Eleventh Hour desires to impart understanding of health sciences to the public and healthcare distributors. In the current health care scene anything goes. Many health care products are making all sorts of claims. For the average individual it is difficult to validate all these claims and decide what is really appropriate for their condition.

Knowledge vs Understanding

We are living in the “information age” but we certainly aren’t living in the “age of health”. Modern diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and cancer are actually rising despite advances in modern medicine in diagnosing and treating illness. It is thus not surprising that today increasing numbers of health consumers are turning to alternative health treatments and practices. This is of serious concern in that large amounts of nutritional supplements, traditional medicines and extremely strong supplements, are being recommended and sold by people with little understanding of health sciences. Knowledge and understanding of the scientific truth are intrinsically very different. Often health care promoters have superficial knowledge imparted by what marketing messages the related companies have given them. A genuine health promoter is different in that he or she couples the knowledge and takes into account the overall health parameters of the customer to tailor a health solution rather than just merely pushing a product.

The drive of interest in health education

There is no doubt that mainstream medicine is an increasingly progressive science. Through increasingly complex research methods we continue to gain knowledge of the human body and have developed treatments that will halt, and sometimes reverse the progression of many diseases.

Advances in medicine have become intrinsic to our culture – we expect that there is always a pill for every illness. However, despite the funds and research, many illnesses from cancer to the common cold continue without a cure. In fact, while modern medicine has had success in many areas, there is a growing recognition that the pairing of disease with “solution” is no longer effective.

The reason is that illnesses cannot be isolated from lifestyle factors. The health of each individual is constantly influenced by the events within and outside the body. These range from genetic inheritance, emotions, relationships, food, the quality of the air and the water a person consumes. Any healing has to work within this framework.

Many people are increasingly disillusioned by brief appointments with doctors, who focus on the diseased organ or symptom rather than the entire human being. Having been trained as a doctor, I would say that medical science teaches its exponents how to diagnose a disease, understand the pathology behind the disease and then decide on the best medical or surgical cure. At best, better doctors have combined empathy, understanding and sympathy with their technical knowledge.

By contrast, there is a new movement to encourage individuals to take responsibility for their health and well-being under the guidance of a medical practitioner. Unfortunately, doctors are not well versed with well-ploughed alternative therapies that have been at different times and different cultures the mainstream of health maintenance and treatment. Developing fields like Neutraceuticals (nutritional therapy) recognize that nutrition is an integral part of treatment, but most medical schools don’t even have a week of training on the subject.

In fact, more and more medical doctors are recognizing the limitations of modern medicine and are becoming more open towards alternative forms of therapy. This is part of a growing realization that one consultation, one course of tablets, one operation is not necessarily going to fix a health problem, and that a one practitioner or one treatment approach may not be the complete answer.

On the other hand, many different alternative therapies are available and this can get confusing. Different ones suit different constitutions. In making your choice, it is vital that you know your own needs, the benefits and limitations of each different therapy, and then establish what will work best for you.

The thrust of Eleventh Hour is to impart understanding of health sciences to our clients so that they can in turn impart the right understanding to better serve their customers.