If we know how to cultivate a garden (of health) well, you will learn how to maintain optimal health. These steps may be different for each individual.

1. Maintaining Good Health is a step by step process where proper order must be followed:

One step cannot be done before the other. An example of this would be planting good seeds in a weedy garden. Success is not likely. A experienced doctor of natural medicine can help a patient understand that there is a step by step order for the healing and transformation of your health. The environment or the “soil” is essential to having a healthy garden. Often, when we have an unhealthy microbiome, viruses and bacteria thrive. Focusing on the virus is not “the problem”, but a result of the “trash” or unhealthy soil. According to Natural Laws, when given the right nutrients in the right soil, at the right timing, the plant or the organism will then have the ability to heal itself. Abiding by the laws of proper order, we can successfully treat the “plant” or the individual. A garden filled with weeds and unhealthy soil is not the right environment for good fruit to bear. It is not realistic to expect good fruit when the garden is not well cultivated. Another important aspect of cultivating a healthy garden is to rebuild the nutrients in the soil. By adhering to the laws of nature, patience is essential for waiting for the seeds to grow, with respect to natural timing in a garden. This viewpoint is very different from the allopathic medicine model where a physiological action is forced or suppressed immediately. Consequences occur when anything in a "garden" is forced. If a gardener skips steps and does not tending their garden regularly, then the garden will not thrive or produce healthy results. If we put chemicals, medications and toxins in our soil intentionally or unintentionally, this will affect the health of our soil and it will affect our ability to have a healthy garden and have healthy outcomes.

2. First consultation: Beginning the detoxification process

When a patient is new, we look at the history of the patient to understand why there is illness or dysfunction. The drainage (our organs of elimination-kidneys, liver, intestines) must work optimally in order to ensure successful health outcomes. Toxins and accumulation need to enter and exit the cells, organs and glands. When seeing Dr. Abell or Dr. Lisa Abell for a consult, it is important to understand that disease manifestation is usually multifactorial. The process of removing toxins(chemicals, medications, suppression of biological enzymatic processes) is an organized, step by step process of right cultivation. The first consult is the first step of many depending on the patient, issues and stage of disease. It is important to develop the necessary skills of correct biodynamic management of the garden, the right nutrients, and healthy work habits from the individual. (taking remedies, proper exercise, proper diet) Regular maintenance in any garden will prevent a host of acute diseases in the future.

3. Medication in our soil will affect the health of the garden: 

Emergency medicine is appropriate in the title: it is for emergencies. Our current medical model is based on suppression of an acute state or chronic state of management of a disease with medications and chemicals. There is no cultivation or management of a healthy environment in which the body will not manifest “disease”. By using emergency medicine regularly with the use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, the soil (now with medications) and its diseases are more likely to manifest. If patients are taking medication, the side effects/accumulation of the medication can be mitigated if correctly managed with natural remedies or “drainage” along with taking medication. This may take longer to effectively create a healthy garden.

4. Diligence with healthy habits is necessary for a healthy internal environment:

If a garden is tended for a few months and then the gardener stops watering, tending and cultivating the little plants, the plants grow to their fullest potential. Healthy habits are instilled in the form of:

1. being diligent about continuing with new protocols every 2-4 months to support optimal detoxification of the systems of the body

2. compliance with protocols

3. adding baths

4. movement or exercise

5. proper eating

6. managing mental and emotional stressors

Regular maintenance is essential in the detoxification process. Adding chemicals, medications and toxins to our “garden” will affect the soil, the way the garden will grow and lengthen the healing time with cultivating a healthy garden. Medication may be added due to various reasons for a period of time and this can be discussed with your doctor to mitigate the side effects of the medication. Biological Medicine is a methodical process that takes a patient from a “diseased state” to a healthy state in a systematic way. Medications are always assessed on an individual basis according to the history of the patient and what medications are necessary for the patient and which can be removed when the patient heals from their symptoms.

5. Managing Unhealthy Habits: 

The body’s systems get “clogged” by eating out regularly. (This is due to added toxic oils, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones, plastics, microwave, preservatives, non organic foods) Other unhealthy habits include lack of exercise, overconsumption of sugar, alcohol or nicotine, junk foods, high stress, toxic environment at work or at home or irregular sleeping habits. The body may become “clogged” if the patient does not develop healthy habits. Once healthy skills are learned, then a patient can cultivate his or her garden well without having support from his/her doctor regularly. The patient now has skills of one’s own that one can implement, and support from their doctor is needed once every 5-6 months rather than every few months. . Baths, exercise, nutrients, managing stressors, or a change of unhealthy habits can ward off imminent disease. In this way, the patient begins to take responsibility for his/her own health and reduces the possibility for any future “dis-ease”.

6. Supporting Natural Laws with naturally derived vitamins, minerals and nutrients:
Tending our garden according to a flawed medical system rather than according to Natural Laws will often produce disease. If a patient does not have expert gardening skills or uses quick suppression approaches, this may result later in acute or chronic disease. Many take care of their health without experienced practitioners of natural medicine, however, the results may not be optimal. True experts are needed in order to succeed in our health and in our life. Often, the media and flawed science does not give us accurate expertise on how to stay healthy due to hidden monetary gain, personal kickbacks and personal agendas. Those who return to a diet and lifestyle of traditional foods, and those living according to natural laws, produces successful results with their health. Excellent research today is mixed with harmful untruth and it is difficult to know what is truly healthy for the body and what are lies. Having accurate knowledge and guidance on how to maintain proper health can be life saving.

