Fellow Toastees, Toastettes, and various Marmaladers,
When John called me last night, I was hard-pressed to think of a
lesson that I’ve learned from life. After all M. D., according to my
wife, stands for mentally deficient, so it was tough to figure out what
to say about lessons. But I did manage to think of something apropos
for this holiday season,
When you make a vote, check it twice, because Santa Claus is coming to town.
Today’s talk is speech #3. It was a good thing I reviewed the
description carefully because at first glance I thought I had to have a
sexual climax with this speech. You know it’s about organizing not the
other thing. I’m supposed to present a logical sequence for a clearly
defined goal.
Do You Really Have to Reach for the Tylenol?
I write anywhere from 20 to 30 prescriptions a day, and, yes, people
do benefit from taking medication, or else I’d be out of a job, but do
we have to down pills everytime we have a physical or emotional problem?
Tell me if we are not in a drug culture, when the TV commercials are
telling you to talk to your doctor some drug because maybe you have
social anxiety disorder
It seems that for whatever ails mankind, there is a pill for it. If you’ve got a health problem, let’s fix it with a pill.
Well, it’s so easy, got a headache? Just pop those puppies in your mouth and get a swig of water and you are good to go..
Today I’m reminding you that you have a choice. You have a choice
to really get to the root of your health problem instead of just
reaching for the Tylenol.
Pills don’t fix the underlying problem. Take arthritis, for
example. People will have degenerative changes to their joints. Pills
won’t reverse that. Pill only provide relief, they may reduce
inflammation but they don’t get at the real basis of why there is
certain swelling going on to begin with. They just treat the symptoms
and reduce the discomfort.
When we take a pill, we are declaring that the body is not smart
enough to fix itself. Here’s where health education did not emphasize
that the body has an inner wisdom. Why don’t we let our bodies do the
job they were meant to do? When we get a cut, our body knows how to
repair and heal that wound. Do you really need to add bacitracin
ointment to your bandaid? When we get a fever and don’t feel like
eating, maybe you shouldn’t be eating and that’s the body’s way of
saying, you need to take a break from eating. None of us are guilty of
overeating
Do we remember the term "homeostasis" from Biology class? It
doesn’t mean trouble getting out of your home It means the body’s
inherent ability to keep to a physiological stability. If you eat too
much candy the body has to adjust to that sugar overload, it has to
buffer the acids that are produced, vitamins and minerals are depleted
just so that your body can continue to function optimally.
So the body’s inner wisdom reacts to how we’re treating it. The
body can adjust up to certain level, but if we keep abusing it, then it
can’t take any more. The body can heal itself, but we do have to treat
it right.
Maybe if we listen to our bodies a bit more we might learn some
lessons about our lifestyle and how we treating it. Most of the top
ten causes of death are due to improper lifestyle. We’re either
drinking too much, John you do have to watch it except for when I’m at
the bar with you Or we’re not eating what we’re supposed to. Ladies,
watch those chocolates Or we’re just couch potatoes and won’t even do
some taichi, remember Dr. Yuen, taichi, Kapiolani Park and Kailua
Beach. Or we’re working too hard and we need to take a break.
An important aspect of improper lifestyle is just taking care to
make sure we do proper health monitoring for early detection of
disease. For ladies, that means regular breast exams, for men, if
you’re over 50, it’s the PSA, prostate specific antigen, and if you’re
really in for a thrill of a lifetime, consider proctosigmoidoscopy,
it’s something you’ll never forget
Another reason for not taking pills all the time is that pills do
have side effects. I’ve known situations of someone taking an
antibiotic and going into renal failure and having to have kidney
dialysis where a machine filters your blood. How often do doctors
prescribe antibiotics for the flu when flus by definition are caused by
viruses which are resistant to any antibiotics?
So the next time you get the flu. Don’t assume that it’s the
perennial flu that comes every winter. Take some time to reflect on
the underlying cause of your problem. Give the inner wisdom of the
body a chance to work. Consider what you’ve been eating and drinking,
whether you have been getting enough exercise, and what you’ve doing
about your stress. Go for the lettuce and tomato, the olives,pickles,
relish, jalapenos, onions, the mustard, and ketchup, but try to hold on
the tylenol.