Respiratory System Disorders and Therapy From a New - Louis Bolk ...

1. Introduction
This Companion for the Practice of Medicine studies asthmatic disease and pneumonia
as representative examples of airway disorders using the Goethean phenomenological
method (Bartoft, 1986). This method is described in the Preface.
In Chapter 2, we will first describe some of our own patients with asthma and pneumonia
to be able to study the signs and symptoms of these diseases. What do these diseases
have in common and where do they differ? We will place our findings alongside of the
pathophysiology of asthma and pneumonia to learn how these diseases divert from a
normal healing process. Chapter 3 places the features of asthma and pneumonia in context.
When we look at their symptoms in the respiratory tract, we find that these diseases have
characteristics that are similar to physiological processes elsewhere in the organism. This
makes it possible to give meaning to the characteristic qualities of these diseases and it
will allow us to develop a dynamic concept of disease in the respiratory tract. Asthma and
pneumonia appear to have polar opposite dynamics from this point of view.
In the series BOLK’S Companions for the Practice of Medicine we discussed anatomy, physiology,
biochemistry, pharmacology, immunology, and embryology from this viewpoint.
Specifically, what can be learned from the Companions on Anatomy (Bie 2002),
Physiology (Tellingen 2008), and Immunology (Bie 2006) is used in this Companion for
the Practice of Medicine. The first Practice Companion: The Healing Process is also an
important reference (Bie et al 2008).
In Chapter 4, we look at other inflammatory airway diseases comparing them to
characteristic features of asthma and pneumonia. We will demonstrate that a dynamic
perception of physiology and disease can uncover the relation between these diseases
that, at first sight, may not seem to be connected. It leads to the insight that disease is a
deviation from normal physiological processes in one or more of three ways: in intensity,
in place, or in time. This is elaborated upon in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 presents a fresh
look at the therapy for airway disease in light of what we have found. We will discuss