7. Learning how to use natural remedies when acute issues arise:

With regular treatment and detoxification, patients learn how to use natural remedies specifically for their own acute issues whether this be chronic headaches or joint pain. Patients will learn how to use natural remedies for their own and their children’s acute issues. Natural support does not produce harmful consequences or side effects. Tylenol or antibiotics, on the other hand, affect the terrain/soil of the gut and immune system. Using anti-inflammatories semi-regularly, will likely allow “invaders” like systemic viruses and bacteria to enter the organism without proper immune defense. Long term use of medications will affect one’s systems. There are usually consequences later for short term pain relief. Tylenol is one of the most common causes of liver failure. The side effects of Tylenol and other anti-inflammatories are on the CDC website. Regular use of anti-inflammatories is similar to Opioid drugs. These drugs have now been directly shown to be addictive and harmful. Many over the counter medications have harmful results that directly affect our body’s organs, tissues and glands. Often the side effects are the very consequences that patients are trying to manage. With any long term medication, the more toxins that are placed in the “soil-or gut microbiome”, the more consequences this will have in the future of our “health”.

8. Building a healthy foundation takes time and an investment in your health:

If patients have had many years of medications or processed foods, then these chemicals and drugs are in the “soil” of their garden. When planting healthy seeds in chemical laden soil, often the seeds will not grow well. Because this is common in our modern era of medicine and processed foods, our soil will become “out of balance”. Dysbiosis or abnormal gut flora means that pathogenic organisms are thriving in the body instead of healthy gut flora. This happens when the good microbes in our soil are out of balance with the bad ones. All microwaved food, processed foods, chemicals, medications and environmental and industrial toxins kill our good bacteria. If parents have unhealthy soil, then they pass their unhealthy soil on to the child. As the saying goes, “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” 

When this happens, we must change this soil from unhealthy (pathogenic) to healthy (life-giving). It is not realistic to change the soil in 2 months. When a conventional farmer wants to change their farm from a conventional one to an organic farm, it takes the soil 3-5 years to certify the garden as organic. If we have infections, bacteria, fungal growth or yeast, there is abnormal flora. The soil is not healthy. The fungi or bacteria is not the “problem” but a “result" of the problem from the unhealthy soil. It will take some time to change the soil to healthy, life giving soil again through work and proper cultivation. The more medications, toxic foods, toxic ways, and chemical exposures in our environment, the more work it will take to create a healthy, thriving garden with healthy soil. This means that the detoxification and rebuilding process may take longer. The good news is that all gardens have the potential to change and become healthy again.

9. Maintaining a healthy diet is individually based: 

What patients consider a diet to be healthy whether being vegan, vegetarian, Keto or filled with carbohydrates may not be optimal for what the individual needs to function correctly. An example of this may be that a patient may not want to eat saturated fat. If we do not eat specific forms of saturated fat, this will then affect our brain, skin and gut mucosa. Memory issues, dry skin, along with gut issues may surface. The body needs specific nutrients: vitamins, minerals, amino acids, organ meats and fats. If these nutrients are not obtained, then the body will be compromised in specific ways. The patient will learn how to eat correctly according to the needs of their body’s deficiencies during this process. Adding specific fats, meats or nutrients has nothing to do with our beliefs, opinions and preferences about diet, but what the individual actually needs to function optimally.

10. Detoxification Foods vs. Rebuilding Foods: What we put into the soil: 

When addressing a patient’s specific dietary concerns, each patient may go through specific phases of a specific diet for a period of time implementing detoxification and/or rebuilding foods into the diet. Often a patient needs a specific percentage of foods for detoxification and a specific percentage of foods for rebuilding the organism depending on whether the patient has inflammation, a degenerative disease or if the patient is trying to successfully lose weight. It is a myth that weight loss only occurs by changing the diet or with diet and exercise alone. There are many other factors to consider.

Conclusion: Gardening, like our health, is not simple. There is no single cure-all substance that will completely heal a garden. Health takes work by managing, nourishing and tending in the right way. Wisdom and understanding of the natural laws is not common with natural practitioners today. Sadly, we look to single cure-all remedies to rectify our untended garden. By learning the skills of proper cultivation and understanding that health is multifactorial and constant. (Much like cleaning a house; it will continue to get dirty every day) We will guide a patient back to health. Once the garden is managed and properly tended, it will still take work (like cleaning a house weekly to maintain order) but it will be much easier than leaving the garden untended and undernourished. When a new patient comes to us, we must work with the patient to overhaul the garden. Understanding these natural laws and working in harmony with them is unique to our practice. Most practitioners pull a few weeds with their patients by giving a few nutritional supplements, but do not understand how to manage and cultivate healthy people through the many phases of their patient’s lives from birth, childhood, adolescence, pregnancy, surgeries, traumas, menopause, andropause and old age.

Biological Medicine and Homeopathic treatment is a step by step process that addresses the many problems with health in both acute and chronic situations. The garden is yours to tend. It will take work like everything wonderful that we obtain in life: raising a child, playing an instrument, a degree, learning a sport or building a house. We cannot tend your garden, but we can help you to effectively make changes in order for your garden to be abundant, healthy and fruitful. We take our health for granted until we do not have it. Dr. Abell and I will help you with this process for life-long health for you and your family. 

Warm regards, 

Dr. Lisa Abell, DACM, L.Ac & Dr. Robert Abell, N.D., VNMI