Modern Medicine and the Root Causes of Disease
The Revolution You Didn't Hear About
For decades, critics have claimed modern medicine only treats symptoms—not causes. Almost every week some chiropractor on social media says we physicians don’t find the root cause.
They’re wrong.
We’ve never been closer to understanding the root causes of disease—and preventing them—than we are right now. From infectious disease to metabolic illness, cancer to cardiovascular disease, modern medicine isn’t just managing illness. It’s rewriting its playbook to stop it before it starts.
🧠 From Symptoms to Systems
The “treat the numbers, not the causes” criticism made sense 40 years ago. Today, it doesn’t.
We know:
Atherosclerosis is driven by Apolipoprotein B (ApoB)-containing lipoproteins, not just LDL
→ PMID: 28600185Insulin resistance, not sugar alone, is the early driver of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome
→ PMID: 27407151Helicobacter pylori is the root cause of most peptic ulcers
→ PMID: 3792711HPV is the root cause of cervical cancer—and we can prevent it with a vaccine
→ PMID: 32520948
This isn’t disease management. This is disease disarmament.
🦠 Infectious Diseases: The Original Root Cause Breakthrough
Modern medicine’s first root cause triumph was identifying that microbes—not “imbalances” or “miasma”—cause infectious diseases.
Tuberculosis, once the #1 cause of death in the U.S., is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We now screen, treat, and isolate it.
→ PMID: 31834298Smallpox, responsible for over 300 million deaths in the 20th century, was eradicated by identifying its viral cause and deploying the world’s first vaccine campaign.
→ PMID: 31553385Measles, once a childhood killer, is nearly eradicated where the MMR vaccine is used.
→ PMID: 26458724
Modern medicine has uncovered the microbial causes of HIV, hepatitis, COVID-19, and dozens more—and built preventive strategies from vaccines to public health systems.
🔬 Prevention Is the New Cure
Today, we don’t have to wait for disease to strike. We can prevent it by targeting its root cause:
Statins and PCSK9 inhibitors lower ApoB to prevent heart attacks before symptoms begin
→ PMID: 29561643GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide treat obesity by addressing neurohormonal dysregulation
→ PMID: 37657757Vaccines target viruses that cause cancers and chronic inflammation (e.g., HPV, hepatitis B)
→ PMID: 25952630Microbiome science is illuminating how gut health links to immunity, inflammation, and metabolism
→ PMID: 34725445
This is root cause medicine. It’s here. And it works.
🧘♂️ What Hasn’t Found Root Causes: Chiropractic and Eastern Medicine
🚫 Chiropractic
Founded on the idea that spinal “subluxations” cause all disease, chiropractic has never demonstrated this claim. Over a century of practice, chiropractors have:
Found no causal link between spine alignment and systemic illness
Developed no vaccines, no diagnostic tools, no disease cures
Failed to publish meaningful data showing prevention or treatment of chronic illness
→ PMID: 21214080
While spinal manipulation may help with back pain, calling it “root cause medicine” is a stretch—pun intended.
🚫 Eastern Medicine (TCM, Ayurveda)
Eastern medicine uses terms like “qi,” “doshas,” and “meridians”—but none are biologically measurable. These systems have:
Not identified any pathogens
Not eradicated any infectious diseases
Not produced reproducible diagnostics or therapies with clinical trial validation
Herbs used in TCM or Ayurveda that have demonstrated efficacy have only done so after scientific testing—not because they balance invisible energies. Without that evidence, this isn’t medicine. It’s belief.
💡 The Real Challenge: Implementation
We know the root causes of most chronic diseases. The barrier now is delivery, not discovery.
We need to:
Make healthy food and physical activity accessible
Integrate lifestyle coaching into medical care
Reimburse prevention like we reimburse pills and procedures
Science has done its job. Now policy, systems, and culture need to catch up.
🩺 Final Thought
Modern medicine is not just treating symptoms. It's discovering causes—and neutralizing them.
✅ We cured smallpox
✅ We control tuberculosis
✅ We prevent cervical cancer
✅ We understand the biology of atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and more
Meanwhile, no alternative system of healing—chiropractic, acupuncture, Ayurveda—has ever eradicated a disease, developed a vaccine, or discovered a gene.
This is the golden age of root cause medicine. And we’re just getting started.