Medical care is something your doctor does for you. Wellness is something that you do for yourself.

The term ‘wellness’ is used here as an alternative to ‘health’. In current usage ‘health care’ refers to medical practices concerned almost exclusively with the presence or absence of disease. We use ‘wellness’ to imply an expanded focus. Think of your life as a continuum that moves from health and wellness to imbalance, to dysfunction then disease, and finally into death. Most adults live somewhere in the area of dysfunction, and gradually move toward the emergence of one or more diseases.

A wellness practice is concerned not only with identifying and curing disease, but also on alleviating imbalance and dysfunction. This is an empowering step forward, not only because imbalances and dysfunctions are precursors to disease, but also because imbalances and dysfunctions can have significant negative impacts on an individual’s quality of life, even before they deteriorate into disease.

Think of heart disease. This is a process of increasing inflammation that occurs slowly and relentlessly over 20 to 40 years. It is like a slow burning metabolic fire. Typically you do not know the extent of it until it has progressed quite far. Of course, there are clues such as an elevated cholesterol that signal the presence of the process. There are other more specific tests that can give even further clues as to the extent of the inflammation and, thus, the severity of the problem. Yet, how many people take full advantage of what science and laboratory numbers have to offer? Sadly, very few.

Imagine being able to know that a dysfunction had made its earliest appearance and then having specific interventions to correct its advancement. Imagine having numbers that you could track over decades that recorded your success in bringing your physiology back into balance. Imagine having the power that this type of knowledge would provide. Imagine having that type of control over the speed and direction of your own personal aging process.