There Are No Effects Without Causes

It has always fascinated me over the years how often I hear patients say how excited they are to have finally been diagnosed properly by a particular physician. I suppose there’s the irony of it that is somewhat amusing, that is, that the word ‘diagnosis’ can be broken down to mean this: “di”, meaning “two” and “agnosis”, meaning “without knowledge”. So, we have confirmed that there are two people now who do not have knowledge of what is really happening. Maybe it is just a “working diagnosis” after all.

Dr. David Eddy stated, “only 15% of all medical procedures are scientifically validated”. Dr. Eddy was the J. Alexander McMahon professor of Health Policy and Management at Duke University. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Engineering Economic Systems at Stanford University. His professional contributions and credentials are too great to list in this article. But for purposes of gaining perspective, I believe his observations should be headed with more vigor as we see how sick our society has become over that last fifty years with increasing rates of autoimmune and preventable diseases.

I think it would be useful to focus our energy more on a clearer understanding of the causes of our ailments than merely just their effects and the myriad of pharmaceutical and surgical treatments available. When we consider the reality that we rank near the bottom in most statistical categories of measuring health outcomes in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries, it is due time we change the way we think about health and prevention.

At Ally Spine Center we help patients understand the nature of their conditions, the phase of degeneration they are in and how to safely work toward optimal healing without drugs and surgery. In many cases, even chronic ones, we can help reduce symptoms and restore healthier anatomy to improve FUNCTION. Once our patients understand the cause of their problem it becomes much easier to address the effects and PREVENT them from recurring.