The myth that you can just let your body deteriorate and then replace the “worn-out” parts is a costly, dangerous, and inefficient approach. Unfortunately, this myth is deeply entrenched in the American consciousness. It not only breeds disease, but is crippling the economy with “health care” costs that are spiraling out of control and increasingly will be paid from taxpayer dollars.
So many medications are over-used and actually contribute to accelerated aging and greater problems later in life. Here is just one common example, where there are much better solutions for treating or managing the problem than just taking medications. In this example, the medication helps reduce the immediate symptom, but in a way that allows the problem or other related problems to worsen dramatically.
Anti-inflammatory medications all bring trade-offs, one way or another. Whether it is stomach irritation and potential gastric bleeding from NSAID’s (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen) or liver damage from tylenol products, there are specific and common side-effects that affect many people. An even more costly trade-off, from long term use of anti-inflammatory medications, is allowing a problem area to deteriorate further without doing anything to correct it.
Let’s say, for example that your knee was painful and inflamed, and that you believed what you heard on TV that an anti-inflammatory medication would reduce the pain and swelling. Either you got your doctor to prescribe the medication or you purchased it on your own at the local pharmacy, and let’s say it did actually reduce your pain and swelling, so you continued to take it for months and years.
BUT, what if your knee pain was actually being caused by a mechanical misalignment of your knee, or an ankle that wasn’t absorbing shock properly because of an old injury? These are very common causes of knee pain and inflammation, and are correctible or at least modifiable through natural health care. The problem in just using the anti-inflammatory medication indefinitely is that, covering-up the pain can allow the knee to deteriorate further at an even faster pace because you are under the illusion that nothing is wrong with the knee. And there is little motivation to question what is triggering the knee problem because the pain is decreased, even though the cause of the pain hasn’t been addressed.
Then, one day you notice that the medication no longer seems to be working because the knee is very painful and inflamed even with taking higher doses of the medication. You visit your doctor and have x-rays or an MRI , which reveal that the joint surface of your knee has deteriorated and that you are now “bone-on-bone” and require a knee replacement.
You ask your doctor how the knee could have deteriorated so severely and hear the reply that it just old age. Meanwhile your other knee, which is presumably the same age, is fine.
This is a scenario that I have witnessed daily in patients for the past 35 years. The truth is that specific mechanical or chemical alterations in your body caused one knee to deteriorate prematurely. Had you done at least as much maintenance on your body as you have done on your car over the years, you may very well now have two healthy knees, a less damaged stomach and liver, and not be in line for a knee replacement.
I suggest that you work with an Applied Kinesiologist or other doctor who is dedicated to restoring and maintaining the normal function of your body.