7 Misconceptions About Health

There are mistruths we have all been led to believe about health that impact our wellbeing and attempts to heal. They significantly limit us in knowing and taking appropriate actions so we can recover and thrive. Let's clear these up right now so you can move forward with your recovery and achieve your health goals.

Mistruth #1: There is one approach to eating, healing, and treatment that works for everyone.

The truth is that everyone is bioindividual, and the most effective way to heal and maintain our health needs to be rooted in a personalized approach.

Along these lines, there is not one best diet to follow, best medication to take, or best therapy to use for everyone. Everyone is different. Remember this when you think about why one approach works for one person but not for another.

Bioindividuality takes into account a person’s genetics, lifestyle, life experiences (including stress and emotional traumas), and environment where they live. It also includes the unique makeup of a person's energy system.

Any person, whatever credentials they have, who says that there is one special diet or supplement protocol that works for everyone is misinformed or lying so they can sell you something. It is simply not true.

Mistruth #2: A diagnosis is required in order to properly treat symptoms of a condition or resolve a health condition.

Although diagnoses can be helpful for certain reasons, they are not necessary to have in order to heal. Symptoms are the body's way of communicating. When you learn to pay attention and interpret them, you can take appropriate action.

Diagnoses can also limit you in being able to move forward. They can turn into excuses and acceptance of limitations. Finding the balance of what you are experiencing and what can be addressed and resolved is very important and can be done.

Whether there is a diagnosis or not, you must get to the root cause in order to move forward. You may have already tried some natural modalities and found that they were incomplete. The reason for this is that if you are only using something as a treatment, even if it is natural, you are not getting to the root of what is causing the issues in the first place. Additionally, remember that you and your children are bioindividual, and some treatments that work for other people may not have the same effect for your family.

Mistruth #3: Children are Small Adults

One of the most harmful mistruths most people believe is based on the misunderstanding of how exposures to toxins affect people differently. Our current world is inundated with toxins that we are all exposed to through meeting our basic human needs in the air we breathe, the water we drink and use for bathing, and the food we eat. How we each express how toxins affect us depends upon many factors, including age, the amount and kinds of toxins and traumas already stored in the body, and the extent to which the body is exposed to ongoingly toxins, genetics, and the ability of the body to detoxify itself effectively.

Regarding children, for example, just because you do not feel bad when you consume processed foods that contain additives, does not mean that the same exposure will affect your child the same way. The truth is that their bodies are different from adults. A publication, Children’s Health and the Environment: A Global Perspective (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 2005), shares the following important information:

• Children have disproportionately heavy exposures to environmental toxicants. In relation to body weight, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults.

• Children's metabolic pathways are immature and still developing. Children's ability to metabolize, detoxify, and excrete many toxins is different from that of adults, so they are more vulnerable to them.[i]

Regarding chemicals added to foods and the packages of foods, a study published in Pediatrics states:

“Children may be particularly susceptible to the effects of these compounds (food additives) because they have higher relative exposures compared with adults (because of greater dietary intake per pound), their metabolic (i.e., detoxification) systems are still developing, and key organ systems are undergoing substantial changes and maturations that are vulnerable to disruptions.”[ii]

It is important to understand this and realize that most of the foods marketed toward children, especially in the United States, are full of chemical additives like colors and flavors to make them seem appealing to kids. These products are more harmful than most people realize.

Mistruth #4: Holistic means anything that is natural or alternative to traditional allopathic medical approaches.

Just because an approach is natural does not mean it is complete enough, and it certainly does not imply that it is holistic.

In finding ways to help my son, myself, and many other children and adults to be able to heal and be healthy, I employ a holistic approach. Some people use this word too simply to just imply that it is an alternative or natural approach. However, holistic means addressing as many parts of the person and their environment as possible.

It’s more than just saying “mind-body approach” and it’s different than an “integrative approach”. Holistic attends to multiple levels of each person and what affects them. To be truly holistic, we have to acknowledge and address multiple forms of energy because we cannot leave any stones unturned if we want to accomplish healing.

By using a natural, holistic approach, you can eliminate the toxic, harmful effects of medications and resolve unwanted symptoms as you address the root cause of the issues.

Mistruth #5: In order to treat or resolve a health condition, you have to address it in the way it is showing up.

We are led to believe that behavioral or emotional issues should be addressed only with a therapist; allergies should be addressed with an allergist or immunologist, etc. Yes, experts are needed for guidance, however, there is more to it than this.

There is an underlying, similar piece amongst all people, despite their bioindividuality, that must be understood: imbalances in the physical body affect the other parts of us—emotions, cognition, behaviors, and physical health. Likewise, emotional traumas can manifest as physical illness and behavioral issues.

