*Editor’s Note: Elephant is not your doctor or hospital. Our lawyers would say “this website is not designed to, and should not be construed to provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, or treatment to you or any other individual, and is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional care and treatment. Always consult a health professional before trying out new home therapies or changing your diet.” But we can’t afford lawyers, and you knew all that. ~ Ed.

Today I will discuss how I am the generator of my state of health and that cure is not only possible but also within my reach.

But first, let us understand our biology. We basically are a community of cells, specialised into organs, all living harmoniously under control of the nervous system.

Biochemical reactions within the cells bring our bodies “alive.” When these biochemical reactions are affected, we experience symptoms. A collection of symptoms is called a disease—our way of categorizing symptoms into groups.

There has been immense research into the biochemical basis of disease. Blood, urine, hair, and even genetic tests have been developed. These can be useful sources of information about how biochemical reactions are affected. But none of these tests actually answer why that change occurs.

Biochemical reactions in our body do not happen haphazardly or randomly but are tightly regulated in the body by our brain—conscious and subconscious—through hormones, signaling molecules, nerve signals, and behavioural changes in an attempt to maintain a balance and keep the individual healthy.

The brain at any given time receives external data like diet, taste, smell, sight, temperature, and touch. It also receives a myriad of internal data—from the gut, heart, lung, skin, kidneys, and various other organs. The brain then consolidates the data and interprets or perceives it according to our “emotional state.” How we perceive our environment is an important survival mechanism because the action we take—both internally and externally—will change according to this perception.

Now, I will try to explain how we manifest our own diseases, and with understanding and guidance, can also cure ourselves. In my earlier post, I reflected on emotion and how that emotion is “me.”

At any given moment in time, I have multiple emotions: 25 percent desire, 20 percent love, 10 percent fear, 10 percent anger, 5 percent jealousy, and so on. Very rarely do I have 100 percent anger or 100 percent fear. This unique emotional cocktail is “me.”

In the first seven years of my life, I gradually learned and increasingly identified with my emotions. This is “me.”

I have tried to live more or less in that emotional cocktail ever since. Whenever my emotion—”me”— goes astray, my brain seeks out life experiences or interprets events in my life in such a way so as to “recreate” the same “emotional cocktail” and hence, “find myself” again. I have done this all my life. If I am a worrier, I may worry even in my happiest times about things that could “go wrong” and could give hundreds of reasons to justify my worries.

Biochemically, emotions arise from the release of neurotransmitters in my brain. These emotions, in turn, release more neurotransmitters, hormones, chemical messengers/signaling molecules, and nerve impulses. These serve not only to modulate my emotions but, through the subconscious brain, also modulate biochemical reactions in my whole body.

These biochemical reactions feedback into my brain, giving me a sense of direction on where I’m headed, and also giving the option to continue to feel the same way or change course long before any symptoms arise. The option is mine.

If my biochemical reactions are affected in a negative way, my body has many built-in redundancies that will try to buffer any pathological biochemical change, and therefore, delay the onset of symptoms—and it works exceedingly well in keeping me symptom-free for as long as possible.

But it can only work for so long.

If I continue in the same emotion—for example, I continue to be the same “me” with the same beliefs, expectations, perceptions, and interpretations—I also continue the same biochemical change in my body, and I will eventually start to run out of the buffer. Symptoms will then arise, initially, intermittently. I again have the choice of understanding the origin of my problem and hopefully changing my emotion and the course of my disease. If I do nothing, symptoms become more regular and more severe.

If I choose a special diet, supplement, or medication, the biochemical reactions are made to change and symptoms are controlled for some time. This can be helpful because it provides me with a window of opportunity, where I have no, or reduced, symptoms, and I can freely ponder over my state of being unencumbered by symptoms and worries about health.

If I do nothing more than start a new diet, supplement, or medication, I do not really change—I am still heading in the same direction. My body eventually recognizes that certain biochemical reactions have been made to change, and will try to achieve a new balance by changing even more biochemical reactions. Eventually, symptoms will break through or entirely new symptoms may arise. I will then seek supplements and medications at higher dosages.

Now, let’s break this down into seven components:

1. Modern medicine recognizes that disease is caused by a biochemical imbalance in the body and that this needs to be restored. This, however, is done by altering biochemical reactions, rather than addressing the cause of the imbalance.

2. The pathology tests answer the “how”—not the why—and can be useful in suggesting initial therapy to help symptoms.

3. Supplements and medications can only work for so long.

4. Our brains ultimately control all biochemical reactions in each cell of our bodies.

5. Our brains consolidate and interpret, or perceive, external and internal data according to our emotional state. This is an important survival mechanism because this changes the action we take both biochemically (internally) and behaviourally (externally).

6. Our emotions modify biochemical reactions, and unbalanced biochemical reactions cause symptoms, therefore, our emotions are, in a way, generating our symptoms and disease.

7. Our brains have literally wired themselves to recreate the same emotion—the “me”—then recreate the same biochemical changes in our bodies regardless of the lifestyle or situation.

If we understand the origin of our disease, we can also understand what we need to change to achieve healing. Of course, we need to eat healthy, preferably organic foods, supply a variety of good raw materials to the body, and exercise.

If we have these basics covered, it is our emotional state—the “me”—that determines what happens to the food once ingested, whether certain nutrients are absorbed or not, which biochemical reactions take precedence, and then which symptoms arise.

Therefore, we also have to positively change our emotions—by consciously understanding the “me” and addressing our beliefs, motivations, desires, and expectations.

I have tried to explain a complex topic in simple terms—in terms of body and mind. However, there is another dimension to our existence: our spirit. This adds another level of cause and potential interventions to achieve healing. I will elaborate more on this in a different post.