The information you are about to receive is a DGB integration of a number of different influential scientific, psychological, and philosophical sources: 1. Cannon ('homeostasis'); 2. Freud and Psychoanalytic Learning Theory; 3. Cognitive Theory and Therapy (Ellis, Beck, Branden...); and 4. the 'cognitive, language, semantics, and epistemology philosophers' (Locke, Hume, Russell, Wittgenstein, Korzybski, Hayakawa...). The integration starts out like this.
1. Homeostasis
Walter Bradford Cannon wrote a now classic book in biology called, 'The Wisdom of The Body' (1932). It is probably as important as Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (1807) which talks about basically the same type of process, Hegel in philosophy, history, and culture; Cannon mainly in biology which then became applied to psychology. Cannon called this process 'homeostasis'; Hegel's philosophy became known as 'dialectic philosophy' or 'the dialectic cycle' (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis). I have also added the terms 'dialectical wholism' and 'dialectical evolution' to Hegel's work. Both Hegel and Cannon were writing from different vantage points about the process of 'homeostasis' or 'optimal balance'. The history of this idea goes back a lot further than both Cannon and Hegel -- back to the Han Philosophers concepts of 'yin' and 'yang', and back in Ancient Greece to the dialectic philosophies of Anaxamander and Heraclitus, followed to some extent by Plato (The Symposium).
Here is an excerpt from Cannon's 'Wisdom of The Body'.
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The ability of living beings to maintain their own constancy has long impressed biologists. The idea that disease is cured by natural powers, by a vis medicatrix naturae, an idea which was held by Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), implies the existence of agencies which are ready to operate correctively when the normal state of the organism is upset. More precise references to self-regulatory arrangements are found in the writings of modern physiologists. Thus the German physiologist, Pflüger, recognized the natural adjustments which lead toward the maintenance of a steady state of organism when (1877) he laid down the dictum, "The cause of every need of a living being is also the cause of the satisfaction of the need." Similarly, the Belgian physiologist, Léon Fredericq, in1885 declared, "The living being is an agency of such sort that each disturbing influence induces by itself the calling forth of compensatory activity to neutralize or repair the disturbance. The higher in the scale of living beings, the more numerous, the more perfect and the more complicated do these regulatory agencies become. They tend to free the organism completely from the unfavorable influences and changes occurring in the environment." Again, in 1900, the French physiologist, Charles Richet, emphasized the remarkable fact. "The living being is stable," he wrote. "It must be so in order not to be destroyed, dissolved or disintegrated by the colossal forces, often adverse, which surround it. By an apparent contradiction it maintains its stability only if it is excitable and capable of modifying itself according to external stimuli and adjusting its response to the stimulation. In a sense it is stable because it is modifiable – the slight instability is the necessary condition for the true stability of the organism. (See Cannon, Homeostasis, on the internet.)
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The 'dialectic' -- ideally speaking -- can be viewed as a rhetorical, philosophical, political, legal, social, cultural, economic, religious, biological, psychological and/or phenomenal process aimed at achieving 'homeostasis' in its widest sense of the word -- i.e. optimal balance. This is the philosophical meeting ground for Hegel, Darwin, and Cannon. This is the rationale behind my concept of 'dialectic wholism and evolution'.
2. Learning
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The Rise, Fall, and Integration of Western, Mainstream Medicine with Eastern-Influenced, Natural Health Medicine
Back in 1995, I was a pup -- a young 40 years old. Just another baby boomer hitting his 40s. I'm not sure how I got into the subject area -- the study of natural, nutritional, and herbal health -- maybe it was my turning 40, first significant fear of aging, cancer, potential liver problems, losing sexual capabilities, dying...
Perhaps my new study was based partly on my spending too much time in the bars -- and starting to worry about it. I'd been separated for four years and had two kids, one living with me, my son Michael, 10-11 years old at the time, the other my daughter, Jennifer, 5-6 years old at the time, living with my ex-common-law spouse.
