Seventh-Day Adventists have made a larger than expected – almost lopsided – contribution to the field of preventive medicine. Consider the following:
- Linda Terry served as a director for Preventive Medicine at Loma Linda University and pioneered the use of bupropion as a prescription medicine to aid in smoking cessation.
- Hans Diehl, clinical professor at Loma Linda University developed the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) – A 30 day lifestyle improvement program that has reached over 75,000 people and had several scientific publications including the American Journal of Cardiology.
- Don Hall, founder of Wellsource, was the first to develop computerized health risk assessment tools to help keep organizations healthy.
- Gary Fraser is director of the Adventist Health Study since 1987. His work put on Adventists on the map as America’s longest living population
How did Adventists make a significant impact to the field?
We should first define what is preventive medicine. The College of Family Physicians in Canada defines preventive medicine as the following:
The aim of preventive medicine is the absence of disease, either by preventing the occurrence of a disease or by halting a disease and averting resulting complications after its onset.
It seems to me that the idea of prevention is deeply rooted in Adventist thinking. The following definition for Medical Evangelism comes from a syllabus from a class of the same name to college students in the early 1900s:
In this syllabus we have used the broad connotation of the word “Medical.” This includes every act to bring physical relief, whether a cup of water, a coat, or treament; also included is the preventive side seen in health lectures, cooking demonstrations, etc.
The idea of prevention seems to have been present for decades but where exactly does this come from?
For most Christians, the body and the soul were two different entities. And because the soul was eternal and the body was only temporary, the soul was pre-imminent. In fact the soul was so pre-eminent that the body was disregarded. Why take care of the body since the soul is what mattered?
Along came Adventists who had a different view of the body. Note the implications of how the body is viewed in Fundamental Belief #26:
Death and Resurrection: The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people.
This means that the body and soul are indivisible. They are interdependent on each other. No body, no soul. No soul, no body. You cease to exist except as a memory of God. In this case the body is just as important as the soul.
Here’s what one of the Adventist pioneers, Ellen White, had to say about the body:
The knowledge that man is to be a temple for God, a habitation for the revealing of His glory, should be the highest incentive to the care and development of our physical powers. Fearfully and wonderfully has the Creator wrought in the human frame, and He bids us make it our study, understand its needs, and act our part in preserving it from harm and defilement.
While others were saying the body wasn’t important, Elle White was telling others your body is intended to reveal the glory of God. It was an altogether different approach.
When I ask my partner, Dr. John why preventive medicine matters he points to the Bible. In John 10:10 Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Prevention allows our patients to have longer and better lives. In other words, they can have a more abundant life.
What is Medical Ministry? Medical Ministry is preventing the occurrence of disease or its complications so that God can be glorified in the body.
Read What is Medical Ministry? Part 5: The Purpose of Health Institutions
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