There is science that explains this. This is vital to have awareness about understanding symptoms and the complexity of the body because it will prevent you from going down a possibly harmful, and certainly ineffective path by only following allopathic medical advice to treat symptoms with medications without addressing root causes.

The physical body is a complex organism. However, current science shows us the necessity of being able to approach the body with the knowledge that there is so much more to it than what we can see. For example, unresolved emotional traumas and chronic stress can result in health issues beyond psychiatric, including physical ailments.[iii], [iv], [v], [vi] We cannot see emotional energy, but it can definitely be felt.

Science explains how this is possible, and also how sensitive people can feel energy that is outside of their own experiences and bodies. It is important to have this knowledge because, without it, sensitive people are usually misjudged, resulting in incorrect diagnoses and treatments.

It is unfortunate that what we all learned in school about biology and how our doctors are taught about how the body works provides inaccurate information in regard to addressing and supporting healing. There is a time and place for allopathic medicine, which provides diagnoses and treats symptoms, and is essential in emergencies. However, the more we can work in alignment with the way our bodies are actually designed to function, the more successful we can be in resolving and healing health issues without mistreatment.

Mistruth #6: Your genes determine which health conditions you will experience. And mutations in your genes limit your ability to be healthy.

Our genetics do play an important role in the health experiences we have, but not for the reasons we were taught in school and through mainstream medicine. Unfortunately, there is more and more information about genetics being shared now that is leading to confusion for many people.

First of all, we know now about the science of epigenetics, which literally means "above the genes." It recognizes that how genes express themselves depends on many complex external factors.

Current science knows that epigenetic triggers can activate genes of susceptibility to certain health conditions. And it also knows what we can do to support our genes and biochemical pathways so that our bodies are as optimized as possible. But most practitioners aren't trained to understand this.

Let me state clearly here - having a mutation in the MTHFR genes does not mean you cannot detoxify or that you will always be sick, or that you have a disease or health condition called MTHFR. It is one gene out of thousands, and there are plenty of things you can do to support your body so you can stay healthy.

Mistruth #7: If it’s allowed to be grown, manufactured, or produced to be sold legally, it is safe to use or consume. If a company, doctor, or governmental body says it’s safe, it is safe for you and your family.

When you walk around a grocery store and think that because food, beverage, cleaning, and body products are in there, they are safe for you or your children to consume or use, then you are a victim of marketing.

Don't allow yourself to be misled by marketing words or pictures. "Natural" means nothing on a label; it's just a word. If something is natural, then it contains no additives, preservatives, or chemicals whatsoever. Chemicals don't create themselves, spray themselves all over crops, and add themselves to products to make them look or taste differently or increase shelf-life. Nature doesn't process itself using harmful chemicals in order to make itself more appealing. People do this. Nature is natural; it grows, it transforms, it lives, it dies.

You can only step into the driver's seat of your health when you approach what your body is exposed to with a clear head. Don't believe the lies. You can heal, and so can your children.

[i] P. J. Landrigan A. Garg Center for Children's Health and the Environment, Department of Community and Preventative Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA, Children’s Health and the Environment: A Global Perspective, A Resource Manual for the Health Sector. World Health Organization, Geneva. 2005.

[ii] Trasande L, Shaffer RM, Sathyanarayana S; Council On Environmental Health. Food Additives and Child Health. Pediatrics. 2018 Aug;142(2):e20181410. doi: 10.1542/peds.2018-1410. PMID: 30037972; PMCID: PMC6298598

[iii] Patel D, Kas MJ, Chattarji S, Buwalda B. Rodent models of social stress and neuronal plasticity: Relevance to depressive-like disorders. Behav Brain Res. 2019 Sep 2;369:111900. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.111900. Epub 2019 Apr 22. PMID: 31022420.

[iv] Li H, Xia N. The role of oxidative stress in cardiovascular disease caused by social isolation and loneliness. Redox Biol. 2020 Oct;37:101585. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2020.101585. Epub 2020 Jul 16. PMID: 32709420; PMCID: PMC7767744.

[v] Jin Y, Song D, Yan Y, Quan Z, Qing H. The Role of Oxytocin in Early-Life-Stress-Related Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 21;24(13):10430. doi: 10.3390/ijms241310430. PMID: 37445607; PMCID: PMC10342184.

[vi] Wiesmüller GA, Hornberg C. Umweltmedizinische Syndrome [Environmental medical syndromes]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2017 Jun;60(6):597-604. German. doi: 10.1007/s00103-017-2546-5. PMID: 28447135.