The Balance

I used to be very biased against Western doctors. To me they always go after the symptoms rather than go after the root of the issue when it comes to health. While that is somewhat true, I have come to a balance after so many years. To me, there are 4 types of medicine. One is the Western, one is Chinese, one is supplements and the last would be alternative medicine. The problem I see with most people (myself included) is that we tend to lean too much to one side of it. Those who lean hard on Western medicine tend to dispise the rest and the same follows with the rest. Those who lean on Chinese medicine dispises Western medicine cos it does not deal with the root issue and the possibility of side effects caused by it. Same goes for the people who lean towards using health supps. Having been involved in MLM before I used to lean towards health supps.

The issue I find with most people who are very strong advocates of health supps (usually those who are involved in MLMs) is that they tend to push the health supps too much. Most have very little knowledge of the physiology of the human body. Some will research more but not many have knowledge beyond what their health supp company feed them. And of course, every health supp company will claim their products are a cut above the rest. The worst thing many companies do is that they mainly educate their sales people on the uses of their product and more often than not gun down the other companies' products. So what we have now is a big group of people going around trying to match the public's health condition with a product they have with little or no knowledge of whether is the product suitable for the person.

Than of course we have Western medicine, which being the mainstream form of medicine is the most common form of medicine where I am. I guess its kind of unfortunate cos many of my encounters with this form of medicine has been quite disgusting mainly due to the almighty dollar. I have a doctor friend who once explained to me why I was on a certain drug for my gastrics for so long and was not any better. Apparently, the specialist clinic which I was seeing at a hospital which I will not mention uses a certain drug which is generic. So I was given months and months of supply to control my gastrics problem. According to my friend, the actual treatment with the "real" drug is only about a week and most do not have the gastric issue after that. He then explained to me about how some doctors have voiced out against using the cheaper version of the drug but unfortunately the purchasing department only knew to go for the cheapest version. Seems like the almighty dollar got the better of them. On another occasion I needed a course of antibiotics when I saw a GP near to my former workplace and was given an antibiotic which was so outdated it was no longer sold commercially. Only after my condition worsened I returned to see my friend (should have done so in the first place) and I had to go on a much stronger one cos my initial URTI had already developed into bronchitis. So I suppose it really does matter which doctor you see.

From the circle I came from, Western doctors were very much gunned down due to various reasons. In some regards, I do see the flaws of Western medicine. But there are expects which I still respect them for. For one, most of them spend a minimum of 5-6 years to study about the human body and it's workings. Most of us would not spend nearly as much time studying but would be much faster to recommend products to others, not knowing the effects on the body. Also, though drugs do have their side effects, they are usually fast acting. When I need to get work done and yet have symptoms distracting me from it, it surely helps when I can pop some pills and get back to work pretty quickly.

I guess each discipline really has its pros and cons. For me, I presently using all 4 fields to my advantage whichever way I can. Been leaning a fair bit on Chinese medicine of late. Been having so much problems with my stomach which seem to have no relief from Western medicine as well as supplements. Thankfully, after weeks of treatment my stomach seem to be showing signs of improvement. Hopefully I will be completely well soon.