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Epilogue
Youth has no age. --Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) Completion has always been difficult for me. This book was no exception. Having finished writing drafts of all of the chapters, I wanted to compose an eloquent epilogue that consolidated and integrated the book's diverse array of concepts. I wanted my final words to provide some practical advice about how to get started on the Renewal Anti-Aging Program and how to monitor its effectiveness. And finally, I wanted to send you off with just enough enlightened self-confidence that you'd know you could succeed. Having studied, practiced, and taught Chinese traditional medicine for more than a quarter-century, I've come to appreciate the Taoist philosophy upon which it is based. Over the years, whenever I was in trouble, or needed advice or inspiration, or was unsure how to handle a difficult situation, I would consult the I Ching (Book of Changes), the Taoist Chinese oracle. After I had written--and discarded--a few drafts of this epilogue, I knew it was time to ask for some sage advice, so I brought out my dog-eared copy of the I Ching. I threw my ancient Chinese I Ching coins, asking the oracle to provide me with some kind of conceptual framework for viewing this final chapter. I asked: "What final words of wisdom can I leave my readers with?" The answer came back loud and clear. The first hexagram (representing a judgment of what is
happening now) was number seven:
Shih, or the Army.
Shih is a symbol for the internal strength one
stores up for protection and for potential use against an enemy.
The I Ching was
encouraging me to reemphasize the importance of creating a strong healing
system--an internal army--with which to accomplish the goals of Renewal:
protection from damage, repair, and regeneration. This army uses weapons
such as essential nutrients and I can't imagine a better image to characterize the goals of the Anti-Aging Program than an army. An army has strength, discipline, cohesion, and a reluctance to fight. It preserves peace by virtue of its strength. In order to become an effective disease-fighting force, your internal army must also be organized (that is, you need an Anti-Aging Program) and disciplined (you need to actually follow the program). When a hexagram has changing lines, as mine did, the I Ching makes a second judgment--its prediction for the future. To my astonishment and delight, the hexagram changed to number 14: Ta Yu, Possession in Great Measure. The text for Ta Yu reads, "The time is favorable--a time of strength within, clarity and culture without. Power is expressing itself in a graceful and controlled way. This brings supreme success and wealth." This means that if you create a strong internal army by following the Anti-Aging Diet, Anti-Aging Supplement Program, and Anti-Aging Exercise Program, you can expect to achieve Possession in Great Measure--a longer, richer, healthier life. A Changing Medical Paradigm The Renewal Anti-Aging Program advocates personal change. On a grander scale, it fosters a changing vision of health and healing--and a new way of practicing medicine. The day will soon arrive when physicians must consider a heart attack or a stroke not a call to therapeutic action but a failure of traditional medical methodology. Mainstream medicine's Johnny-come-lately interventions are no longer acceptable. We must find a way to encourage doctors to teach prevention. We need a shift toward earlier diagnosis. And we need to replace drugs and surgery with a gentler approach in which natural therapies restore balance and harmony, enabling the body to heal itself. Doctors of the future will focus on early detection, utilizing diagnostic testing that surveys the biological terrain and identifies nutritional, hormonal, functional, and metabolic imbalances. These imbalances will be corrected, perhaps even before symptoms appear, with the help of natural therapies and health-promoting lifestyle changes that nurture the body's healing systems. Physicians specializing in alternative, nutritional, and anti-aging medicine are well ahead of the curve. They already use these principles in their practices. Can Patients Save Their Doctors? Those of us alternative physicians who have been in the trenches, dodging flak from the mainstreamers for decades, can thank our lucky stars for emerging grassroots support of our "cause." A growing number of Americans have embraced the wisdom of natural and holistic medical models. And they haven't been afraid to tell their mainstream doctors that a naturopathic physician, a nutritional doctor, an herbalist, a homeopath, an osteopath, or an acupuncturist helped them when orthodox medicine failed. Thank goodness for you, the patient. Left to the medical establishment, the government, and the drug industry (what I call the medical- industrial complex), the new medical paradigm would have been torpedoed long ago. Alternative medicine and optimum health are increasingly preferred by the average person. "Wellness" has become a household word. Having suffered two decades of rejection by the medical establishment, alternative medicine is now on the verge of going mainstream--if it hasn't already. Some encouraging signs: The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that more people are making more visits to alternative practitioners than to mainstream doctors. Recent sales graph trajectories for the health foods and supplements industry resemble the liftoff of the space shuttle: The industry's gross income topped $9 billion last year. And the National Institutes of Health has established an Office of Alternative Medicine, earmarking $40 million for natural healing research. In 1994, Congress passed the Dietary Health and Supplement Education Act--despite intense lobbying against it by the Food and Drug Administration and the drug industry. The new law redefines supplements as foods (which puts their use in the hands of the public) rather than as drugs (which