Pause Before Popping a Pill
The dark truth of pharmaceutical drugs is not hidden anymore. Yet, as much as we try sticking to a healthy lifestyle and natural, organic, fresh foods to keep our tracks with medication as parallel as possible, going through life, sometimes, paths do cross, and we can be prescribed medicines.
Whether it is for an unexpected acute condition, an infection or an injury, or to support a condition and boost recovery, pharmaceutical drugs have a long-lasting impact on the body, especially when taken on a long-term basis. Even when taken occasionally or for short periods, their surface-level positive influence on the body is rarely without negative consequences beneath the surface. This, however, does not mean that we must avoid all kinds of allopathic medicines and synthetic supplements under all circumstances. However, pausing before popping – to examine if it is really needed or not, can help mitigate the risk and unnecessary burden on the body.
The reality of pharmaceutical drugs though, cannot be overlooked. Almost none of the pharmaceutical drugs out of the millions out there, realistically rectify malfunctioning or restore the natural functioning in the body. Drugs merely alleviate our symptoms by overriding, blocking or forcing a biological pathway, which, under the surface means an interference and disruption in the natural pathways. For example, PPIs (Protein Pump Inhibitors) block acid-producing cells – which may help with hyperacidity, but they also interfere with the natural acidity needed to digest our food. Likewise, SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) block serotonin reuptake. The excess of serotonin thus made available in the brain does elevate one’s mood, but it can also lead to hyperactivity in many other areas – both mentally and physiologically. Steroids, though help with chronic inflammation and auto-immune conditions but it does so by suppressing the immune system that guards us from all pathogenic invasions. Similarly, antipsychotics block dopamine receptors, beta-blockers blunt adrenaline, and benzodiazepines suppress neural firing – none of which comes without unwanted consequences.
And while such interferences are not corrective measures by themselves in the first place, more often than not, even these targeted disruptions affect our body systemically. Because a drug, when enters our system – either through the digestive tract or through a vein – doesn't necessarily restrict its action to the tissue, organ or pathway it is meant to target. And since the mechanism of our body in its fullness has not yet been understood by scientists despite the refinements in the new age functional imaging technologies and the advancements in research, laying out a complete map of the action and effect of a drug on the body is still far from reach. As such, even when a drug is a promised target-specific trigger, it can fire or misfire many other receptors almost anywhere in the entire body, without us ever knowing what all it did and how it did it when we simply took an over-the-counter pain killer to help ourselves with a headache.
Reaching out for a pain killer and other over-the-counter, seemingly harmless, quick relievers for mild conditions is simply a habit for many of the time-pressed individuals of modern society, who like to stay on the go, refusing the body the rest it seeks to recover itself. The cumulative effect of this frequent uptake of medicines eventually turns into elevated symptoms or conditions that in most likelihood can never be traced back to their origins. Even prescribed drugs, including but not limited to antibiotics, NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) and steroids, especially when taken frequently or long-term, wreaks havoc within our natural healing rhythms by destabilizing the two main pillars of this self-sustaining system that our body is – the microbiome equilibrium and the immune system.
Antibiotics are known to cause dysbiosis by reducing microbial diversity and damaging intestinal barriers, which in turn allows colonies of harmful or resistant bacteria to overgrow, even though antibiotics are meant to target certain harmful bacteria. Anti-inflammatory drugs too, contribute to compromising intestinal wall integrity alongside suppressing the immune system directly. And when the defense mechanism is fractured at its prime position in the body – the intestinal barrier, that guards the inside from the outside – the body becomes a host to any and all kinds of invasions sooner or later, causing disruptions that may initially emerge as something seemingly as trivial as digestive discomfort and developing food sensitivities to foods once relished joyfully, but eventually escalating to chronic pains, autoimmune diseases, visceral organ damage and many other conditions compromising the quality and length of life while still “managing” the symptoms, keeping the body functional.
It is no wonder that statistical data of the medical world tells us that nearly half of all visits to general practitioners and new consultations with specialists worldwide remain idiopathic (with no known cause) for their conditions, or are labelled as MUS (medically unexplained symptoms). There’s no effect in existence ever without a cause. The cause could remain a mystery in the absence of observation and understanding, but it continues to produce the same effect until it is looked at, and the causing phenomenon is either removed or addressed.
