When was the last time a doctor asked you about positive symptoms? Ha ha! I thought not. But this doctor is very interested in floating the idea of positive signs of good health!
Of course the conventional medical doctor concentrates only on negative symptoms, which point to some disease or other. That’s what they do; it’s the benchmark of their career. Indeed, it would not be possible to function as a good physician if you were not familiar with a vast number of possible symptoms: headache, cramps, diarrhea, skin rash, joint pain and fatigue… these are signals that something is wrong.
Certain combinations of symptoms we call a “syndrome” and these recur from patient to patient. For example sore throat, dry hot skin, fever, widespread redness of the skin but obvious pallor around the mouth would make any decent doctor think immediately of scarlet fever, a specific type of streptococcal infection.
That’s a syndrome. Losing weight, coughing, torrential night sweats is another grouping. It sounds like tuberculosis.
So what is a positive symptom? It’s almost an oxymoron but, since I thought up the idea, I get to define it. A positive symptom is some change or signal from within body and mind that tells you all is well (or even better than OK, super-duper OK!)
Examples of positive symptoms: delight, carefree excitement, freedom, clean tongue, abundant energy, clear skin, bright eyes, firm nails (non-brittle) and hair in silky condition, calm, relaxed, centered. The most important by far among those suggestions is abundant energy. I have said often: if you don’t leap out of bed in the morning, vibrant with energy and enthusiasm, you are sick! Something is pulling you down…
That “something” may be physical factor, like a deficiency or blockage. But it could also be a stress or emotional thing. Your amygdala (the fear or pleasure center in the lower brain) could be trying to protect you from more ravages of fear, tension, anxiety and stress. So… it simply winds you down, so that you are not so engaged with life.
Either way, lack of vitality is a serious symptom. Of course it is! Just think what it means: vitality = life! (from the Latin vitalitas) So lack of vitality is lowering towards death. Ugh!
That’s why one of the best markers for good health is abundant vitality at any age. At 50 I had the energy and stamina of most twenty five-year olds. I could storm up mountains on my weekend walks and beat almost everyone I encountered to the top. At 60 years old, I felt like a 40-year old. At 70 I felt like a 55-year old. At 80 (I’m not there yet), maybe it will have crept around to feeling like a 70-year old. I dunno: I’m not sure what a 70-year old would feel like! Never accepted that age!
I’m nearly always up with the Sun. I can’t wait to get to my work; I love it!
All of that’s worth tons of supplements, exercize and antioxidants, though I eat well: Vivien is a wonderful cook, as any visitor to our home will attest.
Same In Business
You can apply this same positive symptom principle to any business. In my Supernoetics® writing I call the good signs positive indicators. You can tell if a business is healthy by certain outwards signs, or symptoms, if you like.*
Few or no refund demands would be a good sign. Abundant prosperity margins would be good (not exactly the same as “profits” though). Happy, knowledgeable and productive staff, who care about the company and care about the customers would be a very positive symptom—more so than a positive profit-and-loss sheet from the accountants.
These days, you’d have to say positive Twittering, “sharing” and “liking” in the social media is a good sign for your business endeavors. Steady growth, people asking to work with you, customer referrals and media approval would all be positive signs that your business is flourishing.
Notice I didn’t even mention general income. That’s a dangerous measure to use. It’s a bit like calories in your diet: more isn’t necessarily better. It’s the quality of the calories that count. Sugary, starchy or so-called empty carbs are no good for building health. Similarly, income generated by lying, scamming and short-changing customers is not good income, no matter how much you make in the short term. Sooner or later the bloating will ruin the health of your company. You will crash.
The First Symptom Is The End Not The Beginning
So where are we going with this?
Well, one of the important points to make about positive symptoms, as opposed to negative ones, is that you’ve left things too late if you start with negative symptoms.
People often date the onset of their illness from the first day they were aware of being sick. That’s too late! At that point, it means all your body defenses and protective mechanisms—of which there are many—have been exhausted and can no longer cope. Your body has lost the battle. You have little left to fight back with; your mechanisms are spent.
It’s not newly sick, even though that’s what it feels like; it’s at the end of the line, repair-wise. I wish more people would grasp this point.
Men are notoriously bad at this. But, honestly, I can’t say most women behave that wisely either. People wait until there is a serious problem, before going to the doctor.
Of course you know I don’t want you to go to the doctor. Stay away! But I do want you to start reacting on the first alert, which is always the disappearance of one or more positive symptoms. Do something, whether your preference is for self-help or to go to a good holistic specialist.
You need to act. To wait until real trouble starts is a folly. It’s also denial, which is never clever.
*The exact definition of a symptom is something the patient complains of (like a headache); a sign is something the doctor observes (like swelling of the ankles).
Biological Age
In my book Medicine Beyond, I told you about a concept called biological age. That’s as opposed to the calendar age on your passport or driving license. Your biological age is where your tissues are living, how they feel. So you can be 75 years old but your body is vibrant and healthy, about the same level of metabolism as a 50 year old. That’s good!
But it can go the other way. You might be 50 in calendar age but your body is acting like it’s 75 or more: aching joints, creaking, slow thinking, tiredness, poor skin and already lots of wrinkles. Ugh! (can be improved if you follow good advice).
Diagnosing biological age is something we do on sensitive health detector devices, like the MORA machine or BICOM. There are lots of these electronic beasts, all related to electro-acupuncture. Sometimes the practitioner puts a series of “filters” into the circuit: little ampoules of mesenchyme tissue, which tell your biological age. So we get a nice read on 50. That means it’s resonating with you. You know when you sign or speak near a piano and the instrument starts to whisper back to you? That’s resonance.
It’s done electronically with the machines—but the same idea basically.
Concentrate on how you feel: that’s the best clue to your health and most exactly monitors your biological age. Do all the good things I tell you in these newsletters and you’ll surely live long and feel good.
Meantime, consider my age-survival manual How to Live Beyond 100 Years.
