Radical Medicine
Louisa L. Williams, M.S., D.C., N.D.
Healing Arts Press
The adjective “radical” modifying the noun “medicine” may worry some people, but look up “death by medicine” on the internet to find out what you should really be afraid of. It is well documented that our scientific medical system is a leading cause of death. A hard look at real statistics reveals that cancer rates, for example, continue to go up.
Radical Medicine, on the other hand, does not imply anything extreme or desperate in this context. Based on the original Latin meaning, “radical” refers to the root or origin of something. This book examines the source or cause of disease rather than the endless drug-based pursuit of symptom removal. The first few pages provide a good primer on the problems with modern medicine and some of the roots of those problems. Pasteur’s germ theory sent medical science careening down the wrong path for more than a century and we are just beginning to recover. Vaccines have never been proven to work, as demonstrated by placebo-controlled studies. Pharmaceutical companies have taken over health care and fashioned it in their own image. The AMA has explicitly waged war on health care alternatives, especially the ones that work the best. An environment permeated by toxic chemicals is not helping our national state of health either.
Dr. Williams does an excellent job of exposing and examining all these root causes of disease. We know nutrition is one key, and while she covers the topic quite competently, the harsh reality in our world today is that many people are going to need more than just good nutrition to foster sturdy health. One obstacle to health even in the face of good nutrition is focal infection. This is a root cause of illness you may not be able to eat your way out of. Focal infection refers to the theory that a small, localized infection in one part of the body can cause disease or symptoms in other parts of the body. This is a subject Dr. Weston Price studied in great detail. Many years later Dr. Hal Huggins picked up Price’s research and continued it. Huggins has said elsewhere that he studied focal infections for twenty years before he was able to add anything to the knowledge base that Price provided. That is a powerful indication of Price’s brilliance.
Medical incompetence has been a problem for a long time. Dr. Williams illustrates the point by enumerating the tortures President George Washington was subjected to in the name of medical care, including excessive bloodletting, applications of calomel (mercury lotion), violent purging, and medicines containing lead. It is no wonder that in the end, Washington finally asked to be allowed to die without interference.
Radical Medicine is a gold mine of valuable information. It contains amazing accounts of alternative treatments such as chiropractic adjustments eliminating schizophrenia, homeopathic remedies that greatly accelerate bone healing, and the wide spectrum of ailments treated effectively by cod liver oil.
It is also a huge book. The average reader may not have the stamina to read it straight through from cover to cover, although anyone who does will be greatly enriched by doing so. I think it is worth the effort to read all of it but it can also serve as a valuable reference source. There is a comprehensive table of contents and index to aid in locating specific sections of interest. Many thanks and a thumbs UP to Dr. Williams for compiling this treasure trove of health information.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2011.
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