Wisdom of the body.
Modern medicine still fails to explain processes that operate in self-healing diseases. We may thus distinguish between two kinds of processes that operate in the body: explained and unexplained. The latter operate in self-healing diseases, and are either ignored by medicine or called placebos. Hippocrates regarded such processes as the healing force of nature and the task of the physician was to assist the healing force. The unexplained processes in physiology were defined by Starling and Cannon as Wisdom of the Body (WOB). This concept is applied here for a rational treatment of processes involved in health and in disease. WOB is an attribute of live organisms. It directs growing plants toward sunshine, guides amebas away from noxious agents, and determines the behavior of higher animals. It is essential for individual survival and was molded by natural selection. During evolution, WOB encountered all diseases, knows how to heal itself, and anticipates all diseases. The main task of the WOB is to maintain health, and improve its quality. It controls processes in the body so as to make them healthier. The WOB has its own language and should be considered when examining patients.
H. H. Humphrey Center for Experimental Medicine and Cancer Research Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. Gershom@md2.huji.ac.il
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D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004194:Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D011603:Psychophysiology