Have you noticed how the term "Health Care" is always associated with pictures of doctors and nurses? Seriously, google it and click on images. I have to wonder how and when medication and surgery became a part of health care? Think about what the word "health" actually means to you. When you say you want to get healthy, it conjures up images of fruit and vegetables and a person dressed in gym clothes happily jogging along a beach. What it DOESN'T conjure up is an image of you popping off to a hospital...
We DO associate health with good, clean food and exercise. Google "healthy person" and this is what you find:
So how did, what doctors do, become "health care"? I think it's that, when healthy living doesn't produce the results we want, we always know we can fall back on medication, and we do, instead of persevering with that healthy living. It's too much effort and we comfort ourselves that we tried our best and we take those pills to give us an illusion of health and we manage to convince ourselves that we ARE actually healthy again.
When did we start accepting that taking medication on a regular or semi-regular basis was part of health care? Did you know that the average person fills 11.6 prescriptions per year?! That's a lot of medication for one person and that doesn't even tell us how MUCH medication is on each prescription. Taking medication has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with sick care. If you need to fall back on medication, it's because there is a bigger, underlying problem that pills aren't going to be able to adequately fix. They are going to mask the problem, temporarily fix the symptoms and give you the illusion of health.
Health means that you don’t need medication. It suggests vitality. It means you feel good, you have energy, and you are functioning well in your day to day life. It means that you take preventative measures to stay healthy, like eating the right foods and exercising. Those are not considered medication and I have to wonder why not. They certainly are more effective in the longterm.
What does it mean to prevent health problems? Is medication a part of that? Bear in mind that we're talking about your average person. I don't mean people who have serious health problems like needing a kidney transplant etc.
Most of us are born healthy. And, from birth, our only requirements to maintain that health are:
- Water
- Macro-nutrients (fat, protein, carbs)
- Micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals)
- Motion (exercise)
- Emotional support
In case you're wondering, that last one IS a requirement. There is plenty of research that has been done on this. Think of people in longterm abuse situations and what is does to their psyche, or babies and children that are left alone, in the dark, and have their physical needs tended to, but have no contact. They show stunted growth, never learn to move or speak, and a lot of them die very young. It's a fact that people who live "normal" lives, but don’t have emotional support tend to have higher levels of stress, depression, and physical disease too.
To go back to those bullet points, it therefore stands to reason that prevention should actually focus on the things that we need to maintain our health, to prevent disease. That should be a no-brainer. To be more specific, we should be eating healthy foods, and eating ENOUGH of them. We need to exercise regularly, even if it’s just a brisk, short walk, and it also means we need friends and family surrounding us and supporting us. Each person’s needs are unique when it comes to healthy food, exercise, and support, but each person STILL needs all of them.
Now that you have a better understanding of health and prevention, I'll ask this question: Where does medication fit into a person's life? It's not a part of prevention. We aren’t born deficient in medication. We don’t actually NEED them to be healthy. Medication manipulates our bodies to do a certain thing: to kill bacteria, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure or get rid of a headache etc. They don’t correct imbalances or address underlying causes in the longterm. They make the numbers appear on paper the way they “should.” They don't create health, or prevent disease.
This goes against everything I believe in, but I know, in some cases, there may be a time and a place for medication. If you have lived an excessively unhealthy life, and there are just too many things wrong, medication may help your body move past one part of it all so that you can start fighting everything else yourself. Just remember that medication may make you “okay” but it will never actually cure you and it will always cause side effects which you'll then need to recover from. The best thing to do in a case like that is bite the bullet, take the meds, but then change your life and prevent it happening again.
I mentioned that medication causes nasty side effects that your body will need to recover from. That, in itself can make you feel just as sick as the illness. Using medication too often creates a lot of additional problems. For example, we know that antibiotics are overused - we’ve created superbugs that are antibiotic-resistant thanks to doctors giving out scripts for the common cold and the flu. Antibiotics lead to further infections, diarrhea, and lots of other nasty side effects. They don't create health. Yes, they are intended to kill the bad bacteria that is making you sick, but they don’t actually make you healthy. They make you more sick and here's why.
Most people don't take probiotics with antibiotics. They don't change their diet to help their body to get back to its former self in terms of health. That is why they get sick again and again. Giving your body the food and nutrients it needs after antibiotics is part of prevention and health.
If you take anything from this post, I hope it's this: Medication does not make you healthy. It is not part of a healthy lifestyle. It is to be used very rarely, in the case of a serious illness, to give the body a fighting chance. But it should never be a daily habit.
Now, if you’re new here, you might still subscribe to the view that medication is normal and okay to use. If you have a headache, you think nothing about popping a nurofen, if you have a cold or flu, you probably start by going to a chemist and getting some over-the-counter medication which seldom works. That's when you head to the doctor to get a prescription. Prescriptions are probably a fairly regular part of your life.
There is another way, though.
Stick around for a few posts and see what comes up in here. Go through some of the archives and find alternative solutions to medication. Over the past year 2 years, I've slowly cleaned out all
over-the-counter meds and we don't go to doctors anymore. Never underestimate the power of herbs and spices. They are extremely effective AND they don’t cause side effects. They're also WAY cheaper!
I’m not suggesting that you never see a doctor again, or turn to chanting and meditation instead of medicine (although there is a lot to be said for meditating;) I’m suggesting that for minor illnesses, headaches, colds and flu etc, you try using natural methods instead of going straight to conventional medication or visiting a doctor.
Live according to your body's needs as I listed above. Work on prevention instead of the quick fix and keep your body in a state of real health, not an illusion of health.
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