2. Medical Treatment Is Rarely Safe
“If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be bad for the fish and good for
humanity.” ~ Oliver Wenddll Holmes, (Professor of Medicine, Harvard University). In conventional
medicine, the treatment of disease is a highly controversial issue. On the one hand, many lives are saved
through the procedures and drugs used during medical intervention. On the other hand, harmful side
effects that arise from the treatment can take lives.
When you visit a doctor and receive a prescription for a drug or procedure aimed at a specific
complaint you have, you (and your doctor) are most likely to presume that what he recommends has been
proved by extensive testing and scientific reviews. Yet it is a well-documented and published fact that 85-
90 percent of all the medical treatments we generally trust and accept to be “scientifically verified” and
“proven effective,” have actually been adopted and widely used without a single scientific study backing
up their claims.
Drugs Should Be The Exception, Not The Rule
In a 2004 article, The Times talked about the “Pharmaceutical Man.” I sincerely doubt that being as
drug-dependent as we are now could be considered an evolutionary step of the Homo Sapiens! Rather it
should be seen as a sign of the dissolution of life.
The illusion that there is a successful treatment for every disease has led to the escalation of
increasingly complex forms of illness and increasingly prohibitive health care costs. Many patients who
are released from hospitals leave with the conviction that they are healed from whatever was wrong with
them. They believe that since the problem has been “fixed” they can just get on with their lives again.
Drugs, surgery, and other medical treatments deceive in this way.
When penicillin came on the market, it was considered a wonder drug that could bring dying patients
back to life within a few days. In fact, penicillin did save many lives, although simple methods of
cleansing and supporting the body in its efforts to throw off poisonous substances could have achieved the
same. Today, penicillin causes the very problems for which it is often prescribed. Side effects include skin
eruptions, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, mononucleosis, allergic shock, fainting, heart collapse, arrhythmia
and low blood pressure.
Whatever applies to penicillin also applies to most other drugs. Their side effects frequently outweigh
their benefits, and patients should be aware of the complications they may generate before they agree to
take them. The signs of this “evolution” abound. Nexium, Prevacid, Lipitor, aspirin, Celebrex, Crestor
and other such drugs have become household words. Neighbors, friends and relatives are all taking at
least one pill, and more often, several pills, each day for months and even years. Television, radio and
print media are full of praise for their “life enhancing” benefits. Newspapers go even one step further. Not
a day passes without an article or two heralding the latest study “demonstrating” the supposed benefits of
the wonder drugs.
In 2003 Americans spent $163 billion dollars on pharmaceutical drugs, which is more than we spend
on fruits and vegetables, all dairy products and all bakery products combined. So naturally, there are
many more pharmacies around than grocery stores! To sustain our health, we now rely more on
pharmaceutical products than on food. The pharmaceutical man has become a living reality.
There are now pills for every acute as well as every chronic illness. As pleasing this should be to those
selling these pills, those who take them do not reach a higher level of health or happiness. This, of course,
does not stop drug companies from designing and manufacturing billions and billions of additional pills,
supposedly to make your life easier and more comfortable.