Dr. Lisa Saunders, a medical doctor, journalist, and professor at the Yale School of Medicine, whose New York Times column “Diagnosis” was the inspiration for the TV show House, wrote:

“A decade ago, I stood alongside my 99 fellow freshmen as we were welcomed into the ranks of medicine in a ‘white coat ceremony.’ Here, on our first day of med school, we were presented with the short white coats that proclaimed us part of the mystery and the discipline of medicine. During that ceremony, the dean said something that was repeated throughout my education: half of what we teach you here is wrong – unfortunately, we don’t know which half.”

That quote, often repeated by the Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, was originally spoken by Charles Sidney Burwell, a past Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard, over 50 years ago. It is just as true today as when it was first spoken.

This book will explain why half of what is taught in medical school is wrong.

Understanding what is missing in our current disease care system will enable us to create a more complete idea of health. To do so, we would do well to heed the words of Winston Churchill who advised, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” So, to best understand the future, we must first look to the past.

Medical school does not begin with the writings of great healers describing what health is. Nor does not begin with great philosophers and their writings on wellness of spirit, mind, and body. Since the question — What is health? — is never asked, naturally it is never answered, leaving the path to health shrouded in mystery.

Instead, medical school begins with everything but... including the many names for disease in the body as well as the study of the many parts of the body including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and biology. This creates three flaws in our medical system:

1. There is no understanding of what health is. Instead, billions of dollars are spent studying and treating disease while steps to promote health remain hidden.

2. The first principles of health are ignored. Without defining what is health, how are we to know if we are there?

3. Medicine looks at the body as made up of pieces, ignoring the whole (spirit, mind, body) and how the three interact as one.

And despite the research, knowledge, medical technology, and intelligence of the educators, medical education today is deeply flawed. But, please, don’t take my word for it.

You may have heard that the word doctor means teacher. This is partially true. More exactly, the word doctor comes from the root word dek — which means to take or accept. Dek has the same root word as dogma and indoctrination. Doctor means to teach, in the sense of to cause others to accept your ideas — to teach in an “I’m right, you’re wrong” sort of way. Doctors, in medical school, are indoctrinated into medical thought, a thought process which is wrong 50 percent of the time. Because of this, our whole disease care system is built on a flawed premise.

What if there was a better way? What if, instead of starting with disease and the parts and pieces that make up the body, we started instead with the principles that were true in the beginning and are still true today? This book is about those principles.

To create health, we must find the practitioners who are still applying these foundational principles today. These practitioners are not often found in medical offices or bureaucratic buildings but instead are often hidden in plain sight, diligently applying their craft with patients.

To create health, you must seek not doctors, but healers. While some healers have earned the title of doctor, many have not. Healers may go by many titles including those of chiropractor or naturopath or energy healer or massage therapist or doctor of traditional Chinese medicine or Vedic healers or Reiki practitioners or iridologist, or doula or midwife or functional medicine practitioner or nutritionist or wellness coach or physical therapist or even medical doctor. The title does not matter. What does matter is the result. Healers heal. They do this by making things whole. Whereas doctor comes from the root word to take or accept (as in to take or accept the teachings of others), health comes from the root word meaning wholeness.

Whereas the disease-focused medical system is based on three flaws, a true health care system would be based on five basic principles:

1. The Yellowstone Principle: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

2. The Model A Principle: One Size Does Not Fit All

3. The Quantum Principle: The Power of No-thing

4. The Olympic Strength Principle: How Titanic Problems Lead to Olympic Strength

5. The Golden You Principle: The Power of the Infinite You

How did I discover these principles? Initially, during my two-decade- long journey as a patient in the medical disease care system, and then later, over another decade, as a Doctor of Chiropractic and with a focus on nutrition and holistic healing applying these principles to help patients author their own health journey. And this is where I am today.

If you are wondering about my own personal history, about how my journey progressed toward a healthy and full life, I would start that story by telling you that it began during one of the darkest moments of my life...