Reimagining Our Health Systems - NEW Policy Brief
No more reductionism - here's a holistic approach to healthcare that puts people and planet before process and profit.
The World Council for Health is proud to introduce the framework of the future of medicine by Dr Michael Nehls. WCH Steering Committee member Christof Plothe was proud to make additions to it. Called ‘The Medicine of the Future: Health System Reform Program with Focus on Prevention and Causal Therapy’, it is now available to view and download on the WCH website, and on Michael’s Substack:
Why do we need health system reform?
In essence, because “a medical system built on sand cannot stand”. Modern medicine has lost its way. What began as a sacred healing art—rooted in Hippocrates’ wisdom that "food is medicine" and health stems from harmony with nature—has devolved into a profit-driven disease management scheme.
We are trapped in a one-way street to chronic illness because the system ignores the most fundamental truth: health cannot be manufactured in a lab or packaged into a pill.
Before we explore what the future of medicine could be, we need to take a diagnosis of medicine as it stands now. Here’s a brief overview:
The Fatal Flaws of Modern Medicine
1. No definition of health.
Medicine today treats the body like a machine, focusing on suppressing symptoms rather than fostering vitality.
Rather than focusing on wellness, the current system only studies disease.
2. Profit over prevention
Chronic illness is a $4 trillion industry so there’s no incentive for Big Pharma to want us well.
Doctors are trained to prescribe, not heal—because reimbursements favor drugs over nutrition or lifestyle changes.
3. One-size-fits-none
Medicine must be individualized, yet we force standardized protocols on unique human biochemistries.
The COVID era exposed this: mandates, not personalized care, dominated.
4. Decentralization lost
Healing was once community-based: herbalists, midwives, and local healers knew their patients deeply.
Now, medicine is centralized, corporatized, and stripped of sovereignty.
The World Council for Health’s Vision
We advocate for a Better Way, as enshrined in the Better Way Principles and now in this new policy brief, with an emphasis on:
Nature as the foundation – humans thrive when aligned with natural rhythms.
Spiritual & physical wholeness – health is more than the absence of disease.
Freedom to choose – no government or corporation should dictate personal health decisions.
This is not alternative medicine. This is real medicine.
The choice is clear: do we continue down the dead-end road of symptom management? Or, do we return to a system that honors life, nature, and true healing?
If we want the latter, then the future of medicine must be decentralized, individualized, and rooted in nature—or it will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
Want to know more about the medicine of the future? Feel free to follow Christof on Substack and Twitter.
First flaw of modern medicine: Modern medicine has no definition of cured.
Cured is not medically defined for the common cold, influenza, measles, COVID, and many other infectious diseases. I've had lots of colds, influenza a few times, measles twice, COVID once - all cured. But there is no record of my cured cases - there is no test of cured for these diseases.
Cured is not medically defined for any non-infectious disease. Diseases like arthritis, back pain, cancer, food poisoning, gout, hypertension, even obesity. If, or when a case is cured, we can't tell. There are claims of cures and cured. Because there is no definition of cured, no cure can be proven responsible for the cure. All claims are ignored.
Cured is not medically defined for any chronic disease. Diseases like diabetes, Crohn's, autoimmune diseases - and many more, are considered incurable and if a case is cured, no cure can be proven. There are many claims of cases cured, but all claims are ignored. None can be proven.
Cured is not medically defined for any mental disorder. No case of ADHD, autism, Alzheimer's, epilepsy, depression, Parkinson's, no matter what stage of disease, no matter how minor or severe, can be prove cured. Cures can occur. But they cannot be recognized.
The myth that "prevention is better than cure" has become nonsense. Some preventatives are better than cures, some are more dangerous, more expensive. Some cures are trivial. but all cures are simply ignored.
No definition of health. Without a definition of cured, we cannot improve the health of any person who is diagnosed with a disease. We have no definition of cured, so we cannot create a definition of health.
Profit over Cure (not profit over prevention). Prevention is profitable. Cure, not profitable. Cured patients go away. Prevention is addictive, generates ongoing profit. Chronic illnesses are not "prevented" patients are sold a profitable treatment to "prevent disease progression" but never to cure. Doctors are trained to prescribe preventatives - not cures.
On size fits no-one. Cures are individual. Every case of a cure is a single case, a story, an anecdote. There is no "one-size" cure, even for trivial diseases like a hangover. But many cures work. Most cases of hanger are cured by improving healthiness, not by medicines.
Decentralized cures are not recognized, much less pursued. Most cures happen at home. Most cases of illness are trivial, like most cuts, bruises, minor infections, etc. are self-cured, or cured by friends and family. Because we ignore these simple cures, we "cannot find" more difficult cures.
About Health:
It's not hard to define and study health.
But the word "health" has been stolen by the medical system - which shamefully calls itself a "health system." The capture of the world health is so complete that the "World Council for Health" is not about health, it's actually a "World Council for Medicine."
to your health, tracy
Founder: Healthicine: the arts and sciences of health and healthiness.
Author: A New Theory of Cure