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Written by Innovative Medicine Health Staff
April, 2005
“I would say most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don’t work in everybody.” (i) Alan Roses, President of genetics at Glaxo-SmithKline, December 2003 |
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The modern practice of medicine has hit a wall. People are getting sicker and sicker and many drugs just aren’t working as they claim they should. We are bombarded on a daily basis with prescription drug commercials that portray
vibrant and healthy actors running through an open sunny meadow, and then promise relief from symptoms and an end to your suffering. But what follows these wonderful claims is a laundry list of side effects that sound much more like another horrible
disease or condition than the possible complications from a healing drug. The following is an actual list of side effects for the popular antidepressant drug Fluoxetine(ii) :
• Sexual side-effects: delayed or non-existent ejaculation, hypo-sexuality; nausea, dizziness, anorexia, anxiety, agitation, vivid nightmares/dreams, urinary retention, tinnitus, tremors, sleeplessness, palpitations, Tachycardia,
restless legs, jaw tension, dry mouth, scalp muscle tension, confusion and psychosis, Haematuria and Thrombocytopenia. |
It’s like trading one disease for another. And these are the kind of drugs that are pushed onto doctors by pharmaceutical companies, and in turn handed out without hesitation to millions of ill people.
 In a study by a medical diagnostics company in Chicago on the efficacy of various prescription drugs, it was found that that the efficacy rates ranged from approximately 25% for cancer drugs to 80% for painkillers. In addition to not treating the problem at hand, drugs are actually killing people at an alarming rate.
According the American Medical Association, prescription drug side effects are now the 4th leading cause of death in America.(iii)(iv) FDA scientists now claim that Vioxx, the infamous arthritis drug, may have single-handedly caused as many as 139,000 heart attacks, strokes and deaths. There is clearly a problem with the way
mainstream medicine deals with health problems.
The allopathic/ orthodox approach of today really only encompasses two discreet routes to healing: drugs or surgery. While prescription drugs mask or suppress symptoms in most cases, surgery is a dangerous method used mostly to remove the problem altogether while never finding the cause.
Many proponents of alternative therapies condemn and ridicule orthodox medicine and claim it to be ineffective. This view, however, is nearsighted and unjustified. The fact is that modern mainstream medicine is the culmination of hundreds of years of careful empirical study and research.
The problem is that the orthodox approach is now used as the sole approach to treating all medical problems.
This is not to say we should abandon prescription drugs or surgery all together. It is understandable and advisable for antibiotics to be given to patients with chronic bacterial pneumonia, chemotherapy be used for advanced malignant cancer, or surgery be performed for serious injuries or imminent death situations.
But these are situations where the body has lost all control and its ability to self regulate is lost. These are so called emergency room situations where the allopathic approach saves lives. The problem is that most sick people aren’t in critical stages of illness. You can do more harm than good
if you prescribe the same antibiotics for a cold as you would for pneumonia.
Another dilemma is the mentality that if an organ is ill, the organ must be the problem and ought to be fixed. This mentality has the effect of treating a person as a machine with broken parts rather than an integrated, complex, multifaceted being with systems that interrelate in a multitude of ways. If you have a skin problem,
you go to see a dermatologist who gives you a cream to band aid a problem. But if the source of the problem is really a nutrient deficiency or heavy metal toxicity, then in reality, all you are doing is suppressing the symptom while aggravating the problem. A holistic or alternative approach is better suited to this situation because
it recognizes the body’s immense complexities.
The body is a very intricate and intelligent system that has the ability to regulate itself and adapt to a huge array of situations and circumstances. In its natural state, with no outside influence, the body works in perfect harmony with no flaws. An alterative approach understands this and seeks
to restore the body’s natural balance and in this way return the body to its healthy, normal function. The alternative approach uses natural remedies that help boost and support the body’s defenses and self regulating systems rather than suppressing or eliminating symptoms.
Let’s look at a problem such as kidney failure from both standpoints. If your kidney fails, the orthodox approach will mostly likely seek to remove or replace the kidney. With an alternative approach, the source of the problem must be ascertained first. Once the source of the problem
(which can be anything from diet, to lifestyle, to a toxicity of some sort) is eliminated or solved, the kidney can than be aided back into its healthy state. Not only do you get to keep your own kidney and avoid the dangers of surgery, you now know the cause of the problem and can avoid it in the future.
