The world without (reductionist) medicines will be a boon to mankind. Take a look at the example of cholesterol-reducing drugs
“The groundwork of all happiness is health.”— James Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
The latest Reader’s Digest has an article with the above-mentioned title where the author seems to be frightened of a future world without medicines, as drug companies will no longer be interested to make good drugs if the rules allow medicines to be manufactured and sold with generic names. Generic drugs remove the present day power of the pharma lobby to sell the same medicines with their patent for anywhere between 1,000-5,000 times the cost! I pity the author, Catherine Kane; obviously, she is a non-medical person and looks like an agent of the pharmaceutical corporate monstrosity.
I, as a doctor and medical teacher with more than half a century of experience, am daily praying for a world without reductionist chemical medicines for the good of mankind. The leading cause of death, today, seems to be the infamous adverse drug reactions of those reductionist molecules.
Most, if not all, diseases begin in the human mind as that is the only reality in this world of biocentrism. This world is created by our consciousness. In this context, there is no room for reductionist thinking. “Positive sciences do not answer the question ‘why’,” wrote Nobel Laureate physiologist Charles Sherrington. They can only answer ‘how’?
Let us take a common example of that ghost—cholesterol—as a disease. If your cholesterol goes up, no one asks or answers the question: Why does our body cholesterol go up while it is being manufactured in our liver for our own survival? We have a limited reductionist thinking—cholesterol is up; it needs to be brought down! We create drugs—one of the best money-spinners—which create misery with their side-effects.
Cholesterol has many functions in the body. Trillions of cells in our body have their cell membrane made up of cholesterol. Billions of cells age and die everyday and billions of new ones are replaced, needing lots of cholesterol for good health.
Cholesterol is needed to manufacture steroids, or cortisone-like hormones, including vitamin D and the sex hormones testosterone, oestrogen and cortisone. This, in turn, controls myriad bodily functions. Bile acids are manufactured in the liver with the help of cholesterol. Bile acids are essential for digestion and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D, E and K.
Cholesterol is also needed for the formation of the myelin sheath, a neuron consisting of fat-containing cells that insulate the axon from electrical activity. This ensures proper function of our brains by aiding the route of electrical impulses. The absence of cholesterol might lead to loss of memory and difficulty in focusing. Cells cannot talk to each other without the help of cholesterol. Such a vital substance, 80% of which is produced in our own liver, cannot be lowered forcefully by drugs without serious collateral damage.
Looking holistically, the body produces excess cholesterol only when it needs it badly! When one needs more steroids, bile acids, myelin and cortisol, the liver pours in more cholesterol into the circulation. Steroids and cortisol go up, when one is in the fright-flight-fight mode! Anger, jealousy, fear, greed, hostility, pride and superego produce the fight-fright-flight state. The latter is needed in a dangerous situation like when you see a tiger in a forest to run away, but not on a chronic basis.
If one is in that dangerous mode, on a daily basis, cholesterol goes up seriously. Similarly, overeating, especially fatty food and fatty meat, demands more bile acids for digestion and the liver responds by producing extra cholesterol to assist in the making of fatty acids in the liver. Sedentary living does not encourage cholesterol catabolism either.
When the question ‘why does the cholesterol go up in the first place’ is viewed with holistic glasses, the foolish (reductionist) need for drugs to lower cholesterol disappears. All that one needs to do is to get into the parasympathetic mode in daily life with Yoga, praanayaama, daily exercise and moderation in eating which, together, would eventually obviate the need for high cholesterol production in the liver.
One can see the double-whammy here. The extra work for the liver to manufacture extra cholesterol for the body’s needs in the fight-flight-fright mode is removed saving the liver from chronic damage while the need for the deadly anti-cholesterol drugs disappears totally. One can, at the same time, enjoy a proper meal like any one else as long as one remains within limits. No need to shun any food, including fats in moderation. The immune system, the body’s inner healer, works wonders in every situation where the body physiology goes astray as long as we live sensibly in tune with nature.
The world without (reductionist) medicines will be a boon to mankind. Herbal medicines are good, in the unlikely event that the immune system needs assistance. The greedy drug lobby could explore that area for making their living in peace while providing good herbal medicines produced with good manufacturing practice!
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Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He can be reached at [email protected])
Yes, eating in moderation, considering what suits one's health/metabolism is important. Eating the right food and in moderation is important, rather than blaming food for our ill-health. It would indeed be a dream if we could live in a medicine-free world.
The information needs very very wide publicity for the benefit of mankind.