Veritas

"Veritas" is a Latin word meaning truth.

I and my lovely bride of 36 years (Moe) spent a couple of hours this evening listening to a young physician (Dr. Ben Edwards) of Veritas Medical "teach" about what he has learned and unlearned about the healing arts.

Dr. Ben spoke of the frustration and disenchantment he felt in treating his patients as he was traditionally trained, by aligning the symptoms manifested in patients with the best fitting label, then prescribing a drug that would mask those symptoms.  The masking often diminished over time, requiring increased dosages and/or stronger prescriptions.

This cycle of un-healing led Dr. Ben to seek a deeper understanding of "disease" and how best we as humans can combat it.

Some of my takeaways from Dr. Ben's presentation:

• The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) has created a society that is the least healthy and sickest of the 15 most advanced nations on the planet.
• The average American consumes one pound of sugar every four days (yep).
• Children born after 2000 will be the first American generation whose life spans will be less than that of their parents (according to the Centers for Disease Control).
• Disease and illnesses are best thought of as consequences, not conditions.
• The human body is amazingly capable of healing itself, IF it is nourished as it was intended.
• Forty percent of children born in America today have one of the allergy/asthma/eczema "diseases." (I have seen this escalate in my 30+ years as an educator).  In the rest of the world, that rate for children is only one in 10.
• The American food supply has evolved into primarily "food-like substances," rather than wholesome, nourishing food.

Moe and I had already begun the journey toward altering our eating and living patterns in ways that are aligned to this way of thinking.  Dr. Ben's advocation of the "functional integrative medicine" approach to the healing arts resonates deeply with us.

We see now that our journey with regard to healthy living has only just begun.