don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

The original title of this essay was, "The ICD Needs A New Category: Morbidity And Mortality Linked To The Embrace Of Irrational Ideas." Then I remembered how important it is to have a "grabber" headline, not one that would bore nearly everyone on Earth, or at least the few dozen folks who encountered the original headline. I hope you like the one I picked, above. By the time you finish this piece, you will see why I may find myself a serious candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize, even though personal fame of this kind was not my main motive in writing this essay. However, if my presence is required in Stockholm by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Harald V of Norway and the Norwegian Nobel Committee, I will rent a tuxedo and be there, as requested.

Not long ago, I wrote an essay about the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, better known simply as ICD. I described what the ICD is, how it came about and what could be done to make it more effective, that is, germane to and useful for gaining a better understanding of health status levels worldwide, not just death and disease statistics.

The ICD is produced by the World Health Organization, or WHO. The ICD is incredibly elaborate. It tracks and categorizes signs, symptoms, abnormalities, medical complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injuries and disease. Every health condition is assigned a unique category or code. The origins of the ICD go back to the 1850s. The first edition was produced in 1893, though data gathering initiatives in the early seventeenth century designed to provide an early warning against bubonic plague are credited with germinating the idea of such an information system.

In my initial essay about the ICD, I proposed a new category, namely, one for deaths that are due to natural causes. Sometimes, humans die at advanced ages from nothing in particular -- parts just wear out and the rest of the human shuts down. Why isn't this a category?  Why are all deaths assigned a disease or related category, such as accident, homicide, suicide, war or catastrophe? In 2003, there were 57.5 million deaths. Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many of these people died for no reason at all, except old age? So, why not a category for "natural causes" or perhaps something more prosaic like, "the clock ran out?" The name is no big deal, but the category seems important. Not everyone dies from something specific. Sometimes, the wellest amongst us simply die healthy. I ought to know -- I wrote a book about it. (Die Healthy: 16 Steps To A Wellness Lifestyle, Wellness Australia PTY LTD, 1989, ISBN 1-875139-00-1.)

By recognizing natural causes and tracking a "natural causes" or "no cause" category, the ICD (now in its 10th edition) would remind us that everyone has to die sometime. A specific disease or other existing category is not always applicable. A notation that "something had to give" would suffice. This idea brings to mind a stanza from Oliver Wendell Holmes' "The Deacon's Masterpiece":

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
that was built in such a logical way
it ran a hundred years to a day?
It went to pieces all at once -
all at once, and nothing first,
just as bubbles do when they burst.

Sounds like a good way to go, in my opinion. What disease classification would apply to "all at once?" There can be but one such category, a listing I believe should be recognized post haste: "Died at last from a long life of wellness." OK, maybe something shorter, such as "natural causes."

Well, that was my last idea. Now I have a new idea for yet another category. Collecting data for a cause of death and disease that I now have in mind seems much more consequential than my first idea, which is really saying something, since that idea was pretty darn important. If this latest concept is adopted and implemented fully, I believe the nature of the hazard I want tracked would be better understood and, more important, steps could be taken for improving world health.

I propose a classification that would track the extent to which human beings around the world embrace irrational ideas. I've not yet settled on a name for my proposed new category. After all, if I might on this occasion borrow a phrase from a source I quote infrequently (the King James Bible, Samuel 20:20), "Far be it, far be it from me," that I should be so impertinent as to tell WHO what constitutes irrational ideas.

Maybe the way to settle on a term as well as specific criteria for assessing what to include in this category should be assigned to a very special world panel of prestigious and celebrated figures. These famous and wise men and women from all over the globe (for example, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Oprah, Stephen Hawking, Madonna, Jane Fonda, Jon Stewart, Warren Buffett, the Dalai Lama and Queen Elizabeth) could look over the possibilities and advise WHO which irrational beliefs to track and publicize.

Without further ado, here are a couple suggestions for worldviews I think the CPWF should place on their list. It would be helpful, if a bit frightening and depressing, to know the number (and location) of people across the earth who embrace the most grotesque beliefs that clearly violate human rights, freedoms, common decencies and all manner of reason, logic, scientific understanding and truth. I urge the CPWF to recommend that WHO track, for ICD purposes, how many people embrace destructive beliefs of one kind or another. I have in mind beliefs with ghastly consequences for which there is no good supportive evidence whatsoever. As noted, let the auspicious WHO committee (the CPWF) devise a starter set of, let's say, ten such grotesque beliefs to get this new ICD classification going. I hope the following two irrational beliefs will be at the top of their list:

• The belief that by blowing yourself up and killing others, you will go straightaway to some kind of Paradise in an afterlife and enjoy sexual favors from 72 virgins (who presumably will get along with each other forevermore and never get cranky or old, and will always be desirable sex partners, despite being virgins).
  
  
• Belief that when the "Rapture" takes place (coming soon), dead Christians and living Christians in good standing will literally fly up into the sky, en masse, and meet Jesus. People who believe this kind of thing elect politicians who look to supernatural interventions in human affairs. These people genuinely desire that Israel and Iran (or Saudi Arabia, etc.) should "get it on" with thermonuclear devices, the  better to usher in the "Great Tribulation." When this happens, Rapture-heads expect Pat Robertson-style family values will be required for everyone. Some might even expect that things will be so wonderful, Mike Huckabee will be elected president of the US. So much for evolution.

Well, you get the idea. There are no doubt hundreds, more likely tens of thousands, of utterly irrational, deadly and toxic whack-job notions embraced by tens of millions of people all over the world. These maniacal beliefs, and I'm not even including such notions as a reliance upon or even respect for astrology, clairvoyance, fortunetelling, psychic powers and all the rest, contribute as much or more to disease, disability and death as most of the thousands of categories in the existing ICD system. Let's encourage the WHO to track specific irrational ideas that are identified, debated and certified as ludicrous as those I have suggested.

No, I am not looking for a Nobel Peace Prize for suggesting either one of these two new categories for the ICD. However, if I'm nominated I'll consent to the voting on my candidacy and, if chosen, I promise to serve with humility and good grace.

Yes!

Be well.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of applied wellness. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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