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You're listening to the body heal podcast with Dr. Katie demming. I'm your host. And today we're talking about the difference between hearing illness and healing ourselves. And I think sometimes we confuse the two of these words, but to me, and in my practice, they mean very different things. And I think we focus a lot on the word cure in western medicine. And the interesting part is that you can be cured of an illness, but not truly healed. And so today, I want to talk about that with you and why it's so important that yes, we focus on curing illness. But though we also focus on healing your body, stay tuned. So, I want to start with talking about the word cure, because actually, it's quite a controversial topic in the cancer community. And even if you're not dealing with cancer, I think this conversation is a good one. And I think that it's relevant to every kind of illness and all types of healing. But in the world of cancer, cure can be controversial, because cure is thought to be eradication of all disease, meaning that every last cell has been eradicated. And if you know anything about cancer treatment, there's always the potential that there's even one to 100 cells that are not killed by the treatment, and can recur at some point. And so some people get really upset when you use the word cure. So I try not to use that a ton, but you'll see it everywhere, right. And they think that there's a big difference between curing illness and eradicating disease, and truly healing your body. And that you really can be cured without being healed. And that, if the reverse happens, that you heal, I think, actually, you're more likely to be cured. So that's why in this podcast, and where I'm headed with my career, I'm talking more about healing, and less about curing illness. So what is the difference? Like when I say heal versus cure, what is the difference between those two. And so we'll start with definitions. And the definition for heal if you were to look that up is to become healthy again. Or to restore a state of well being cure. On the other hand, the definition is to relieve a person of symptoms of a disease or condition. And so you can see those are two really different things, right, the cure is focused on eradicating something, ridding your body, where is healing is really this idea of restoring wellbeing, or restoring health. And in western medicine, we're really taught to cure illness, we're not taught how to heal. And so we spend, you know, all of our time with our patients focused on eradicating disease ridding our patients of their symptoms. And I think it's important, don't get me wrong, I actually think that work is really important. But I think
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it's even more important to learn how to truly heal your body. And I think there's a parable that describes this paradigm of curing versus healing. And so I want to tell you the story, and the story is the parable of the river. And the story goes like this, once there was a river that ran through a village, and one day one of the villagers noticed a body floating in the river. Someone was drowning in the river. And so he swiftly swam out and saved the drowning person and pulled them onto the shore and got them to safety. The next day, there were two bodies. He is floating in the river. And so the villager got a friend and they swam out into the swift waters and saved the two people and brought them onto the dry land. And the next day, there were four. And then the next day eight, and the next day 16. And every day, the numbers doubled. And the villagers were smart, and organized in their efforts to save all the people who were drowning in the river. And so they created systems where they could get life rafts to quickly move out and catch the bodies that were flowing through the river. And then they had an elaborate system of getting the people off the river and patched back up and onto dry land. And so this went on, and the village leaders praise the villagers for their great work on a river. And the first time I heard this parable, I was at a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction retreat. So that's meditation that's taught by Jon Kabat Zinn. And I was at this retreat with another fellow colleague who we were doing this together, the course on meditation. And she and I both sat there, after we heard the story. And we said, this is Western medicine. We are like the rescuers on the river, and that our patients are the victims who are drowning in the river. And all we're doing is picking them up and putting them back on the riverbanks. But we're not figuring out why are they falling in the river in the first place? How do we keep them out of the river. And she and I both felt so deeply impacted by the idea that was created by this parable for us. And I just remember thinking, wow, this like, really is what we do. We don't really heal people, we just patch them up and save them. You know, but, but why are they falling in the river in the first place? How do we give them the tools so that they don't fall in the river again.
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And I was reminded of this parable, again, probably about six months ago, I was seeing one of my patients back who had just finished radiation for breast cancer. And during her treatment, she and I had spent a lot of time actually talking about how to take better care of herself and how to make some life changes that would prioritize her health and well being, and really focusing on the healing aspects, the emotional, and physical things that she could do to restore health in her body in her life. And she had been so excited about the work and we had a little regimen that she was working through. And so when I saw her back for her follow up, we went through the regular visit of how her symptoms and when she recovering appropriately from the treatment and all of that. And at the end of the visit, I asked her how she was doing on the other things that we were working on, really the healing aspect of her journey. And she said to me, gosh, Dr. Deming, I just don't have time. It's like I had put everything on hold, to get through this treatment, and my kids need me and life is so busy and work that I just can't find time to walk, which was one of the things that we were doing is incorporating some exercise into a routine. And then we had worked on some self love exercises. And she's like, I just don't have time I just need to get on with my life. And I got it like I understood what she meant. But after I finished the visit and walked out, I was so sad because I was like there's another person that I just picked up out of the river. And I set her on the banks. And I know that she hasn't healed and that truly actually illness is an opportunity for deep healing and transformation and, and by her jumping straight back into her life and not doing the deeper work not really prioritizing her own health and well being she's likely to fall on Have you ever again. And I'm not saying that her cancer per se would come back, but that she
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is susceptible to other types of illness. And that this is just the cycle that we're in with modern society, that our lives are so fast and hectic, that we really don't know how to take care of ourselves, we don't know how to do the deeper healing. And so that's really, you know, that's why I'm doing this podcast. That's why I'm really focusing more on this, in my career is that I really believe that life threatening illness, especially something like cancer, but so many other types of illness are an opportunity for us to reflect and look at our lives and make changes to prioritize our well being. And that's both physical and emotional. And one of the things that I like to think about is that we really, are given this one body for this lifetime. And it's one of my mentors, uses this analogy of a rental car. And it's like, we've been dropped off it. And we just arrived at an airport, and called Earth where we landed in earth, right, and we were given this rental car, your body is your rental car for this lifetime. And you're going to drive around for this lifetime. And then when this life is over, you're going to check the rental car back in and you'll be on your way. And I think of our bodies that way, it said we have this one body, that is to drive us around through this whole life and give us so many experiences, and really provided so much for us. And so we need to learn how to take care of it, we need to change the oil, we need to rotate the tires, we need to not drive it into the ground. And so I really encourage my patients to think about, okay, like if this is your only body that you're getting for this whole lifetime. And that could be 8090 years, how do you want to treat your body. And so many of us really abuse our bodies, that we take it for granted, and that we just expect it to perform. But our bodies will show us if we're not taking care of them that they need attention. They need care. And sometimes they need repairing. And so I really think about how illness, yes, it's important to do the treatment so that you can cure the illness or eradicate disease. But it's really also important to learn how to take care of your body and your mind to your emotional and physical well being. Both are so important. And so I wanted to touch on that in this podcast to really explain that I see it differently. I see curing illness, as one thing that is important. And actually it's been my whole career up until this point, I've been a radiation oncologist for 20 years and, and really focus my career on curing illness. But that I actually think healing is where the true restoration of health occurs and where the magic occurs where we're really able to not only heal our bodies and transcend illness, but really transform our lives. So I look forward to sharing more. That is my goal to share more about what is that deep healing and it will be going into so many different topics. But if you are enjoying this podcast, please leave us a five star review so that other people can find us. Please follow the podcast and share with anyone that you think could benefit from this content and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Okay, this is Dr. Katie Deming and thank you for listening to the body heal podcast. If you've gotten value from today's episode, I'd love for you to share it with your friends and loved ones helped me create more impact around the world. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram or Facebook and visit Katy Deming comm for more information on how to work with me
