...everything looks like a nail."
This quote, attributed to the psychologist Abraham Maslow, speaks of the "law of the instrument." It refers to a bias people have when they possess specific knowledge or a tool. They tend to see the problem or situation they are confronted with through the lens of their specialty. So, if you have a hammer as your tool, everything looks like a nail.
This phrase has been used to refute Dr. Zamboni's thesis that CCSVI is involved with MS. Neurologists were quick to point out that, since venous disease is Dr. Zamboni's specialty, OF COURSE he would see a connection in his wife's MS. But that made me wonder, if Dr. Zamboni was so biased, why didn't he see a connection to his own degenerative disease? Why did he only find CCSVI in multiple sclerosis? If all his world was the nail of venous disease, why just MS? And furthermore, how could immunoneurologists make that statement, when they themselves had their own bias of t and b cells. Didn't they see everything through the lens of the immune system?
Most of you were probably completely taken off guard by an MS diagnosis. When Jeff was diagnosed with MS, I didn't have a hammer. I didn't have much, actually. Just the ability to read and look things up on pub med, google, and a variety of MS boards. Jeff and I didn't have a bias towards anything--we just had his strange blood results, and a hunch that his sickness was related. And that lead me to delve into the vascular connection to MS. Because I wanted to help Jeff heal.
Many of you were in the same boat when you or your loved ones were diagnosed with MS. Dr. Terry Wahls had the benefit of a scientific and medical background, but she didn't have the hammer of a mitochondria. That came with research and testing out her own thesis and diet on herself. Dr. George Jelinek did the same thing, and he focused on the body's need for vitamin D. Many of you have come to the same conclusions in the same method, whether or not you've been to medical school. You've tried the Swank Diet, or LDN, vitamin D supplementation or antibiotics. And maybe that path helped you, maybe it didn't. Chances are, if CCSVI venoplasty did not work for you...you aren't hanging around here reading this note. And if it did help you, but you restenosed, you want to know why. And some of you are doing terrifically well, and believe that your hammer might be the one and only for others, as well.
I linked a really great paper last year about "big picture" health care. It's written by a physician in Canada who studies how electro magnetic fields affect our health. He's seen as a bit of an outsider. (EMF studies have an even harder time finding funding than venous studies. But dirty electricity affects our cells, and it's an important area of research.) If you haven't seen his paper, here are his thoughts on "What's out there making us sick." http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2012/605137/
The basic premise is that illness develops because of a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors. We see this in cardiovascular disease...where two twins might both be born with a genetic propensity for stroke. The first twin doesn't exercise, smokes, and suffers a stroke. Whereas the other twin, with the exact same genetic make up, does not smoke, exercises and remains well. I saw this in my own family, where my father, a twin, suffered from a neurodegenerative disease and died at 78. Three years later, his twin brother is still alive and quite well. Something in my Dad's and Uncle's environment was different. Was it pesticide exposure, stress, my Dad's pipe? I won't ever know, and that's OK. But it makes me ask more questions for my family.
If there are things we know of, that we can do TODAY, to give ourselves a better chance at remaining in good health by changing our environment--do we want to consider all of them? Or should we just focus on one factor (t cells, Lyme, cpn, gluten intolerence, vitamin D deficiency, etc.)? I think our odds are better if we look at the big picture.
I like this comment by Arlene Hubbard of the Hubbard Foundation. She has consistantly reiterated the importance of a big picture, or holistic view, when dealing with her son Devin's MS diagnosis.
Deficiency and or toxicity are things we can change in our own lives. It was Devin's Ayurvedic neurologist who recommended a different way for him to live his life. That was the beginning of his change in lifestyle and diet.
The challenge is going to be putting down our own personal hammers, and looking at the larger picture.
And I'm the first to admit, I need to do this, too--
Joan
