Up until recently, modern Western medical practice has tended to focus on the diagnosis of disease and the pathology of disease in the human body, simplifying the whole body to its diminished diseased part, totally neglecting the role other healthy parts can play.

The word ‘disease’ comes from the old French desaise meaning ‘lack of ease’. With this in mind, all dis-ease might be viewed as a ‘lack of ease’ in our body.

We have long known that basic actions like healthy eating and maintaining an active lifestyle are key to preventing dis-ease in our bodies in the first place, and these principles have now become foundational to modern medical healthcare practice. Contemporary medical & allied health practices are now focusing instead on ‘ease’, being the natural, disease-free state of the human body. If we approach health as a way of accessing the ‘ease’ in the body, and on the prevention of disease rather than focusing on the curing for disease, we may find ourselves on a better path toward overall health and well-being. If the disease is already present and diagnosed, we can still use the ‘ease’ parts, activate them through healthier lifestyle choices to reconnect and help the eased one.

This can all sound very complicated and overwhelming, and having an educated and compassionate health coach alongside you is important.

And of course sometimes living with physical or mental ‘dis-ease’ for short periods is a normal part of life. Because of contemporary healthcare and medical advances, we all live much longer lives than we once did, and so it’s only natural to have some periods in our long lives where we can expect some dis-ease, ill-health and related suffering. Knowing that this ‘die-ease’ periods , can be transitory and reversed back to an ‘ease’ state is very important.

Discerning when and how to intervene during periods of dis-ease in our lives is part of lifestyle medical wisdom.