Preventable degenerative diseases exact a heavy toll from Western society. In the United States, heart and blood vessel diseases account for more than half of all premature deaths.
Every day about 1,000 patients enter hospitals because of gallbladder problems. And cholesterol stones account for three fourths of the gallbladders removed.
Recently physicians have become aware of the relationship of osteoarthritis to arteriosclerosis. A current textbook on orthopedic diseases states, "The commonest type of the disease [degenerative arthritis] is the result of a continual heavy demand for excessive function [of a joint] in the face of decreasing efficiency of blood supply [from arteriosclerosis]." 1
These and many other degenerative diseases—such as gastric ulcers, obesity, depression, and transient ischemic attacks—lay a staggering financial bur den on this country. More important, they cause untold suffering to those who become ill and to their families.
But there is good news! Through a change in one's lifestyle, these degenerative diseases are to a large degree either avoidable or reversible.
In 1984 Denis Burkitt, the English physician famous for, among other things, his research on fiber and its importance in the diet, made a remark able statement before a medical audience. He said that while doctors greatly help sick people, the idea "that doctors and medicine [have] a profound effect on the health of the community [is] ... a total fallacy." 2
Burkitt said that during the 20 years he did surgery in Africa, he had helped some people and trained some African surgeons. But if he had spent those 20 years in charge of a team digging wells and latrines, he would have done far more for the health of the community.
His point is that, with the possible exception of some highly contagious diseases, "you never reduce the frequency of a disease by improving its treatment. ... It is of little use doing curative medicine unless [you] are also doing something to prevent disease." 3
Burkitt compares the orientation of our health system to trying to keep the floor dry by mopping it but leaving the tap running full force and the sink overflowing. "The water from the tap," he says "... represents . . . the diseases that are potentially preventable and are filling our hospital beds. Half a century ago I spent five years as a medical student learning how to mop floors. When I qualified as a doctor, I studied for postgraduate diplomas on the use of electronic mops and improved brushes. I mopped furiously and happily before I began to look at the taps." 4
Burkitt says we will always need expert floor moppers. Not all diseases are fully preventable, and not everyone is motivated enough to avoid those that are. But medicine's primary efforts should be directed at turning off the tap. This is what those who are working in the neglected area of preventive medicine are attempting to do.
Last April we enrolled in a turn-off-the-tap program at Weimar Institute's NEWSTART Center. The Weimar Institute is dedicated to helping people reach their physical, mental, and spiritual potentials. It promotes a wholistic approach to education and Christian living, its health education comprising an important component of its total program. While operated by Seventh-day Adventist staff, Weimar is not a denominational institution.
The 25-day lifestyle education program the NEWSTART Center offers consists of a thorough physical examination, medical lectures delivered on a layperson's level, natural food cooking classes, supervised exercise, physical therapy, hydrotherapy, social interaction, and devotional talks, all given in a marvelous stress-free Christian environment in the Sierra foothills about 50 miles east of Sacramento, California.
(Weimar Institute also operates a high school and college on the campus. Through work-study programs, these schools contribute their students' service and inspiration to NEWSTART, and NEWSTART provides the students with both work and the opportunity to learn.)
As Dr. Burkitt notes, the remuneration tap turners receive does not begin to compare with that of the floor moppers. It is quite obvious that the dedicated physicians, nurses, nutritionists, and hydrotherapists on the NEWSTART team are not working just for the money. They are paid less than $500 a month, plus a few fringe benefits. Their real pay comes in two ways. They have the satisfaction of serving God by helping people change their lifestyle and experience both better health and true happiness. And they receive the deep appreciation expressed by people like us who have had marvelous care and have received tremendous benefits. The spirit of dedicated, sacrificial service the NEWSTART staff exhibits contributes to the healing process.
Most people today are result-oriented. We are more concerned with the product than the process. We define health as the absence of illness. When we are ill, we hope to find health in a pill or a hypodermic shot.
As products of our times, we came to Weimar having certain health goals in mind that we wanted to achieve. We wanted to return to proper blood pressures, proper cholesterol readings, proper weight, and so forth. We did make phenomenal progress toward these goals, but we found something more important. We learned that a person is healthy only when he is practicing healthful habits.
