{"id":1722,"date":"2014-09-29T14:24:38","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T14:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2014-11-10T16:58:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T16:58:35","slug":"healthicines-medicines-sickicines-deathicines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/healthicines-medicines-sickicines-deathicines\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicines: From Deadly Drugs to Healthy Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might think there are only two types of medicines – conventional medicines and alternative medicines. There are many different ways to view medicines, and when we take different viewpoints, we can learn more. The differences between\u00a0conventional and\u00a0alternative medicines is a very weak distinction, \u00a0so weak that it is not recognized by the US FDA – the official body for approval\u00a0of medicines.<\/p>\n

How should we view different classes of medicines? In this post, we view different medicines according to their effects on healthiness. Some medicines have a positive effect on healthiness, some have a very negative effect on healthiness and many are in-between. \u00a0In this diagram, medicines are arranged from the least healthy on the left, to the healthiest on the right. In each case there is some overlap – sometimes this overlap can be very wide.<\/p>\n

\"HealthicinestoDeathicines\"<\/p>\n

Deathicines<\/strong>\u00a0kill. We kill with lethal injections of medicine, treatments with hanging, firing squads, and electric chairs. I think we do this, hoping that we are making our society ‘healthier’, or ‘well’. We kill after we give up on our ability to cure with medicines, or to health with healthicines.<\/p>\n

Deathicines\/Sickicines<\/strong> are medicines that kill when they try to cure. The Institute of Medicine report, in 2000, estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 preventable deaths were caused by medical errors. It’s very difficult to count or estimate the number of deaths by medical deathicines. It’s easy, intentionally or simply in error, to attribute a death to an illness – rather than document a death due to a medicine. We don’t intend for medicines to kill – except on death row or in murder movies. But they kill.<\/p>\n

Sickicines<\/strong> are medicines that make you sick. They fail to cure, fail to make you well, or fail in “making you healthier”. One group\u00a0of sickicines are simply “wrong medicines”. \u00a0You might get the wrong medicine in many different situations. \u00a0A mistake in your bathroom, taking the wrong pills when you are tired or confused. A mistake in the hospital, where a staff member gives the right medicine to the wrong patient. A diagnostic mistake in the doctor’s office, resulting a prescription for a wrong medicine. A mistake in design and testing of medicines, resulting in the sale of a product that sickens more than it cures.<\/p>\n

Many ‘subscription medications’ – symptomicines, are also\u00a0sickicines. Sickicines are hard to count, although there are some statistics. A report by the Institute of Medicine in the USA estimated over one million injuries due to medical errors – one group of sickicines. Most prescription medicines sold are symptomicines, having potential to become sickicines.<\/p>\n

Symptomicines<\/strong> hide symptoms. Symptomicines hide negative sensations, those that make us uncomfortable or unhappy. Symptomicines do not cure, they only affect symptoms.<\/p>\n

If the symptoms are a result of a minor illness, a symptomicine can help your body to heal. If the symptoms are a result of serious illness, symptomicines can hide the illness and allow it to grow. In an ongoing illness, the use of symptomicines must be paired with\u00a0healthicines, because. symptomicines do\u00a0not cure. They are often\u00a0‘subscription medicines’, and the patient is advised to\u00a0learn to ‘live with your disease’. Symptomicines are often prescribed\u00a0when your doctor gives up on your illness, and often recommended in medical textbooks – when the medical textbook has no solution to the illness. Many of the top 100\u00a0best selling medicines of 2013 are symptomicines.<\/p>\n

Symptomicines\/Medicines<\/strong> – the overlap\u00a0between symptomicines and medicines, contain symptomicines that can help to cure. \u00a0A cold medicine doesn’t cure, but relief from symptoms helps you perform healthy activities – resulting in faster recovery.<\/p>\n

Medicines<\/strong> fight illness and disease, so you can recover. The goal of medicine is to make you well – ‘not sick’. If you are not sick, you don’t need a medicine.\u00a0Some medicines also fight symptoms, but often medicines create more symptoms, or side effects, because they are designed to fight life (unhealthy bacteria), not to help life.<\/p>\n

Patent medicines don’t come from nature, they are man made. Medicines are often designed to ‘trick’ illness, to trick nature. Health is true and honest – you can’t ‘trick’ health. Most medicines are medicines all of the time. Antibiotics and\u00a0prescription drugs don’t stop being medicines ‘depending on use’. They are medicines by design.<\/p>\n

Medicines\/Healthicines<\/strong> some medicines are also healthicines: “let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food<\/em>” said Hippocrates. \u00a0Vitamin C, or foods containing Vitamin C, are foods and healthicines – but when you have scurvy, they act as medicines.<\/p>\n

Healthicines<\/strong> make you healthy and healthier. Healthicines come from nature, because we come from nature. Healthy foods, healthy exercise, healthy thoughts, and healthy communities. Healthicines fight and prevent disease by making you healthier.\u00a0When you are sick, many healthicines can be medicines. When your diet is deficient, many healthicines – essential nutrients – can cure diseases that a patent medicine cannot touch.<\/p>\n

Classes of Medicines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Medicines range from deathicines, causing death, to healthicines – causing health.\u00a0The sequence,\u00a0from deathicines to sickicines to symptomicines to medicines to healthicines is arranged by their effects on healthiness. \u00a0Deathicines, sickicines and symptomicines generally have negative effects on healthiness, while symptomicines, medicines and healthicines have positive effects on healthiness.<\/p>\n

When Hippocrates said “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”, he was talking about symptomicines, medicines and mostly – healthicines.<\/p>\n

Healthicines are the most effective medicines and the most effective preventatives. Medicines can be more powerful, but with this power comes more risk of damage.<\/p>\n

Unintended Effects<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each class of medicine has intended effects – and also unintended effects. These effects can also be used to guide our choice of treatment.<\/p>\n

Healthicines create healthiness, and as a result, they prevent and cure illness. <\/em><\/strong>The most effective way to prevent an illness is to improve health – and this can only be accomplished with healthicines.<\/p>\n

Medicines kill illness, but\u00a0unintended effects can range from mild decreases in healthiness to death. <\/em><\/strong>Medicines are powerful tools, but we must be careful to not overuse or misuse them. Medicines are dangerous to health.<\/p>\n

Symptomicines dull symptoms and can\u00a0allow illness to grow undetected. <\/em><\/strong>In short term illnesses, like a cold or influenza, symptomicines are very effective. In long term illnesses, symptomicines need to be paired with a search for the cure – which is usually healthicines. Symptomicines without a search for the cure, allow the illness and damage caused by the illness to grow.<\/p>\n

Sickicines are entirely unintended. <\/em><\/strong>Sickicines are the result of medical errors, and we need to reduce them whenever possible.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Deathicines kill and as a result they\u00a0often destroy the truth and abandon the search for health. <\/em><\/strong>We need to reduce or eliminate the use of deathicines to create healthier communities, societies, and countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Creation of<\/strong><\/p>\n

Healthicines<\/strong> are created by nature.
\nSymptomicines<\/strong> are created by discomfort, and by salesmen.
\nMedicines<\/strong> are created by searching for cures.
\nSickicines<\/strong> are created by error.
\n<\/span>Deathicines<\/strong> are created by ignorance and negligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other classes of medicine<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are other ways to look at medicines, and other classifications of medicines that are outside of the above classification system. \u00a0Here are a few examples of non-medicines, that are often called medicines.<\/p>\n

Placebos<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The name placebo comes from Latin, meaning ‘to please’. Placebos are given to please the patient. However, today there are two kinds of placebos.<\/p>\n