HISTORY
The death of a special friend and patient of mine painfully illustrates the significance of addressing stress before the manifestation of symptoms. I met Joe, not his real name, about twenty years ago. He was a very talented writer, graduate of Julliard, and a man with an amazing wit, and intelligence. Like each of us he had his particular quarks, one of which was that he "hated" doctors. During our first encounter I was aware that despite a thick beard, Joe had very sizeable growths covering much of his face and throat. Joe had been diagnosed with cancer, but was unwilling to submit to conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He had decided that he would attempt to self-heal or die trying.

DIAGNOSIS
Shortly after meeting we developed a friendship, and upon learning about the subclinical approach he decided to entrust his healthcare to a doctor, me. During our initial consultation I learned that Joe, in addition to being exposed to various toxins while serving his country in Viet Nam, also had a mouth full of "nasty" metals. Not only did he his dental work contain the "usual" mercury fillings, but also nickel and lead from dental care received while in the military more than a decade earlier.

Many of his fillings were in disrepair and actually disintegrating, and therefore circulating systemically throughout his body. Knowing that environmental toxins, as well as heavy metal poisoning, could be the subclinical stress that was causing his cancer, I recommended that he have all metals removed from his mouth, to be followed by a carefully monitored whole body detoxification program.

TREATMENT
I immediately started Joe on a complex regimen of nutritional products to help his body deal with stress, to assist in detoxifying metabolic pathways, and to generally support and rebuild his systems. Within a month after completing his dental work and beginning on the detox program, eight of Joe's tumors had shrunk very substantially. During the course of the next twelve months all of his tumors disappeared and his cancer was declared to be in remission.

LIFESTYLE

Over the following years, though I was Joe's healthcare practitioner, he was his own best doctor.

Unlike many people, he took total responsibility for his health by practicing intelligent lifestyle management. The guy ate like one of healthiest people on the planet and his workout regimen was awesome. He didn't smoke, drink, do recreational drugs, or use toxic household products. He actively practiced preventive healthcare. Whenever something wasn't right in his body he didn't rest until he knew its cause. Joe had regained his life and he wasn't about to throw away this second chance. As part of his prevention practice, he followed my advice to check his health status routinely using various laboratory tests that could determine if his body was experiencing subclinical stress, and if so, the source of that stress.

This routine worked very well for Joe for some time. Then, during a period when he was experiencing the height of personal and professional accomplishments, Joe's "luck" began to change. Somewhere in the months before his death, Joe's arteries started to become plaqued. Given his exemplary lifestyle, including meticulous eating habits, it is difficult to understand, on the surface, why he would have become a victim of heart disease. Some might conclude that the cause was genetic, though there is no evidence to that effect.

I believe that I know why Joe died. About a week prior to his death he called me complaining of a series of very recent symptoms that could be indicative of heart disease. I urged him to see a cardiologist immediately, or to check himself into a hospital for diagnosis. Given his busy schedule, and disdain of conventional healthcare, he declined to do so despite the fact that he voiced his concerns to several other friends that same week. Joe also asked me what I thought might be driving the symptoms, assuming that they were heart-related. I noted that plaque caused by various infections could be the culprits.

DIAGNOSIS
A rudimentary medical explanation is that infections create inflammation, which in turn results in accelerated plaquing. It is well established that certain oral infections, including Helicobacter pylori, are implicated in heart disease. I therefore recommended that in addition to seeking urgent care, that Joe be tested for this infection. That afternoon, unbeknownst to me, he came by my office to pick up the test kit, though as mentioned, he did not seek immediate help in determining if and to what degree he was suffering from a clogged artery. Later that week, the same day that Joe died, I received his test results. The labs indicated that he had been suffering from a raging H-pylori infection.

DEATH
It is my fervent hope that by telling Joe's story here that others will be spared his fate. Joe did not have any symptoms of either heart disease or H-pylori infection until the week that he died. Arteriosclerosis is a disease, a label assigned to a subclinical biological process that does not magically materialize in a week's time. If Joe had heeded mine and his other friends' advice to seek the immediate advice of a cardio specialist, he might he alive today. If he had maintained his preventive schedule of subclinical testing, including checking for infections such as H. pylori, he might not have suffered from any heart disease, because the infection could have been diagnosed and treated prior to damaging his arteries.

Joe's case demonstrates a common interface between the medical intervention and subclinical healthcare systems. While medical intervention could have saved his life once the problem became acute, the subclinical approach could have helped Joe to avoid the disease process entirely.