Modern Drugs Have Some Side-Effects

Modern drugs have some side-effects, and some of these can be extremely severe. Penicillin can cause a severe allergic reaction.

Sedatives can become addictive; certain drugs that were approved as safe turn out to be potentially fatal; aspirin can cause the stomach lining to bleed; and the overuse of antibiotics has the alarming potential to encourage bacteria to develop resistant strains.

The list can be extended to other drugs used to treat various conditions, where prolonged use seems to achieve ever diminishing results, and may also cause ever increasing side-effects, even if these are relatively mild.

Examples include the routine prescription of corticosteroid creams for eczema and other skin problems; inhalants for asthma; diuretics for reducing blood pressure; antacids to treat gastritis or even an ulcer; and tranquillizers for emotional problems.

To an acupuncturist, who often spends time having to clear up the problems caused by such long-term drug treatment, this approach seems almost unbelievably coarse and heavy-handed.

It is frequently dangerous for the patient, and rarely seems to provide genuine long-term benefit. From a diagnostic point of view, suppression of symptoms produces confused cases, where the clues that should help unravel the problem have been modified or obscured.

This makes the acupuncturist's job far more difficult than it needs to be - and puts the re-education of patients high on the list of priorities in treatment.