The Book That Saved My Life (Part II)

A More Useful Question

When people are chronically unwell, the question is often, “What is wrong with me?”

That question matters. Diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment are important. But another question can be equally valuable:

"What demands is my body trying to adapt to, and which of those demands can I reduce?"

For one person, the answer may involve sleep deprivation, under-fueling, blood-sugar volatility, sedentary behavior, overtraining, medication effects, alcohol, relational conflict, loneliness, unresolved trauma, a chronic infection, or a work schedule that makes recovery impossible.

For another, it may mean addressing inflammatory bowel disease with appropriate medical care while also improving nutrition, restoring sleep, reducing unnecessary exposures, and building a more stable daily rhythm.
We have agency. For most of us, our health problems are due to having lifestyles that stress us rather than nurture us, and our reserves become exhausted.

We have agency. For the most part, we have self-determination regarding our health. But, too often, our self-determination is to live in a way that overwhelms our ability to adapt, and we become sick. We don't see that what we do because of what we believe leads us to become sick. Too much stress, too little sleep, too much worry, too little exercise, too much refined food, too much sugar, too much alcohol.

We are commonly the cause of our own disease!

The Lesson I Carried Forward

Hans Selye’s The Stress of Life did not give me a simple answer or a guaranteed cure. What it gave me was a framework.

It taught me that illness can emerge when the body's total burden exceeds its capacity to adapt. It taught me that stress is not merely emotional—it is physical, chemical, environmental, nutritional, infectious, and social. It also taught me that even when a person cannot control every aspect of illness, they are the main driver of their healing.

At 15, facing the possibility of colon surgery, that realization was transformative.

I could not control everything that had happened to me. But I could begin paying attention. I could make a list. I could change what I ate and drank. I could begin to view my symptoms not as evidence that my body had failed me, but as signals that it had been carrying more than it could sustain.

That shift—from helplessness to thoughtful action—was the beginning of a different relationship with my health. It led to becoming remarkably healthy, becoming a doctor, and teaching healthcare and selfcare.

We all deserve to know that, in most cases, we are the main cause of whether we are healthy or sick.

References

The Stress of Life, Hans Selye, MD (1956)