Why Modern Medicine Fails to Heal Chronic Illnesses
Greek God of healing Asclepius, statue at the archaeological site Empúries in Catalonia, Spain. Photo taken by me.
Despite advances in modern medicine and research, chronic diseases are rising worldwide. Somehow, we know the nitty-gritty of our bodies down to the molecular level, yet still can’t heal autoimmune diseases, metabolic conditions, and cancer. In fact, noncommunicable diseases, like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes, are responsible for about 75 % of all deaths globally.
To understand how we got to this point, we need a contextual understanding of how medicine has evolved into viewing the human body as a disconnected machine. Here’s what’s not taught in school, and certainly not in medical school.
Ancient Medicine
The year was approximately 2600 B.C. along the lush lands that lined the Nile. The ancient healer, scribe, and vizier Imhotep, who was later deified, documented 200 diseases and treatments in the Pyramid Texts. On his papyrus, he wrote about spells to enter the underworld (Duat), how to ward off evil serpents, a step-by-step guide for how pharaohs can ascend to meet the sun god Ra (includes ladders, boats, and even a solar boat), and how to integrate with the gods.
It sounds like quackery, but the ancient Egyptians took their magic and cosmology seriously, and addressing matters of the soul was just as important, if not more so, than physical ailments. In fact, the ancient Egyptians were quite prolific in writing on papyri and pyramid walls about medicine, magic, and soul protection, essentially eternalizing this information. The ancient Egyptians even wrote the Kahun Papyrus in ~1800 BCE detailing gynecological issues. Even the ancient Egyptians published more about women’s health than we do today!
Joking aside, when we think of medicine, we often think of doctors in white lab coats, pharmaceuticals, and state-of-the-art diagnostic tools. Still, medicine stems back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and China, which have shaped diagnostics and treatment today. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is very much still alive today. The foundational texts of TCM come from the Han Dynasty onward and include:
Huangdi Neijing (the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), is considered the foundation of TCM and was compiled ~200 BCE–200 CE) and details qi (chi), the meridians, five elements theory, the yin-yang concept, and diagnostic methods.
Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage): By Zhang Zhongjing (~220 CE). This canon discusses febrile diseases and herbal formulas and is the basis for modern prescriptions.
Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica): Li Shizhen (1596 CE). This work discusses more than 1,800+ medicines and plants.
We can’t talk about ancient medicine without mentioning the ancient Greeks, especially the Father of Medicine Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BCE), who founded the Hippocratic School on Kos, emphasizing natural causes of disease over divine punishment. This is where the modern doctors’ Hippocratic oath of “first do no harm” comes from. Our man Hippocrates created the concepts of humors (black and yellow bile, phlegm, blood, hot/cold and wet/dry causes of illness). He also took a holistic approach to treatment.
Another famous Greek god of medicine is Asclepius, who’s in the photo above, known for bringing people back from the dead, miracle cures, and for prescribing treatments like diets, baths, and herbs while blending faith and ritual. His serpent staff with wings is often depicted in modern medicine symbology.
Key Historical Milestones That Shaped Modern Medicine
Modern medicine didn’t emerge from a vacuum. Centuries of paradigm shifts and technological advances largely shape allopathic medicine.
16th-18th centuries: Medical books were mass-printed, and medicine advanced due to observation, documentation, and information exchange. The first book on human anatomy was published in 1543, titled Fabrica.
17th-19th centuries: Discoveries in anatomy (e.g., William Harvey) guided the concept of disease and treatment; Surgical procedures emerged; Discovery of pathogens and germ theory (Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch), and vaccines laid the foundations for evidence-based practice.
17th century: René Descartes' mind-body dualism viewed the body as clockwork and separate from the soul.
18th-century technological advances (microscope, germ theory, and physiology shifted medicine from a more holistic viewpoint to cellular components.
Late 19th century: Plant compound isolation (e.g., morphine in 1805) that favored pharmaceuticals over herbal remedies.
1928: Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which revolutionized infection treatment and boosted synthetic drug manufacturing.
20th century: Antibiotics, imaging (X-rays, MRI), and surgery advanced diagnostics and interventions.
1953: The work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins at King's College London paved the way for James Watson and Francis Crick’s proposal of DNA's iconic double helix in 1953 shifting the focus to genes and disease.
