What are the origins of health? Aaron Antonovsky sought to answer that question in his 1979 book entitled Health, Stress and Coping. In it, he introduced the term salutogenesis, which places emphasis on the elements that promote health, rather than the factors that strip it away and cause disease (a.k.a. pathogenesis). It’s a radical departure from the “pill for every ill” ideology we’ve all become accustomed to in the traditional healthcare model. Much like myself, Antonovsky rejected the theories of the “traditional medical-model dichotomy separating health and illness” and instead figured that one can only exist in the absence of another.

Today, more than ever, the majority of people seem to only be worried about not getting sick, rather than taking actions to optimize health. Unfortunately, if you continue to think this way, it’s important to understand the fundamental truth that you’re never going to be able to get healthy by doing the same things that made you susceptible to poor health to begin with. Perhaps, it’s the hypnotic narrative of fear perpetuated by daily body counts on the “News” that keeps you holding on to the current medical model. Yet, it is not your savior and it was never designed to make you well to being with. It’s time to start to think differently. The origins of health aren’t rooted in medications or vaccinations, they come from making the right decisions that work for you and your biology.

To illustrate the fundamental difference between the current pathogenetic medical model and the idea of salutogenetic model, let me ask you this. Say, your friend entrusts you to take care of their plant while away on vacation. While they’re gone, you see the leaves starting to turn brown. What do you do? You can paint those leaves green, or you can give the plant what it needs? (Here’s a hint, it’s not electrolytes!) I’m assuming, that since it’s not 2505, your first thought is to give the plant water. The browning of the leaves is a symptom of something not right with the plants biology. Painting the leaves green is akin to taking medication to “solve” the problem, yet only serves to mask the symptom.

Taking the analogy further, think of yourself as the plant. Are you giving yourself the proper things you need to thrive? Do you know what they are? Or do you wait until things start to breakdown, and then search for medications to suppress they symptoms of your faulty lifestyle? This isn’t meant to be harsh so much as eye-opening. Remember, I can’t make you change unless you want to.

You came into this world with only one responsibility, and that was to take care of yourself. Somewhere along the line, most of us surrender our power to a system that seeks profit over health, that manipulates our understanding of what health is, how it’s achieved, and maintained. Staying within this mindset keeps us looking in the wrong direction. We are continuously looking forward in time for the latest medication or vaccination to save us. It’s a faulty and dangerous premise. Instead, we need to look backward to the past, to see what made us strong enough to prevail thousands of years to get to this point where our health is crumbling. I’m a firm believer in the salutogentic model of health as it seeks to define the origins of health. Those origins fall directly in line with the ancestral approach I have successfully applied with my clients in the past, and will continue to use it with anyone who wishes to break free from the tragic paradigm that is the modern “healthcare” system. It’s time to change the way we think. Sometimes a step backwards can be a step in the right direction.