Let’s start with four statements I’m willing to call facts:
1. Chronic disease afflicts the majority of American adults over the age of 45.
2. People with chronic disease choose a visit with an allopathic physician (conventional medicine) as their first course of action.
3. A pharmaceutical prescription is the first course of action after linking symptoms and biomarkers to a commonly diagnosed disease (type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, etc.).
4. There isn’t a single medication that can cure a single chronic disease.
I’ll give you a minute to re-read those four statements and see what conclusions you can extrapolate.
Your list of conclusions most likely includes, “The first course of action for most American adults seeking disease reversal cannot possibly lead to their desired outcome.”
If the course leads to medication as a purported solution, and the medication cannot cure the ailment, it should become clear that the sea of disease-plagued adults is being “managed,” not “fixed.”
I addressed this in a previous issue of MedFit Professional when I asked that the physician and the trainer see, think, and do differently, but now I’ll go a step further. Allow me to throw out two more inferences I’ll boldly call truths.
- Inflammation is the root cause of virtually every chronic disease.
- With an enhanced skill set, personal trainers can introduce a series of exercise, nutritional and lifestyle interventions that can reverse inflammation.
I know I’m asking you to work a bit, inviting you to consider my thoughts and draw conclusions, but in this case, I believe along with the conclusions comes a true recognition of the opportunity presented for doctors and trainers alike.
We know medication will not cure the most prominent ailments, and with my two latest truths, we consider we can battle those ailments at their core. We’d have to, with those considerations on the table, accept the validity of the thought, “Personal trainers, with the right knowledge, skill set, and intervention ability, can better serve most American adults than the current course those adults are ushered onto.
Reversing disease requires strategy beyond the simplicity of “eat right and exercise more.” For most personal trainers, specialization in this area will require a heightened understanding of:
- How exercise can be modified to improve parasympathetic recovery
- How accepted and sound shifts in nutrition can work to reduce systemic inflammation
- How maladaptation of the endocrine system creates blockages such as insulin resistance and the soon-to-follow condition, weight loss resistance
- How specific exercise strategies can initiate movement toward restored endocrine balance
- How to mitigate “the chronic stress response” (adrenal overload)
Such specialization will also require an elevated understanding of mindset and adherence as well as of the microbiome.
If you’re a trainer reading this, I hope it spurs you forward to seek out the skill set that will position you as a leader. If you’re a physician reading this, I hope it puts you on the lookout for your greatest ally, the fitness professional who can partner with you in restoring patients to health.
The true magic will lie in the collaboration, the partnership in which each respective player honors the complementary power of his or her partner.
Personal trainers cannot and should not be expected to diagnose. The trainer needs the physical partner to connect with clients beyond the exercise routine and truly begin a monitored and practiced intervention aimed at “cure” as true disease reversal.
The physician knows that while medications may have value in managing symptoms and changing biochemistry while the medication is in use, the current paradigm is limited at best. Only when he or she aligns with a professional with the skill set, time, patience, and desire to intervene at an emotional level, such as a coach and catalyst, can the patient truly acquire the power to heal.
I’ll conclude with perspective gleaned from the ancient roots of western medicine. Physicians are sworn by the oath of Hippocrates, as much of our medical standards evolved from the early wisdom emanating from Ancient Greece. We can find wisdom from Socrates, Plato, and the greatest teacher of all, the healer, Hermes, and apply that wisdom to pursuits of healing, even in this world of technology, discovery, and change.
Hermes viewed mankind as a being brought to this Earth in a state of Divine Perfection, and in that, each human has the eternal power of living in Divine Perfection. A person living with compromise or illness has interfered with the Divine gift by unnatural exposure, ingestion, lifestyle pursuit, or abuse. The primary purpose of the ethical healer is not to simply find a potion or herb to alleviate discomfort or pain (although there’s certainly room for that), but rather to determine how, via a combination of “medicines” and lifestyle shifts Divine Perfection can be restored.
This article was featured in MedFit Professional Magazine.
Phil Kaplan is a long-time fitness professional committed to helping individuals reverse chronic disease and has developed programs within the medical arena to bridge the gap between fitness and medicine and pave a pathway for change.
