Saturday, February 10, 2007

Is there a drug around for just about everything?

It seems that way this day in age. I definitely agree that Americans are over-medicated and that there are many natural alternatives for the drugs that treat common ailments. What is frustrating to me is Western medicine's blatant dismissal of the investigation of the root causes of diseases. In my experience, the Western doctors that I've seen have been quick to prescribe me medications for my mood swings, amenorrhea, acne, eating disorder, anxiety, etc. without bothering to ask me about or address the underlying causes (emotions, diet, stress, exercise, and other lifestyle factors). I was very upset after reading the article on a drug that supposedly cures gambling addiction. Drugs such as this likely create serious chemical changes in the brain and don't address the reason why the addiction developed in the first place. Prescribing drugs for every disharmony, especially psycho-spiritual diseases such as addiction, is lazy and very dangerous. I believe in focusing on education, prevention, and empowering people to take their health into their own hands through healthy-lifestyle choices. The fact that we have to keep tweaking the drugs on the market because our bodies become resistant to them proves that often drugs are not a sustainable method of treatment (as discussed in the article on the latest antibiotic on the market). And many times we don't even know if a drug works! They're given out like candy and we don't even know if they work!!! We saw this in the article on the placebo effect of a treatment for Parkinson's. Those who were given the drug and those who weren't both showed improvement. I'm obviously passionate about this issue due to my own negative experiences with drugs and Western medical therapies. I feel deeply honored to bring the alternative of Chinese and Integrative medicine to people.

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