The World of Ideas
Dr. Kunz has posted extensive blogs in the past and written extensively on health, wellness, the healthcare system, and the mind-body connection. We will be rolling out these blogs and posts, old ones and new ones. Be prepared. Expect the unexpected. Serious, funny, deep, silly, controversial. Dr. K likes to think. And to have fun at the same time. Stay tuned.
Word Picture: How is the Colon Like a Tube of Toothpaste?
Many years ago I had the great pleasure of sitting at the feet (not literally) of Dr. Denis Burkitt a great physician/surgeon, recipient of the highest international medical awards, Christian missionary and teacher, and renowned medical scholar, whose epidemiological studies in Africa led, among other things to the first links between viral disease and the development of some types of cancer. His mapping of the incidence of a particular tumor in children across parts of Africa led to the connection between it and the spread of a virus, probably via insect bites. The tumor bears his name: Burkitt’s Lymphoma.
He is further known for changing the way the West looks at dietary health, being among the first to point out the dangers of refined carbohydrates and the benefits of foods rich in dietary fiber. I remember his lecture on the topic to this day and believe I have repeated portions of it to thousands of patients over the last thirty years.
Word Picture: Is There Any Such Thing as Mental Illness?
The more you drive down that road the same way, the deeper the ruts get. Sometimes those ruts get so deep and ingrained, no amount of turning the wheel will get you out of the rut. That’s when a motor-grader machine comes in. It plows up and smooths out the ruts so you can get control of your car again.
But if you keep going down that road the same way all the time because you choose to steer along the same path, the ruts will return.
Part IV: Is There Any Such Thing As “Mental Illness”?
I can treat this patient with an anti-depressant plus an anti-anxiety drug to treat the chemistry of his or her brain. This person will likely feel and function better. But if they don’t start to learn new patterns of thinking (that is a spiritual process), and continue to dwell on old hurts, losses, suffering, fears, the anxiety and depression will persist, or return. No amount of medication will cure a person who willfully refuses to seek change.
Part III: Is There Any Such Thing as Mental Illness?
Now to take the complementary view of the “mind”. Here we deal with something spiritual, not physical.
Science has demonstrated that living tissues (especially those of the brain) DIE from lack of oxygen. The definition of death, technically, is “cessation of cellular respiration.” Respiration means “breathing”. Breathing requires “air”. Air is Life.
Who knew?
Part II: Is There Any Such Thing as “Mental Illness?”
What I’m trying to say about “the mind” is that the strict “naturalist” (look that up, too) is correct in saying that every thought we think, emotion we feel, motivation we experience, is accompanied by a an electro-chemical, neurological, biophysical phenomenon somewhere in the physical “brain”…. But we cannot by this conclude that the mind is just a physical phenomenon. There is so much more..
Is There Any Such Thing as “Mental Illness?”
So, again, I dare you to show it to me this thing called “the mind” so we can all see it, define it, quantify it, study it, and treat it. Thus we can properly define and seek to cure this thing we call “mental” illness.
This is not to say that we can’t tell a lot about someone’s “mind”, but this we can do only indirectly. The contents of one’s thoughts, ideas, expressions, choices, actions, etc. tell us about the “mind” but they are not “the mind”. To direct some type of therapy to any one “thing” that is a “mind” is not like treating a lung or a liver or a pancreas.
Author / Physician
David W. Kunz, M.D.
Family Medicine Physician & Medical Aesthetic Specialist