Don’t Let Them Amuse You to Death

I read a quote by Voltaire today:  “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while Nature cures the disease.”

At first I thought it was funny, but true.  When I started thinking about it more I thought it would be a great topic to write on.

People go to the doctor for “fill in the blank” problem.  A symptom has gotten bothersome enough and they want it fixed.  Often a medical doctor will then prescribe some sort of medication that will make the symptom go away.

What most don’t realize is that this is simply ‘amusing the patient.’  The only problem is, that once the symptom “goes away”, the underlying problem is then never addressed.  This means that nature, as Voltaire puts it, never gets the chance to heal the disease.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a definite place for medicine.  I don’t believe, however, that we should use medications like we often do.  Medications should be used in an acute situation only to give us the time to actually address the underlying imbalance.  Many people are on prescription or over-the-counter medications for chronic issues.  Most of these chronic issues are the body telling us it is out of balance and that balance needs to be restored.  Taking a medication may seem to alleviate the symptoms but the medication often results in more symptoms because of the medication itself and the original imbalance is left to grow.

Instead of relying only on medication, get to the root of the problem.  Find out what your body is trying to tell you with the presenting symptoms.  If you are already on medications for a chronic illness, it is not too late to start correcting.  I DO NOT recommend stopping any prescription medication that you are taking without doing the following:

1. Discuss your concerns with your medical doctor.
2. Make sure you are addressing the imbalance itself and beginning correction before even considering stopping a medication with your medical doctor’s supervision.  You want to make sure that your body is prepared to handle itself well before withdrawing medications.
3. If your medical doctor agrees that you can safely stop a medication, I often suggest slowly tapering off the medication to give your body time to adapt.