What Is Disease

In this lesson we will ascertain what disease is, what brings it about, what purposes it serves, and why it ends at all in view of the fact that it is supposed to be an occasion when malevolent microbial entities have gained a destructive foothold in our bodies. We will explore how a body in descendancy (as it is said to be in disease) and microbes in ascendancy reverse these tendencies.

1. What is Disease?

1. Disease, as a word, means very simply not at ease—a person is uncomfortable or suffering difficulties in maintaining energies for the functions he wishes to discharge and in keeping operative those faculties he wishes to exercise.
   In physiological terminology, disease means deviation from normal. That means that the body has deviated from regular functions. In a state of disease the body has rechanneled or redirected its energies so that it has less than usual energy for functions normally engaged in.
2. There are two distinct types of disease. The first type of disease serves a purpose and the second type serves none. Discerning these two types in your clients will be no problem at all. These two types of disease are as follows:
   1. The first type is constructive disease, often called acute disease.
   2. The second type of disease is degenerative. This results from organic impairment in which organs, tissues, bones, or other faculties have undergone destruction, distortion, or irreversible impairment.

Your service to your clients will largely depend on your ability to recognize whether a disease is constructive or degenerative. I repeat: this is not difficult. You will, regardless of these conditions of disease, still proceed by guiding your client into healthful practices, healthful practices being the universal panacea.

If diseases are remediable and reversible as most of them are, it is constructive. When disease can no longer be reversed through body remediable processes, it is degenerative. For instance, an arthritic’s bony deposits can usually be autolyzed and restored to near normal. But when ankylosis has occurred due to destruction of bone and cartilage and subsequent fusing, healthful practices will restore health except for the ankylosis—it is rarely reversible. However, many diseases commonly regarded as degenerative can be corrected by the body, most cases of arthritis being among them.