Pharmaceuticals

While pharmaceutical drugs save lives and help many people, they all have side effects and should be avoided if possible. Many people prolong their recovery time from infection unknowingly. You may have the best intentions when you take or give aspirin or other fever-lowering drugs, but by doing so you actually prolong the recovery time and keep yourself or your family sick longer. This is why: when you are sick your body raises its temperature because higher body heat causes the immune system to work more efficiently. For every one degree of temperature rise, the speed at which your immune cells travel is doubled. Immune cells are your white blood cells. The process is called leucotaxis; white blood cells migrate through the blood stream and then through the walls of blood vessels to reach the agent that they must destroy. For example, with a fever of 104 degrees, the immune cells travel 64 times faster than normal to get to the site of infection and destroy bacteria or other problematic agents. Ibuprofen, aspirin and acetaminophen all have the effect of actually suppressing white blood cell activity when white blood cells are desperately needed to help the body overcome infection.
Suppressing a fever goes against what your body wants to do to heal itself. It is a Naturopathic principle that the innate wisdom of the body should not be interfered with in this case. So, unless it is dangerously high, I would not suppress a fever. What is dangerously high? Ask your physician, because the answer differs for every individual, especially for children and the elderly. Before pharmaceuticals were invented people used cold water to lower fevers. Many Naturopaths use the cold water method today. If you do have a dangerously high fever, you can ask your physician or Naturopath whether this method may be a better option for you.
Another category of pharmaceuticals that may be counterproductive is arthritis medication. Arthritis medication can actually make the illness worse! This is why. Arthritis is aggravated by partially digested food proteins that are leaked through the intestinal tract into the bloodstream. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat arthritis can worsen this problem by making the intestinal walls more permeable, thus allowing even more undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream. Supplemental food enzymes have been shown to help digest the partially digested food proteins and help sufferers improve their condition. (Food-enzyme supplements are available at any health food store.)
The overuse of antibiotics is a major health problem. The two most important things that I wish to convey to you about antibiotics are:
Antibiotics are routinely given for viral infections and have absolutely no effect on viruses.
Antibiotics destroy the beneficial bacteria as well as the problematic
ones.
The beneficial bacteria have names like lactobacillus acidophilus, and bifida (just to name two). They are very important and are known for their health benefits. If you must take antibiotics (anti meaning against and biotic meaning life), then you should follow their use with lots of probiotic supplementation (the beneficial bacteria). Either take the beneficial bacterium in the form of dietary supplements from the health food store or make your own yogurt from the directions in the recipe section of this book (most store-bought yogurt has been pasteurized to increase shelf life, thus the beneficial bacterium have been destroyed). Dietary supplements of good bacteria need to either accompany antibiotic use (and continue for a time after) or be taken following antibiotic use.
Some people develop thick blood and are prescribed a drug called warfarin. Warfarin is actually a dangerous rat poison and can lead to internal hemorrhaging in humans! "...warferin, coumadin, and related medications are toxic and can produce nasty side effects in the course of time (Heinerman pg. 471). There are numerous plant medicines that can thin the blood while delivering nutrients and promoting health at the same time! See the section in this book entitled Circulation.
Sometimes pharmaceutical drugs can save lives, so they have a very important place in society. The overuse and improper use of pharmaceutical drugs worries me.