360. Complex Chronic Illness: A Unique Puzzle With Dr Ben Reebs

Dr Ben Reebs, founder of the Portland Clinic of Natural health joins me on the show today and it is a brilliant look at Complex Chronic Illness and the biggest things that he’s found to be helpful as a doctor. The questions I ask him are: 

How did you arrive at 7 laws of healing - not just for your book but in the way you practice medicine? 

Those laws are Vitality, Disease, Cure, Compensation, Resonance, Synergy, Intention and I’m looking forward to diving into some of them… 

You start your book with a quote about commitment from William H Murray and my mind went to a bit of an aha “Today, in our modern world we have to commit consciously and proactively to our health, instead of it being culturally and naturally a way of life - we have to choose it because our instinct and surrounds to help us ‘be it’ are mostly gone… is this why health might feel ‘hard’ to people in modern life? It can be a lot of energy to constantly swim against the tide, right? 

At the very start of discussing vitality you say “No one can heal you. There is only self-healing in the laws of nature”. I love this because for the main people are so disempowered in their health journeys and often forget it’s an inside job and you need to find the right supporting partners to help facilitate that healing - so often I hear “I’ve tried everything” and they’re in a really bad way, eating 4 foods, reacting to everything, inflamed, in pain all over: when someone is in that “I’ve tried everything” boat - what are some gentle words of wisdom to share as they look within and look to find a better way forward? 

You talk about a move from acute infection-style illnesses, to chronic illnesses such as autoimmune, as vitality wanes - what is the mechanism of this change in the immune system? 

Talking about signs and symptoms that are trying to promote balance/get our attention - how can we listen to them more effectively and act accordingly rather than medicate them to make them go away - almost feels like medicating is a part of the reason we’re forgetting to speak the language of vitality/homeostasis ( outside of an SOS context for physical mental health challenges that require that short term ‘get out of crisis’ to work on the long game of course) Thinking back to all those tylenols to fix the headache, instead of ‘hmm maybe it’s the fragrance cloud I’m working in at the department store every day, not a Tylenol deficiency, right? Can you give us some more examples of seemingly innocent quick fixes we use, leading us down the path of potential chronic disease because we’re not listening enough? 

At the end of the Vitality chapter you invite us to simply list 5 things that bring us vitality - and prescribe MORE of them, and 5 things that make us feel LESS vital and do less of them. I love this. It’s like a little ‘stock take’ - how often do you do this in your own life and check in? 

Then we look at the Law of disease and we’re reminded that when we go against nature’s order it produces toxicity, deficiency and disease. 

Do you see the many modern environmental and lifestyle changes of the past half century as the culprits of this draining of vitality and creation of chronic disease?

Something doctors - naturopathic and integrative/functional have answered the call to is supporting people with these… Lyme comes up a lot; Mold too. With your deep understanding of these infections, can you shed light on how our modern lifestyles and environments might be exacerbating the risks of these conditions? It’s never just ‘the tick bite’ or ‘the mold exposure’ is it? 

And can we go a bit granular on some of the things that set the stage for chronic illness and talk about ‘leakiness’? Gut, brain, cells… basics/deep dive, would love to spend some time here…

Enjoy the show

Alexx

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