Two points of view of the body and health have crossed ideological swords for centuries: The mechanistic and the vitalistic. Health care in the U.S. is dominated by the mechanistic view – isolate a part, fix it, isolate and fix another part, and isolate and fix the next part that goes wrong.

Dean Black, in his unpublished book Regulated to Death, describes the mechanism as “catabolic.” He points out that “mechanists study the body’s connections within itself . . . separated from the influence of its natural environment.” “Mechanistic science,” writes Black, “grew from an entirely reasonable assumption derived from the forces of interaction – that tiny causes necessarily produce tiny effects so that we can ignore all but the most prominent ones.”

The vitalistic view, on the other hand, is different. It includes the “living” aspect of the body. “The living portion of the system,” Black explains, “reveals itself in the rhythms the molecules pulse with as they work, for it is rhythms, not molecules, that vanish when a living body dies.” Black expands the concept of “vitalism” from the limited definition of the “life” or “lively” component of a living system to include the study of living wholes – “wholism.” As Black puts it, “. . . wholism studies organisms in terms of their dynamic connections with their environment.” The vitalistic view boils down to, fix the whole, including its environment, and the parts will take care of themselves.

When we study health by looking at tinier and tinier biological structures of the body, we may learn whether or not certain organs or systems are functioning correctly. But if there is a problem, micro-investigations show only effects, not the cause. Discovering that the pancreas isn’t producing appropriate quantities of insulin may be a symptomatic pattern of “diabetes”; however, it doesn’t address glitches in the system-wide communications that caused the problem.

It’s rather like closely scrutinizing and examining the missed-assignment tendencies of the second-string defensive tackle to figure out why the team’s season has been a bummer. There may indeed be a problem there; however, the cause of the team’s lackluster performance comes from the top down. When a team has a couple of bad seasons, the players aren’t fired en masse; the coaches take the heat. The top brass isn’t communicating effectively with the worker bees. So it is in the body. Communication between the top-brass directors and the “drones” is garbled. The workers are doing exactly as they are told to do; it’s the instructions that are amiss.

Research increasingly supports this “whole-person” perspective on health. Studies in the field of psychoneuroimmunology have shown that stress, thought patterns, sleep, social connection, and lifestyle habits directly influence immune function, inflammation, hormone balance, and even gene expression. The body is not simply a machine made of isolated parts; it functions more like an integrated communication network in constant dialogue with its environment.

So, if a unit (physical body or sports team) isn’t functioning effectively, look at the big picture – the whole. For a body in trouble, find out what is being communicated internally by lifestyle, foods, rest, exercise, and most importantly, thoughts. These are some of the major pieces that make up your personal picture of health.

Link to Morter March Monday Rebroadcast: