Total health is only possible when you approach the body as a whole system. We are not machines made of separate parts that can be swapped out or repaired one by one. Every part of the body affects every other part, all the time. Modern medicine is designed to step in when something breaks. You’re given a pill to manage a symptom or a surgery to remove a problem. That approach is incredibly valuable when you are acutely unwell. But there is no pill that keeps you healthy. Not yet, anyway.
Pharmaceutical companies make their living by treating illness, not by preventing it. Doctors are trained in medicine, not in prevention. They are taught what drug to prescribe for a condition, not how to support nutrition, lifestyle, stress, environment and long-term resilience together. When you go to a GP, they are working within strict systems. A computer prompts the next step, the medication is prescribed, a referral is made and you are sent home. These are all extremely valuable minds and technologies and we are all forever grateful to our NHS workers for looking after everyone one of us in the times of need. This system works very well when something has already gone wrong. It doesn’t help much when your goal is to stay well, avoid chronic disease and live a long and healthy life.
Many holistic and integrative approaches see health very differently. Dr Nasha Winters talks about health as a set of interconnected terrains that shape how disease develops or doesn’t. Dr Sam Watts approaches the same idea through an ayurvedic lens, looking at the whole person rather than isolated symptoms. Dr Xandria Williams and Patrick Holford books are how my eyes were opened to this world in the first place decades ago. These ways of thinking focus on creating the right internal conditions so the body can do what it is designed to do. I follow them and many other health care professionals almost daily.
When a doctor tells someone they are “terminal”, what they usually mean is that there is no medication or surgery left that the medical system can offer. It doesn’t mean the body has stopped trying. None of us truly know when anyone will die. Ageing and decline are not fixed timelines. As Dr Sam Watts often says, if there is breath, there is hope. The body is constantly repairing itself, regenerating cells and adapting, as long as the conditions allow it. When the body is overwhelmed by inflammation, poor food, unstable blood sugar, chronic stress and environmental burden, that ability slowly fades.
This framework is built on the belief that health is about creating those conditions early and maintaining them over time. Not chasing illness, not waiting for things to break, but supporting the system as a whole so it can keep working for as long as possible.