Pills

Everything is both poison and medicine, depending on how it is given, also how it is taken, and of course how much is administered.

Wise words. Honestly I can't remember where I learned the above, from a teacher, a book, or maybe from the depths of my highly active imagination. No matter where it came from, it rings true. For instance, a little bit of honey is medicinal - it's mildly antibacterial, soothes a sore throat, helps some people with asthma and allergies. A lot of honey gums up the digestive system, overloads the kidneys, pancreas and liver. Too much honey is poison.

For some people, chemotherapy is miraculous. They are constitutionally able to tolerate the chemical cocktail; their bodies know how to use the treatment to heal. Others react terribly to chemo. Someone I knew became so ill while undergoing chemotherapy that her doctor told her she had about eight weeks to live. She went off the chemo since she thought we was going to die anyway, after which she miraculously went into remission and lived six more years!

The medicine of choice at this moment in time, in my society is pills. Oh man, we are really into our pills. It doesn't really matter what's in the pills - apparently - since placebo pills work almost as well as 'real' medicine. A recent study showed that placebos are far more effective now than they were thirty years ago. I'm telling you, we love pills!

I'm not just talking about 'western' medicine; have you ever seen how many supplements are a part of naturopathy? I know people who swallow buckets of supplements every day on the advice of alternative healers. Holy cow, it makes my liver hurt just to imagine trying to process all those pills.

The next time you go to the health food store, check out the vitamin aisle. At the drugstore, look at the pain killer aisle. I think if pills were withheld, people would riot in the street.

And now please do not get me started on prescription drugs. I won't even go there, not in this post. All I'm willing to say today is that I'm grateful for the miracle of prescription drugs, but they should be used sparingly, only where actually needed.

I often wonder whether we would stop worshipping pills if we realized, really took it in, that EVERYTHING is medicine and poison. The world is not a neutral place that has no impact on us as we live our lives within it. Everything has an impact that is healing or toxic - sometimes both! If we began utilizing what's at hand for our healing, maybe we wouldn't think we need so many pills.

Ya think?