After all is said and done, it seems that the ideal approach to medicine is one that combines both orthodox and alternative approaches. The orthodox approach should be recommended for problems when the situation reaches a critical phase and where the body can no longer self regulate.
The alternative approach is best suited for situations when the bodies system needs help, support for proper functioning, and preventive measures.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for the medical field, but in order to reach it, changes must be made, minds must be open to new ideas, and people must be ready to take charge of their own health. There is no magic pill to cure all illnesses, but with the proper knowledge and use of what we know about healing today, every one of us has the opportunity to live a healthy life.
The following is a more in-depth article on the major differences between orthodox and alternative medicine. It was written by the medical staff at Pekana and very clearly illustrates the benefits of a homeopathic or natural approach to medicine and wellness:
"Use of homeopathic medications and other natural treatment has become extremely important during the past several decades because illnesses have changed. As people increased the amount of meat in their diets following World War II, they suffered more frequently from a "uric acid diathesis" burden, which led to a disrupted metabolism and illnesses such as severe rheumatism. Conventional medicine treated these metabolic illnesses with allopathic drugs that blocked the body's attempt to excrete via the mucous membranes or other excretory channels. Until recently, coughs, colds, rhinitis, flu or viral infections were routinely treated with antibiotics, pain killers and fever suppressants. This practice robbed the body of its excretion capabilities and impregnated toxins deeper into the cellular level. As a result, a significant percentage of senior citizens today are afflicted with foci caused by these deposits that, among other symptoms, result in joint deterioration.
Although many younger people have changed their diets and consume less animal protein than the previous generation, they still suffer from iatrogenic (physician or therapy-caused) illnesses induced by treatment with antibiotics, beta blockers, pain killers, fever-suppressing pills, blood pressure medications and other drugs with their wide variety of side effects. For example, cortisone may reduce inflammation effectively in neurodermatitis and other allergy-related skin conditions, but the drug also inhibits proper regulation and excretion. This creates artificial blockages that force the body to deposit toxins in the cells, making the patient even more chronically ill.
From an alternative medicine perspective, a skin disease such as neurodermatitis is actually an expression of the body's attempt to excrete poisons and heal itself. Since the primary excretory organs are too burdened to function properly, the body is forced to use the skin -- often referred to as the third kidney. Clearly, use of allopathic drugs has caused widespread iatrogenic illnesses because they do not address the body's need to heal itself or correct organ insufficiencies responsible for acute and chronic symptoms.
In contrast, Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg M.D. theorized how illnesses develop in his important work "Homotoxicology" His research revealed that if the body is inhibited in its attempts to react and excrete toxins, the cells become impregnated with these poisons. This intoxification phase in turn leads to cellular blockages and tissue degeneration. As part of this domino effect, other body systems are also affected by the blockages, finally resulting in serious neoplasm phases that include life-threatening illnesses such as various forms of cancer.
For this reason, it is vital to treat patients from childhood on in a curative manner that does not stifle normal healing processes. Biological therapy ensures the body's ability to 1) preserve an intact immune system; 2) avoid foci that can lead to severe, chronic illnesses; and 3) maintain energetic, physical, mental and emotional states at a high level. Nonetheless, more people will likely suffer from allergies and chronically impaired health in the future unless medical thinking changes and increased numbers of practitioners begin to apply holistic approaches such as homeopathic that make true healing possible."(V)
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i. Connor, Steve. “Glaxo Chief: Our Drugs Do Not Work on Most Patients”. The Independent. No 5,347 12/8/03.
ii. http://www.priory.com/sideflu.htm. Priory Lodge Education Ltd., 1994,1995,1996. First Published: 1:41 PM on 10/Feb/96 Version 1.5.
iii. Schultze, Richard. “The Doping of America” Dr Schulze’s Official Publication. Jan 2005.
iv. http://www.ama-assn.org/. The American Medical Association.
V. BioResource website http://www.bioresourceinc.com/pekana_info.html
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