Health is a way of life, not a static level of existence or a collection of favorable measurements. Those who have excellent vital statistics despite an unhealthful lifestyle may seem to be healthy. But their bodies' immune systems are being assaulted. Gradually, degenerative diseases will set in, and the ill health that, like termites, has been working beneath the surface will make its appearance. No matter how good it looks, a house that termites are eating is not sound. And no matter what statistics he may exhibit, a person whose lifestyle is undermining his health is not healthy. Health is a daily process of maintaining a body free from disease.
Health implications for spiritual life
And at Weimar we came to see health in its larger setting. We came to a fuller understanding of the inseparable relationship between mind, body, and spirit. Our understanding of the moral issues involved in surrendering our entire being to the Lord Jesus included new dimensions.
John 10:10 epitomizes the controversy between Christ and Satan with these words: "The thief [Satan] cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This spiritual warfare does not involve only our prayer life, Bible study habits, church attendance, and other religious activities. It touches every aspect of life—even the way we eat.
The warfare never ceases. But victory is ours through submission of our entire being—our entire body, mind, and spirit—to the Lord. In part, submission means practicing the principles that God has ordained for our happiness. These principles include the health practices delineated in the Scriptures, in the invaluable book Ministry of Healing, 5 and in modern scientific findings. The more abundant life Jesus came to share with the human race improves every aspect of our existence.
The matchless sacrifice Jesus made in His incarnation and death motivates us to respond in new completeness to this appeal of Paul's: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:1,2).
God wants us to obey the laws that affect the well-being of our physical nature because doing so affects our mental and spiritual potential. Sharp minds help us to be more receptive to the Holy Spirit's influence. A mind in good operating condition is better able to discern the enemy's tactics, better able to resist temptation by choosing to flee to the Saviour for protection. When we are physically incapacitated, despairing in pain, we find it more difficult to understand God's love and His goodness.
Weimar works!
The wholistic approach the NEWSTART Center teaches helps people to find and maintain optimal health. The center offers two variations on their program: the preventative, or maintenance, program helps the healthy preserve their health, and the therapeutic program aids the ill, who can improve their health by changing the way they live.
And these programs bring remarkable results. It is not uncommon for those with adult diabetes to cease all shots and pills in three weeks' time. If they maintain the program, they very likely will not have to depend on medication again.
On the insistence of her physician, one lady who suffered for 30 years with severe rheumatoid arthritis finally took the program. She felt it was hopeless, that she could never bounce back again, but her improvement began immediately. Vigorous hydrotherapy, including paraffin baths, stimulated her blood circulation, aiding her joints. Regular meals of wholesome plant foods and getting to bed early for plenty of rest enabled her to exercise on the bicycle from 40 to 100 minutes per day by intervals. She increased her walking from one to eight miles per day. On departure day she actually ran part of Weimar's one-half-mile campus loop without pain. Her hands and feet were still deformed, but the remarkable fact is that the pain was gone and she was using only 2 of the 23 medications she had been taking when she arrived.
While we have come to realize that lifestyle is more important than short-term results, the turnaround we ourselves experienced was nothing short of spectacular. The NEWSTART staff did comprehensive blood tests at the beginning of the course. At that time Bob's cholesterol level was only three points below what is considered the upper limit of normal, which is 300 milligrams per deciliter. Keep in mind that those who established these health norms based them on the general population. Since the majority of the population does not show much concern for maintaining their health—they are overstressed and exist on high-fat-content foods, sugars, coffee, tea, tobacco, and alcohol, get little exercise, etc.—the normal ranges are abnormal for the person living God's way. In 14 days Bob's cholesterol dropped to 209 milligrams per deciliter, a decrease of 88 milligrams per deciliter. Over the same period, his triglyceride count went from 199 milligrams per deciliter to 78 milligrams per deciliter, and his cholesterol/HDL (high-density lipoprotein) risk ratio decreased from 9.2 to 6.5. In other words, his chances of a heart attack or stroke from these factors had been significantly reduced.
These testimonies illustrate what can and does happen when we allow God's laws to govern our lives. We can avoid the degenerative diseases that plague our world, and, at least to some degree, reverse their effects. We can have the privilege of serving our Lord with the fullness of our being.
(In the November issue of MINISTRY, we will publish the Spanglers' description of the NEWSTART program.—Eds.)
1 Ernest E. Aegerter and John A. Kilpatrick,
Jr., Orthopedic Diseases, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: W.
B. Saunders, Co., 1975), pp. 638-645.
2 Quoted by Raymond and Dorothy Moore in
Homemade Health, to be published in October 1986
by Word Pub. Co., Waco, Texas.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing
(Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn.,
1942).
