Does modern healthcare “cure” or mask disease?

Do many modern drugs and surgeries really help us? Or do they tend to mask the real issues and allow us to keep doing the things that will make us ill?

You have heart disease. Your doctor has prescribed statins. Your blood levels look better and you cheat on your diet. You eat more sugar. You take less exercise. Is this why 9% of statin users are more likely to get Type 2 Diabetes?

My dog Jay strained his back right knee chasing a fox. I put him on Metacam. The pain vanished – he was like a puppy! A day later he chased the fox again and blew his knee completely requiring major surgery. The Metacam masked his weakness and pain and he had no pain feed back to prevent him from damaging himself more. A few years later, Jay sprained his other back knee. That danged fox! This time, we just rested him. Put him on a lead for 3 months and walked him back to health. He was fine. his knee healed very well and he never had another knee problem.

You have a skin rash. Your doctor prescribes a cortisone cream. The rash diminishes but does not go away. You increase the dose and find yourself on a teadmill. You have done nothing about the real cuase of the rash which of course is not a surface issue at all but about something that you are eating or being exposed to.

I am starting to see a picture here – are you too?

Much of the medicine that we rely on to get us well – avoids the core issue. Why did we have a problem in the first case and what can we do to change our actions to reduce the risk.

Much of the medicine we rely on either merely masks the symptoms – like Jay’s Metacam – or allows us to continue to behave badly or continue to live in environments that are bad for us.

This is true of surgery as well. many of us – me included – asked about knee surgery. But when I lost 30 pounds my knee problem went away.  If we are over weight our knees will at least hurt or get into trouble. Surgery can fix this. But if we do nothing about our excess weight, this is only a “masking” process. Liposuction is  a brutal process. But if you don’t change your life what will it mean?

Many of us think that we need medicine and health care to be healthy. I have had a car accident – I would be all for it – but in reality most of our modern illnesses mask symptons.

Who gets cured of heart disease? Who gets cured of Type 2 Diabetes? Who gets cured of arthritis? Whose knee lasts a lifetime?

But in many cases, we can be “cured” if we deal with our lives – Just as it was not a cure for Cholera that stopped the disease – it was the understanding abut how sanitation worked. It was not a cure that put TB away. It was better living conditions.