medicine and medicine

[rant alert]

It's a pity that certain words have more than one definition, and "medicine" may be the poster-child for the situation.  It's been one of the sad aspects of twentieth-century doctoring, that people don't feel they've been treated unless they leave the physician's office with a prescription.  Not that pharmaceuticals have NO place in therapy -- OBVIOUSLY....  But drugs do not a CURE make.

Antibiotics are the first things that spring to mind.  Certain infections, which once-upon-a-time were FATAL, are now manageable through the use of these marvellous drugs.  Irresponsible use of them causes more intractable conditions.  I don't need to elaborate.

Being an outsider in the world of diabetes, i can't speak with any personal reference -- i can just quote Dr. Donaldson:  "...You are out of your mind when you take insulin in order to eat Danish pastry...."  I feel that this goes for a lot of things that dieters do in order to eat their cake and have it, too.  If carbohydrates are making you sick, it's insane to try to ameliorate the effects with the "patch" of some medicaments while STILL eating them.

Some people i know also believe in taking antidepressants without making lifestyle changes.  In the short term this may be reasonable, but as a permanency, it's (dare i say it) crazy.  If there's something wrong with your food choice/stress/exercise circumstances, your life is screwed up, and popping a pill (or drinking a fifth) is not going to cure it.

People are going to have to steel themselves to doing things the hard way for a little while, if they want to really improve their health, rather than simply dull their symptoms!  Believing television commercials, which promise "temporary relief" INDEFINITELY, is just bloody stupid.

Allopathic medicine, in seeking to treat symptoms instead of remove causes of illness, is one root of the problem.  "Letting" patients do things the easy way instead of describing to them the right way has encouraged the culture of slatternliness in which we live.  You can only sweep the dust under the rug so long, before you have a hill to climb in your own house.  Personally, i prefer floors which are planar in my rooms.