It was all about 'theory' but I liked it. The study of natural and nutritional health was partly 'deconstructionist' before I knew what that word meant. In other words, it was 'rebellious' -- rebelling against orthodox, mainstream, Western medicine. It was 'scientific (and non-scientific) medical philosophy with a clout, with a hammer' a la Nietzsche, a la Dylan -- two of my favorite writers today (but before I'd really read any Nietzschean philosophy).
Ten years of 'Eastern based, nutritional-herbal-natural health, medicine (EBNHNHM)-- or NHM to make it workably shorter) -- 'deconstructively' hammering on Orthodox, Mainstream, Western Medicine (OMWM) have resulted in some significant changes and modifications to the way is OMWM practised. The evolutionary results have been 'classicly Hegelian' in their ongoing, evolutionary result -- 1. thesis: OMWM, 2. anti-thesis: NHM, 3. synthesis: a still evolving, Western-Eastern, Integrative Medicine (WEIM).
We have to remember that OMWM is based largely on Pharmaceutical (meaning drugs) -- as opposed to Nutraceutical (vitamins, supplements, herbs...) -- Medicine. And the history and evolution of pharmaceutical medicine cannot be detached from the history and evolution of 'Narcissistic, Illegal Capitalism' -- meaning conflict of interest and white collar, corporate crime -- the same roots that have brought us ENRON, the Liberal Ad Scandal, and now the engimatic, controversial Conrad Black -- both good and bad -- with his alleged 'unethcial-illegal bad side' rising to the surface and dominating all the good things that he may have done in and for the world... Money -- or rather the unethical-illegal influence of money -- raises its ugly face again.
As much as we may want to not think about it, to ignore it, deny it, 'put the lid back on this ugly can of worms' just as Freud put the lid back on the ugly can of worms of 'sexual child abuse' back in the 1890s when it wasn't going over well with the Victorian public, so has the 'evolution' of Illegal, Narcissistic Capitalism, negatively influenced the evolution -- or rather the 'regression' -- of both science and medicine: the unethical-illegal influence of money, conflict of interest, greed, has negatively influencing people, and in particular, Corporate North America, here as everywhere else we are seeing it (business, politics, sports...) into taking 'illegal, narcissistic short cuts designed to make much more money much faster -- and here's the kicker -- at the expense of other people who are getting financially hurt in the process, and in the case of science and medicine, even physically hurt -- or even killed, under 'doctor and pharmaceutical protective, non-transparency laws' that confuse or cloak 'disease-caused injuries and deaths' with 'medicine-caused injuries and deaths' -- hammered at
Unethical-Illegal-Narcissistic-Capitalism or UINC (as opposed to Ethical-Legal-Humanistic Capitalism or ELHC)-- whether in politics (Liberal Ad-Scam), business (ENRON), or sports (steroids) always operates under a cloak of darkness, a cloak of -- undemocratic, non-transparency, toxic functioning, or rather, dysfunctioning (on a societal level). Narcissistic Capitalism is 'Capitalism with a Toxic Side Effect' just as 'Narcissistic Capitalist Medicine' is 'Medicine with a Toxic Side Effect'.
It is this 'toxic side effect' -- or rather 'stream of toxic side effects' that have been driving the 'critical deconstructionism' of the natural health industry against Pharmaceutical Medicine (and by association, Mainstream, Orthodox, Western Medicine)for over ten years now. With very positive results. The 'toxic, non-democratic, non-transparency, narcissistic functioning of Pharmaceutical Medicine' -- in the 'hiding of drug side effects for over 20 or 30 years' has been greatly hampered, modified, and brought under significant, if still only partial, control. Now if a pharmaceutical company wants to advertise one of its drugs on televisison, it becomes almost comical -- in a dark, sad, tragic way -- to hear the television commercial list off a string of anywhere up to 5 to 10 possible side effects. Don't take 'Lipitor' if you have liver problems or if your muscles start wasting away, or if you start losing your memory (remember 'good cholesterol' has important, life-preserving and enhancing functions involved in 'cell protection', 'muscle-building', 'hormone functioning' and 'brain functioning' -- and Lipitor (as well as other drugs which function on the same principle as Lipitor) which is designed to stop or partly stop the liver from making cholesterol, does not properly distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol -- anymore than antibiotics can distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' bacteria in the colon -- in proper functioning, the good bacteria usually controls the bad bacteria and prevents the bad bacteria from getting out of control; when antibiotics wipes out both good and bad bacteria in the colon there is often a 'rebound effect' where 'surviving, opportunistic bad bacteria' -- as well as evolving and developing a 'resistance' to the antibiotic being used -- will also take advantage of the absence of 'good bacteria' in the colon and 'go wild' -- like a class of young kids with no teacher in the classroom -- and before you know it, the patient is on a 'merry-go-round of different antibiotics' trying to bring the 'wild, bad bacteria back under control' (as well as often 'yeast') where what is really needed is 'the supplementation of probiotics' to replace the good bacteria that have been eliminated by antibiotics. (Richard Firshein, D.O. The Nutraceutical Revolution, 1998).
