“Physicians pour Drugs of which they know little, to cure Diseases of which they know less, into Humans of which they know nothing.” – Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
By far, the most important requirement to enable someone to restore and maintain one’s health is to understand physiology (body function). Lack of this understanding makes the individual vulnerable to all sorts of serious mistakes. When one understands how the body functions, one is capable of knowing what to do, when and how to do it.
From my experience it seems obvious that the medical establishment and most of the people doing health research have not had adequate training in physiology. Consequently, too many evaluations of research projects or physical reactions are skewed. Just to provide a simple example: the common cold. When we develop a cough, runny nose, phlegm, diarrhea or similar symptoms, a sign that natural elimination is taking place, the usual medical treatment is to prescribe an antibiotic, antihistamine or other medicine to depress the symptoms, which are actually part of the healing process. If it was understood that the body has a periodic need to eliminate unnecessary material that builds up in our systems, that this is the wisdom of the body functioning normally, the appropriate action would be to cooperate with the body’s effort to clean out accumulated waste and, thus, maintain a cleaner and healthier internal environment to protect against conditions conducive to disease. In other words, one would allow the elimination to run its course with plenty of rest, lots of liquids, no solid foods.
(Hippocrates knew what he was talking about when he said, “If you feed a cold, you’ll have to starve a fever.” Unfortunately, over the centuries, somehow the “if” got lost, which changes the meaning completely and, no doubt, contributed to the prolonged suffering of many. Sir William Osler (1840-1919), known as the Father of Modern Medicine, said it perhaps more succinctly: “The cold should not be treated with contempt, but be followed by bed rest, a good book to read, no food.”)
The medical community, not understanding that symptoms are messages the body sends in its constant quest for healing, does the opposite of what the body requires. In time, this suppression of the natural healing tendency — suppression by blocking symptoms — depletes body energy and it gives up the constant effort to eliminate. When the body’s natural inclination to “clean house” is continually suppressed, it stops fighting to get the gunk out and stores the waste, setting the stage for degenerative disease or other health problems down the line.
The most important thing to take care of in man is the soul, and the new breed of doctor and patient must understand that the purpose of the soul is to express and grow. However, this can only be done when both doctor and patient come together to work for the higher values in life, seeking the higher path. Man deserves the best that Nature has for him.
“If it can be shown that a particular treatment tends to remove or to abate the symptoms of a particular disease or condition, it does not necessarily mean that the treatment is sound, because the removal of symptoms and the “curing” of the disease by certain methods may leave the patient in a fundamentally worse condition than before.” – Jocelyn C. B. Proby, M.A.