These were built on ancient roots (Greek, Egyptian herbalism), but emphasized testable, reproducible methods, made all microbes the enemy, and largely ignored soul wounds and natural remedies.
Now let’s jump to 1910.
The Turning Point: How the Flexner Report Changed Medicine
In the early 1900s, the American medical educational system was nothing short of a hot mess. There were ~160 U.S. medical schools that had lax admissions, no labs, and high failure rates (e.g., 50% couldn't pass basic exams), and proprietary diplomas for those who did pass. The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing backlash and knew they needed to clean up its act, so they contacted the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which hired educator Abraham Flexner in 1909. Flexner was not a physician, but in fact an educator.
After touring several schools across America and Canada, he evaluated them through the lens of an educator, not a doctor. Flexner developed a new model for medical schools largely based on elite German educational systems. The Flexner Report of 1910 was commissioned by the AMA and Carnegie Foundation, with the help of Rockefeller funding. It critiqued poor medical schools and recommended the following:
School closures: Closing approximately half of U.S. schools, especially eclectic, homeopathic, and naturopathic ones lacking labs and clinical training.
Raising standards: Required 2 years of university studies and at least 4 years of medical schooling to become a doctor; Full-time professors compared to part-time clinicians teaching; Heavy focus on science and evidence-based research in labs and hospitals.
Institutional influence: University-affiliated medical schools; Hospitals controlled by medical schools
Shifting the focus to surgical and chemical interventions like he saw in the German schools he visited.
Rockefeller's General Education Board funded compliant schools (~$100 million), professionalizing allopathic medicine.
The Flexner Report was groundbreaking and largely successful due to huge financial support from the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations. In fact, a lot of his suggested upgrades required Rockefeller funding. The focus shifted away from patient care to research and teaching (duh! Flexner was an educator, not a doctor).
Although modern medicine evolved through scientific advancements, standardization of education, and industrialization, it shifted away from centuries-old traditional practices like herbalism and midwifery to what they (“they” being white men) considered “evidence-based” pharmacology and hospital-centric care. Rockefeller's role in funding medical schools and research caused an understated but seismic shift in placing attention in lab research, germ theory, and patentable drugs over holistic remedies and patient-centered care. So while mortality dropped thanks to the changes implemented due to the Flexner Report, so did diversity, nutrition education, and natural remedies.
For a complete timeline of modern medicine, click here and here. These changes greatly affected gynecology (much to women’s chagrin).
The Shift from Women-Led Midwifery to White Man Mansplaining
In comes the “father of gynecology,” Dr. James Marion Sims, out goes the Kahun Papyrus wisdom.
In the late 1800s, a Dr. Sims took over women’s health with his bent pewter spoon, which would later become the modern speculum. He thought he knew more than women about their bodies. He also performed atrocious experiments without anesthesia on black female slaves. Not a medical hero at all!
Later in the early 1900s, traditional remedies declined because they “lacked scientific rigor.”
Herbalism: Once dominant, it waned as “evidence” favored isolated drugs (e.g., aspirin from willow bark). The tried and true herbs were soon vilified and deemed toxic.
Midwifery: Home births were common pre-1900 and were led by women and focused on the mother. The shift to hospital care accelerated post-1920s with antisepsis, pain relief (anesthesia), and obstetric training. Midwives faced licensing barriers as male MDs took over (due to the new rules established from the Flexner Report). Check out my post about the rise in obstetric violence here. I’m also working on writing three peer-reviewed papers about the rise in postpartum hemorrhage despite advances in obstetric care.
Gynecology: Male pioneers (e.g., James Marion Sims in the 1840s- another white male, what a surprise!) shaped the modern field of obstetrics. By the mid-20th century, hospital births on flat beds became the standard for infection control and monitoring, though controversial.
Fast-forward to today, and women starting at a very young age are prescribed the birth control pill for nearly every gynecological maledy. How many women truly know how their menstrual cycle works? How many women assume extreme bleeding and pain are normal because no one told them otherwise? How many doctors tell women, “it’s all in your head”, or “there’s nothing we can do for you.”
It takes women an average of 10 years, yes, a decade, to get diagnosed with endometriosis. Women’s bodies remain a scientific mystery because there is extreme scientific bias in even researching women’s health. On top of all this, only approximately 36% of women are physicians.