places them under FDA control). In other words, it encourages people to take responsibility for their own health. The massive outpouring of public support for what is popularly known as the Health Freedom Act is a measure of the timeliness of the new medical paradigm. And it happened before alternative health guru Andrew Weil, M.D., made the cover of Time magazine. We new-paradigm doctors are deeply indebted to the millions of patients who courageously called their elected officials to fight for these changes. But it is not a good sign that, on average, patients discover the importance of natural medicine long before their doctors. The former are now further burdened with the task of dragging the latter, kicking and screaming, into the medicine of the twenty-first century. To its credit (I guess), the American Medical Association has now adopted a "We can't beat 'em (and don't think we haven't tried, but they refuse to go away), so we'd better join 'em" attitude. Even though mainstream doctors know that alternative medicine is an idea whose time has come, they are challenged by the paradigm shift required to comprehend its essence. I've emphasized the importance of nurturing your healing systems and avoiding foods, chemicals, and other practices that interfere with them. Please support a medicine of the future in which the importance of Renewal is appreciated and doctors prescribe natural and preventive therapies that support our bodies' healing systems. Heading for Home Shortly after completing the manuscript for this book, I found myself homeward bound on a flight from a conference I had attended. With the pressure of writing deadlines behind me for the first time in many months, I settled back in my seat, relishing--finally--a chance to pause and reflect. It was an exceptionally clear day, and as the plane headed south toward the San Francisco Bay area, I spotted Mount Rainier. It reminded me of the year I'd just completed--writing in solitude, spending too much time away from my wife and daughters, completing this massive project. I felt for all the world like I had climbed a mountain. A little later, as we followed the Pacific coastline southward, the great redwood forests appeared in my window. They reminded me of how fragile our ecosystems can be, both internal and external--and the importance of protecting our health and that of our planet. Then as my plane continued south over the fertile farmlands of my home in Sonoma County, I thought about my wonderful wife and of our hopes and dreams for the health and welfare of our two daughters, and of how much I'd missed them all during the past year. When we circled over Berkeley, where I have practiced for 30 years, I thought of the many patients who have benefited from the Renewal Anti-Aging Program. I thought about my good friend Steve, who reversed his collision course with a heart attack by going on the program. I thought of Linda, who went on the program following a lumpectomy. She has gone 10 years now without a recurrence, is far healthier than before her malignancy, and is considered "cured." I thought about Madge, whose arthritis was so crippling that she limped into my office. She now walks her dog and plays golf every day. I thought about Jean, who was crippled by chronic fatigue syndrome but has now returned to work. And I thought about my mother, Elizabeth, who has been on the Renewal Anti-Aging Program longer than anyone else. At age 85, Mom is healthier than many 50-year-olds. She is the most dramatic example of what the Renewal Anti-Aging Program can do. In great shape, she is going strong--an inspiration to us all. She has no disease and requires no medications. A retired author and English professor, she has remained mentally sharp as a tack--with the assistance of brain nutrients. She published a medical journal article last year and is now working on a new play. She jogs, walks her dog, and does aerobics every day. She became a vegetarian 15 years ago and takes most of the supplements I recommend in this book (though not all of them every day). As we banked to the west, then back north, I looked out over the Pacific Ocean. Dazzled by the sun's reflection on the water, I thought about my return to "real life"--no longer a sequestered author, back to practicing medicine full-time and spending more time playing with my kids and hiking in the woods with my wife. As we made our final approach to the airport, my thoughts turned to this book and all the people who would read it, and I wondered whether it would make a difference in their lives. I wondered whether I had succeeded in my attempts to turn some daunting biochemistry into user-friendly information. I wondered whether it was presumptuous of me to be telling folks that if they followed my advice they could live longer. But then I remembered all of the hundreds of patients, like Steve and Linda and Madge, who had benefited. And as the plane touched down, I realized that all my life as a physician, I've been blessed with a career in which I've had the opportunity to make a real difference in people's lives. Until I wrote this book, however, it was pretty much one person at a time. Now I've been granted the great good fortune of this opportunity to make a difference in many people's lives. My hope--my dream--is that this book will help you to transform your life, that it will provide wings with which you can soar through a life that is not only longer but healthier and happier as well. Writing it will have been amply rewarded if these ideas help you--and those you love--to achieve the bold promise of the I Ching: Possession in Great Measure. * Anti-aging Medicine is a new and rapidly evolving medical specialty. For research updates and a free copy of my quarterly newsletter, information about my exclusive nutrient formulations, referrals to anti-aging doctors in your area, or help in locating the highest-quality supplements and other nutritional products, please contact me. Timothy J. Smith, M.D. Web site address: www.renewalresearch.com |