiped out by one virus or plague. Of course, the changing environment adversely affects those with variations such as GSTM1 and GSTT1 which interact with toxic chemicals.

When it comes to chronic diseases, except for rare genetic disorders, do not believe your DNA is your destiny for a second even if your parents or grandparents had the same condition. It is the changing environment that is sickening and killing us, and genes have become victims too.

Of course, environmental toxins (all the manmade chemicals) are not the only culprits. For instance, we know stress is a giant health killer. But stress has always been there with humankind – extreme climate, famine, and the threat of big flesh-eating animals. Nevertheless, it cannot be clearer that the rapid rise of chronic diseases in the last 80 years was brought on by the change of the environment – the ever-increasing production of insecticides, herbicides, and other countless poisonous chemicals getting into our food, water, air, and poisoning our body.   

All in all, our genes are not the problem — the only way to heal chronic diseases is to identify and address the root causes. Granted, identifying and managing the root causes is not always a walk in the park — chronic diseases are very often complex – a condition can be a result of multiple triggers at work; and for the same ailment, the root causes can be different from person to person. Take for example, depression can be brought on by one or more of many risk factors such as stress, dysbiosis (the overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut), environmental toxins, and malnutrition (e.g., vitamin D and/or B deficiency).

Healing chronic disease often requires concerted effort which is difficult to sustain without a real understanding of the big picture of chronic diseases, the strategies and tactics to identify and manage the root causes. Just like having gotten lost in the wild, to get out of the predicament, not only do you need to have the tactical skills — how to get across thick brush, deep creeks, and steep hills, but most importantly, you need to know the big picture – the right direction you need to go. Otherwise, you would likely be going in circles and give up before reaching your goal.

The articles on this website and the book Road to Health are dedicated to provide you with the big picture and skills that you need to reach your goal – get your health back. You can do it.