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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Poison and medicine

Sometimes the only difference between a medicine and a poison is the dosage.

4 comments:

Jonathan Melton said...

It would seem that with modern medicine, it would seem that our medicines would not be worse than the illness they are designed to treat.

Anonymous said...

Bro. Younglandmarker, I would say this might be debatable in certain cases. Would you not agree that some remedies only mask an illness, rather than cure it?

I am afraid that modern society has largely abandoned the concept of prevention with respect to illness, among other things. We tend to go against nature to a large degree, and try to defy what God intended to be. I believe some will use the excuse that they can misuse, abuse, and put themselves in a volitale position, since there is ample supply of remedies, should their physical state falter.

Jonathan Melton said...

Anonymous,

What you don't realize is that my mother had breast cancer in 2000, and received radiation treatments. As a result of the radiation treatments, she now has had interstitial pulmonary fibrosis for the past 6 years which is always eventually fatal and has diminished her quality of life to where as of now she bedridden.

Also, the steroid Prednisone which is the only confirmed treatment for the disease beside chemotherapy drugs has too many harmful side effects to count. For example, many who are on it for a long period of time have to have a hip replacement. Also, a dear sweet lady friend of our family died because Prednisone ate a hole in her stomach. A few months ago, my mother was put back on it by her primary physician (her specialist in Tyler had taken her off because he did not feel it was really effective) and she lost about 60 lbs over a few months' time, her heart rate was staying steadily in the 150s and 160s, and she was having diarrhea constantly (I sincerely hope no one is offended by mentioning that but I feel like I need to adequately tell the story), although her 02 level has remained constant in the 90% range (so her fibrosis is not nearing the end stage YET). My dad fought to get her weaned off. She has been weaned off and those side effects are gone.

Anonymous said...

Bro. Younglandmarker,

Perhaps my wording was off base, or I did not fully read into your initial statement.

I believe we both agree that in many cases, extensive treatment and or medicine, is worse than the actual illness.