According to a recent study published in the scientific journal Mitochondrion, diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and some neurological disorders may be allowed to persist when natural healing cycles become jammed by cellular miscommunication.
Conventional medical care is based largely upon the treatment of the acute or immediate harm from such things as trauma, infections, asthma, and heart attacks. Chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and cancer are rarely reversed prescription drugs. The CDC estimates that more than half of adults and one-third of children and teens within the United States have at least one chronic illness. According to the National Institutes of Health, chronic disease causes more than half of all deaths worldwide.
Researchers at the University of California believe that chronic disease is a consequence of natural healing cycles that become blocked by metabolic disruptions occurring at the cellular level. Healing processes are dynamic. They start with an injury and end with recovery. This cellular process appears to be universal.
Emerging evidence shows most chronic illnesses are caused by the body’s reaction to cellular injury and not the injury itself. Illness occurs because the body is unable to complete the healing process. Progressive dysfunction stems from recurrent injury followed by incomplete healing. Chronic disease results when our cells are caught in never-ending cycles of incomplete recovery and re-injury, leaving the body unable to fully heal. This process appears to underlie nearly every chronic illness.
Scientists believe that it is metabolic dysfunction that drives chronic disease, with progression through the healing cycle controlled by mitochondria and signaling molecules called metabokines. Mitochondria are cellular organelles that produce the energy that cells need to survive. Metabokines are derived from metabolism and regulate cellular receptors, with more than 100 being linked to the healing process. Dysfunction in metabokine signaling can cause roadblocks in the healing cycles. This explains why some people heal more quickly than others, and why chronic diseases treated successfully can recur. This is a form of “metabolic addiction” in which recovering cells become accustomed and even tolerant of impaired states.
New treatment approaches for chronic disease are needed. Once the initiators of chronic injury are found and removed, to promote healing, treatment should then target the underlying processes that block the healing cycles.
Comments from Dr. Thomas: In addition to a medical degree, I earned a post-doctoral Master of Science degree in Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine from the University of South Florida College of Medicine. This advanced degree provided a deeper understanding of biochemistry, physiology, and cellular biology than was taught in medical school. The master’s degree gave me a greater understanding of how metabolic dysfunction and faulty nutrition drives aging and chronic disease. Most importantly, it allowed me to provide even better care to my patients by giving me the knowledge on how to use the science of metabolic and nutritional medicine to prevent and reverse age-related disease, and stimulate metabolism, immunity, and cellular rejuvenation. Out of the 900,000 physicians in the United States, less than 0.01% have this extremely important and cutting-edge degree.