Despite advances in obstetric care, cesarean rates and postpartum hemorrhage rates continue to rise. Maternal mortality is also rising in industrialized countries despite access to the “best” medical care. Hospitals increasingly use interventions during labor that are associated with increased risks for mother and baby, such as epidurals and uterotonics like oxytocin, which induce labor contractions. Of course, medical interventions can be necessary, but the current trend leans towards implementing too many interventions rather than effective screening and preventive care or tried and true natural methods.
From Holistic Care to Reductionism
The message from the Flexner Report was clear: lab-based learning and allopathic models were the only way. Although Rockefeller didn't single-handedly "create" modern medicine, he certainly had a big hand in funding it and shaping modern perceptions around healthcare. John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board funding, the equivalent of billions of USD today, ensured that the Flexner Report recommendations were here to stay. Rockefeller money essentially controlled curricula that threw out natural remedies like diet and herbs by labeling them as unscientific.
While herbal remedies were ridiculed and thrown out the window, patentable petroleum and synthetic-based pharmaceuticals took over. In fact, aspirin was created from coal tar and commercialized in 1899. Remember, Rockefeller owned Standard Oil and he saw he could create a profitable petroleum-based pharmaceutical industry. The Rockefeller (General Education Board)-funded curriculum prioritized courses on pantable synthetics over plant-based alternatives. This is not a conspiracy. We are still seeing it play out today. Doctors barely learn anything at all about nutrition.
The drive towards creating more pharmaceuticals naturally shaped research towards a reductionism— i.e. one gene = disease, one molecular pathway dysfunction = disease, one receptor malfunction = disease. Long gone were the days of invoking Imhotep’s spells to ward off evil spirits and communicate with gods.
The Mechanistic View of the Body and Medical Profit
While some claim Flexner drove modern medicine towards scientific rigor and away from natural remedies, we have to ask ourselves, is patient care any better? Sure, we’re not dying from the plague, but a recent study confirmed that most patients are unsatisfied with their medical care. The drive to study every gene, microbe, and pathway has led to the development of (or maybe this research is driven by) target pharmaceuticals.
The global pharmaceutical industry market is valued at 1.57 billion USD. Specialty therapeutics, biologics, precision medicine, and oncological treatment are driving revenues post-COVID. Although industry growth remains steady in North America and Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific are experiencing faster growth. A.I. is being used for drug discovery, clinical trial design, patient recruitment, and real-world evidence generation that’s driving industry innovation. That sounds cool until you realize that the cost of healthcare, antibiotic resistance, chronic disease, pandemics, and healthcare inequalities continue to rise.
Moreover, hospitals and doctors are often incentivized to prescribe prescription drugs rather than offer alternative or natural treatments.
Again, we can see the focus on certain pathways, targeted genes, and disease diagnosis rather than root cause and patient-centered healing. I believe, and I think these numbers speak for themselves, that the pharmaceutical industry’s influence is largely driving modern medicine’s machine model of human health. A person’s emotions, relationships, diet, stress levels, and sense of purpose are rarely, if ever, addressed in allopathic medicine, let alone the energetic nature of the human body, largely driven by bioelectrical signaling (that’s a whole other topic for another blog post).
We desperately need a paradigm shift regarding modern medicine. Allopathic medicine is great for acute issues and physical trauma care, but not for addressing the whole body and person when it comes to chronic disease. I see clients every month who struggle with chronic symptoms, and allopathic treatments don’t help, because chronic symptoms arise from multifactorial psycho-immuno-emotional issues. They don’t appear overnight out of nowhere, but rather slowly start to creep in until the symptoms get louder and louder, until we finally pay attention to what our body and spirit are trying to say. As much as the post-Rockefeller-Flexner era of medicine would like to deny ancient healing wisdom because it “lacks evidence” or is “quackery”, I think it’s safe to say that humans are sicker than ever in this modern world, and it’s time for big changes.
I will soon talk about how this Flexner-Rockefeller dogma hid a lot of important research from Albert Szent-Györgi, Robert Becker, Gilbert Ling, and Mae Ho-Wan regarding how cellular structure and communication favoring the myopic pharmaceutical pathway-centered model.
Resources:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases?utm
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4379645/
https://www.tcmcn.com/understanding-the-huangdi-neijing-the-heart-of-traditional-chinese-medicine/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9609744/
https://perspectivesofchange.hms.harvard.edu/node/99
https://store.frost.com/global-pharmaceutical-industry-outlook-2025.html
