A recent large scale randomized double blind controlled trial recently showed that not only is water and sunlight not beneficial to wilting plants, they may even be harmful. The study included 1,000,000 wilting plants. Investigators wanted to see if water would decrease the severity of the wilting, so they exposed 500,000 wilting plants to water and 500,000 were exposed to fake water. After 2 weeks, all 1,000,000 plants were not only still wilting but were more wilted than when the study began. The author concluded that water offers no benefit to wilting plants and may actually be harmful.
Some investigators worried that perhaps the plants were wilting due to the lack of nutrients in the soil. So as a follow up study they further divided the plants into the follow groups:
– Real Nutrients, Real Water (250,000)
– Real Nutrients, Fake Water (250,000)
– Fake Nutrients, Real Water (250,000)
– Fake Nutrients, Fake Water (250,000)
After 2 weeks, no significant difference was noted regarding the wilting and a significant number of plants were more wilted and the researchers concluded that this study added to the growing body of research that water was not beneficial to plants and added that nutrients were also not beneficial.
In a final follow up study, the investigators exposed half the plants to green spray paint and the others to fake spray paint and discovered at the end of 2 weeks the plants were still wilting, but they had regained their green color back so it was concluded that green spray paint is effective at restoring the color of the plant.
The results of these studies fly in the face of conventional wisdom that plants need both water and nutrients, but investigators agreed that in light of their recent discovery, plant experts should stop recommending water and nutrients for wilting plants, instead they should offer green spray paint for those horticulturists concerned for their plants.
At this point, you’ve got to realize that what’s written above is really a fallacy, sort of. Everyone knows that plants need water and nutrients. We also know that while we can spray paint a plant to make it more green, that won’t create a healthy plant. That right there is really the key. The question wasn’t whether the plant became healthier, the question was a matter of symptom reduction and it was assumed that symptom reduction equalled healthier. However, the use of spray paint is an obvious example that symptom reduction does not necessarily improve the health of the plant. So this leads us to the question: under what paradigm are we forming the questions to our investigation?
There are two paradigms in which we can approach a wilting plant. There’s the Sickness and Treatment paradigm and there is the Wellness and Prevention paradigm. In all of the above studies, the objective was to achieve a plant that is wilting less. Less wilting = less symptoms = better. Why? Because that’s how better is defined in the Sickness and Treatment paradigm. In a Wellness and Prevention paradigm, better would be defined as a plant with improved cell function.
So let’s repeat the above studies, but change our paradigm to the Wellness and Prevention paradigm. Under this paradigm we change our definition of better and question to, do these interventions improve the cell function and thus health?
So, when we give the wilting plants water, do the cells of the plant begin to function better? Of course they do, because cells need water.
Regardless of whether the plant wilted less, if the cells were functioning better then the study showed a successful result. But if the plants are still wilting, perhaps the follow up questions would be how much water and for how long do they need water? How many nutrients and in different proportion do the plants need?
But it also may need sunlight and if someone is dumping diesel fuel near the garden, then we need to stop doing that as well, however, these were not the questions asked under the Treatment and Sickness paradigm. These are questions about deficiency and toxicity and what the plants require to improve the function of the cells – Wellness and Prevention paradigm questions. The Treatment and Sickness model only asked if the symptoms were reduced and if the symptoms were not reduced then it could be concluded that not only were water and nutrients not helpful but they could even be harmful because the plants wilted more. In fact, under this model, if you recommend water, nutrients and sunlight for wilting plants you are not practicing evidence based horticulture and anyone to recommend these things would be labeled a quack.
You may be thinking this is all quite silly and what does it have to do with anything. Well, it has everything to do with the way we approach human health care.
When looking at high blood pressure, the pharmaceutical companies that create drugs and pay for research aren’t looking for why blood pressure is high, they are only looking for what intervention will lower blood pressure. They don’t even look to see if lowering blood pressure will result in a healthier individual who lives a life of better quality and quantity. They are ONLY looking to decrease blood pressure, and if the drug they are developing can do that, then that drug is recommended. This is no different with high cholesterol, blood sugar, or any other symptom.
This is how our drug approach to “health” has operated for decades. Trillions of dollars have been spent on interventions to control symptoms with drugs without improving the functioning of the human body and the results have been devastating. Despite all of this, American are sicker than ever and every chronic disease is on the rise with no signs of stopping. What has been our proposed solution? Mandating health care so that more people have more access to drugs that will not improve their functioning!
It’s not logical!
When you stop thinking under a Treatment and Sickness paradigm, it becomes OBVIOUS that the only solution is to improve the function of the human body by sufficiently addressing all the deficiencies and toxicities we are currently afflicted with.
To address only one factor will move us to higher level of cell functioning, but if we really want to obtain clinical results, we must address all the contributing factors. Providing the body with adequate nutrients, movement and positive thought and remove chemical, sedentary and negative though toxicities is the only way to improve our individual health, as well as that of our children and entire society.
Additionally, we need to do that forever. Sorry to break it to you, but your life depends on it. We live under this idea that if “diet and exercise aren’t enough” to obtain the results we want in a couple of office visits or in a month or two then we give up and reach for something else. Seriously?!? We haven’t nourished our bodies with healthful food, adequate movement and positive thought quite possibly EVER and when attempting to do so doesn’t show a change on the scale within a few weeks we give up and reach for some potion or pill that promises a fix (to our perceived problem) in 21 or 40 days?
Finally, realize that we can have a whole bunch of science on a particular topic that means absolutely nothing with regard to the function of the human body all because we asked the wrong questions or because we interpreted the results incorrectly. With the wrong question, we concluded that water and sunlight were not beneficial to plants and interpreted the further wilting of those plants as meaning water and sunlight were actually harmful to plants. How many plants were killed when those results and interpretations were applied to the rest of the plant society?
“The reality is that our current health care system is not truly serving our health needs. We have focused on treating illness rather than promoting prevention and wellness. The negative consequences of this sick-care system are taking a toll on our health, our economic stability and the futures of our children and grandchildren. ” Richard H. Carmona M.D. M.P.H. FACS 17th Surgeon General of the United States in: Almanac of Chronic Disease, 2009 Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease
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