Every single disruption caused by a popped pill has a cost. The cost often shows up as dependency, side-effects, rebound effects, long-term physiological imprint, or worsening of the original condition after discontinuation of medicine. It is simply because when a natural pathway is blocked or forced, even if it is malfunctioning, the body does compensate somewhere – what we generally experience as side-effects. Side-effects of a drug may be immediate and noticeable or may remain hidden from our view and observation, making us believe that the medicine caused no damage to the body and helped us with our symptoms, when in reality, it simply disabled the body to register the pain and symptoms. As a matter of fact, the more damaging side-effects are often silent and seem unrelated in the long run. For every pill popped, has a lasting imprint on the body.
When we interfere with a well-established, self-surrected system, the system always pushes back in one or another way. This push back may be experienced immediately as intolerance, erupting digestive distress, skin conditions, or other discomfort and unusual pains; or may appear later as withdrawal and rebound symptoms upon discontinuing a drug, simply because when a clear push back is ignored and the medicine is continued, the body adapts. The nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system are plastic. They eventually remodel themselves around whatever input they continue to receive. However, in doing so, the body compensates and maladjusts elsewhere. So if a drug blocks a receptor, increases a neurotransmitter, suppresses inflammation, or alters hormone levels, the body readjusts its entire physiology to cope with this change. And then, when the drug is removed, the body becomes out of balance, because it adapted to the drug’s presence. This is why stopping PPIs causes acid rebound, stopping steroids causes adrenal suppression, stopping antipsychotics causes dopamine hypersensitivity, stopping benzodiazepines causes nervous system hyperreactivity and stopping antidepressants can cause emotional instability.
And so, unless your life is at risk without the medicine, it may be worth considering to allow the body some time to self-correct, while supporting it with what it asks for – comforting, easily digestible, natural foods, good quality and amount of sleep and further rest or movement depending upon the condition.
The innate intelligence, awareness, and sensitivity of our body exponentially exceeds our cognitive sensitivity, awareness and intelligence. And so, undoubtedly, the body carries the ability to self-correct and heal itself. And it does so continuously. Without our awareness of it, our body is constantly repairing, recalibrating, detoxifying, and rebalancing – correcting hormonal fluctuations, micro‑inflammation, immune misfires, emotional stress, cellular damage and releasing metabolic waste. However, when the incoming load of disruption is too intense, too complex or contradictory, is sudden or flows in constantly and at a pace higher than the body can cleanse, the body then lags behind in adapting. Our body's adaptive system is immensely wide, yet not infinitely so. And so, when our outer or inner (emotional) environment is too disruptive, the body does reach its threshold. And when it does, discomfort or illness may emerge. However, an illness doesn't necessarily mean collapse or failure. More often than not, it's only a signal. When the body can’t self‑correct in the background anymore, it brings the imbalance to the surface to communicate that it can’t compensate silently anymore; it needs us to change something. We may just need to listen to our symptoms and respond by correcting our eating or sleeping patterns, the quality of food intake, and easing our body and mind from the burden of emotional or physical strain, simply by allowing ourselves more opportunities to relax in touch with nature.
The knowledge that sits in the hearts of ancient traditions of Daoism (traditional Chinese Medicine) and Ayurveda, and more recently Homeopathy, and biofield energetics, though unexplainable in contexts of modern science, is far more aligned to reality of our being and its natural rhythms than modern science can ever discover with its tools to dissect and measure. Relying on the natural systems – natural, unadulterated foods and herbs, and natural healing modalities to realign our natural being in harmony with nature is the most harmless way to support the self-sustaining and self-healing system that our body is.
Alongside ingesting unprocessed, fresh foods in accordance with traditional wisdom laid out as Ayurvedic principles, including practices such as Yoga or Qigong into our daily rhythms, works as preventive medicine by itself. Yet, whenever comes a need that body requires additional support due to injury, infection or aging, these practices help to restore the balance without any side-effects, while also recalibrating the inner harmony after disruption and destabilization brought into the body through pharmaceutical interventions.
Being conscious of one’s own energetic balance is the most effective tool in self-healing. And when it comes to correction and rebalancing any imbalance, the tool may be sound for one and silence for another. Practices such as Yoga and Qigong only help us get closer to this consciousness and enhance our sensitivity towards our own being and our environment.
When mentally aligned in accordance with this energetic balance, body itself becomes immune to all kinds of invasions – whether it is pathogens or strain – physical or emotional. And this is the shield of stability that our body needs to stay strong in adversity, not by expecting situations to stay favorable in all circumstances or giving in to artificial interventions when confronted by challenges.