Pathways to Holistic Health and Well-being

I am very fortunate to have attended a half-day health seminar entitled “Health Made Incredibly Simple” last June 28, 2014 at the Wellnessland Health Institute here in Cebu City. Dr. Romy Paredes, a medical doctor who turned to integrative medicine, and now, transformation medicine, gave the bulk of the lecture on how he journeyed from his medical school training towards transformation medicine. I will explain below what he means by this term, “transformation medicine”.

Dr. Romy Paredes related to the participants in this one-of-a-kind seminar that his 10-year training in medicine made him learn and memorize the different kinds of diseases and the different names of drugs or medicines for the different diseases – and there are thousands of diseases and thousands of drug prescriptions. But he realized that medical doctors are trained to cure the symptoms of diseases such as tumor, abscess, hyperacidity, high blood pressure, cysts, clogging in the blood vessel, etc. by operation, through drug prescriptions, or radiation and chemotherapy if the disease is cancer. What was not taught to medical doctors is to look into the root causes of diseases. Why was there cancer in the first place? Why is there tumor or cyst in any part of the body? Why did diabetes or high blood pressure occur when these were not there before aside from the genetic predisposition of the person? These are merely symptoms of the root causes of diseases.

Dr. Paredes realized there is a need to simplify the complicated since he realized that his medical training complicated what is simple, following Albert Einstein’s wise saying that “genius lies in making the complicated simple”. He later learned after asking questions on his medical profession that there are really two root causes of diseases: 1) toxicity; and 2) deficiency. By toxicity he meant all the harmful chemicals and toxins that enter our body through food, polluted water, and polluted air, plus energy toxins such as stress, anger, unforgiving heart, hatred, self-centeredness, unbalanced lifestyle, strained relationships, negative minded-ness, bitterness, and anxiety. An unbalanced lifestyle could refer to habitual smoking and drinking, lack of sleep and rest, too much eating of meat, imbalanced diet, and lack of exercise and sunlight. By deficiency he meant the lack or absence of essential nutrients, especially from raw plant-based food, that can activate the body’s natural healing system. The two solutions that correspond to the root causes of sicknesses would be to detoxify ourselves physically and energy-wise, and to take in the nutrients that our bodies need for self-healing and good health.

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Health should be looked at as involving not just physical health, but also mental health, emotional health, healthy relationships, and spiritual health. Dr. Paredes quoted another mentor of his, Aristotle, who said “Let food be your medicine, and your medicine your food”. Taking in the nutrients, especially through a plant-based diet free from growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides, can help fight sicknesses because the body can heal itself given the complete and right nutrients it needs. We also need to let go of negative energies mentioned in the previous paragraph and to slow down, relax, forgive, and to practice generosity, love, and selflessness.

It will create controversy to declare that mainstream medicine goes well with pharmaceutical industries in their common goal of profit-earning and treating just the symptoms of diseases. One round of chemotherapy can cause someone to sell his/her properties, dialysis hooks a family to perpetual exorbitant weekly payment, and maintenance medicines keep people in lifetime dependence on drugs that treat the symptoms but not the root causes of sicknesses, ensuring the millions or billions of profits of multinational pharmaceutical companies.

There are books that can tell us how to detoxify our bodies and even, our souls. Taking in natural fruit and vegetables juices would be a good way to ensure that we are taking in the nutrients to keep a healthy immune system. In the health seminar I attended last June 28, there were health educators who shared tips on health self-empowerment such as the how-to and benefits of juicing, drinking pure calamansi juice an hour before breakfast to detoxify ourselves and to strengthen our immune system (which is a divinely designed system, according to Dr. Paredes), and the 8 best doctors in the world, which are Dr. Healthy Natural Food, Dr. Sunshine, Dr. Exercise, Dr. Fasting, Dr. Pure Water, Dr. Rest, Dr. Fresh Air, and Dr. Positive Thinking.

We can also strive to let go of all negative energies and keep all positive energies. Dr. Paredes prescribes to his patients to 1) Slow down; 2) Hug a tree; and 3) Walk bare foot, so that we can be more attuned with ourselves, with nature, and with the Divine. The basic message is that we can in fact take charge of our health through positive measures and steps. Lastly, unconditional love is the key to total healing, which means loving everyone, even those who seem unlovable to us, as Dr. Paredes profoundly puts it, “the vibrational frequency of pure love is the ultimate healing source”.

About the author: Belinda F. Espiritu is a faculty member of the University of the Philippines Cebu. She holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature and a PhD degree in Communication. She would like to hear from the readers about their feedback or comments on her articles through her email address: belinda.espiritu@gmail.com to set a conversation going even after her articles have been published.