Natural Health Medicine has some roots in Western history but by and large it represents a pardigm of medicine that is based in Eastern philosophy and Eastern Medicine. The thinking is partly -- and significantly -- different than that of Western medicine -- based at least partly in its Socialist-Communist Roots.
Now remember I am an integrative philosopher here; not an 'either/or' philosopher. For the most part, I do not believe in 'either/or' philosophy.
My philosophy is called 'DGB' Philosophy -- 'Dialectical-Gap-Bridging' Philosophy.
My philosphy is post-Hegelian (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis) and aims to always 'homeostatically balance opposing, conflicting philosophies' -- to bridge the gap between 'left and right', 'Liberal and Conservative', 'Republican and Democrat', Capitalism and Socialism'...
Eastern medicine may not have developed the 'technology' of Western medicine nearly as quickly as Western medicine. But then again, Eastern medicine has usually not believed in 'quick fixes' -- Western Society's idea of 'fast food and fast medicine' -- that ignore the insidious, surfacing of 'drug side effects' (the most cynical amongst us would say that this just means more money in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies who only stand to benefit from the auxillary sale of 'side effect medicine'.)
It has been said that the best Eastern doctors are viewed as the ones with the least number of patients -- because most of their 'patients' are healthy, the crux of what we now call 'Preventative Medicine' in Western Society. Gee -- how long has it taken us to learn the idea of 'Preventative Medicine' and 'good, healthy nutrition' -- 50 years of antibiotics and faster and faster, processed foods, 50 years to learn that even bacteria are 'smart', sometimes smarter than our smartest scientists and doctors as they 'mutate', 'compensate', 'learn', and 'evolve' just as we humans do. It has taken us a long, long time to give the simplest of life forms -- viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi...and even to respect the wonder of evolution in the very new Western concept of 'plant immune systems' that have to protect themselves against these very small killing life forms -- just as we humans do. Why wouldn't a plant like 'pau d arco' develop an 'immune system' that protects itself against fungi and yeast when the plant is living in the middle of South American rain forests where fungi flourish? And why would a person who takes pau d arco in order 'gain the advantage of the plant's fungi defeating immune system' in order to deal with yeast problems. Or ingest probiotics that do much the same thing -- release 'good bacteria' that 'help to get rid of yeast'.
Now, to be sure, the herbal and vitamin industry has been taken over by Corporate -- and by extension -- Narcissistic, Capitalist America. Which means that it is subject to many if not all of the same types of problems that I have been spelling out relative to Pharmaceutical and Orthodox, Western, Medicine. The roots now are the same. People taking unethical and often illegal short cuts to make more money -- faster.
I am an idealist and would wish for nothing better than to see the 'ultimate and harmonious integration of Western and Eastern philosophy, science, and medicine'. I want to see hospitals and doctors that are trained in, respect, research, and practise both types of medicine -- along with their evolving post-Hegelian negotiation and integration of thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis.
Both Western and Eastern medicine share the philosophical and scientific belief in the principle of 'homeostasis' ( 'the need for the wholistic balance of the body involving all of its respective, individual organs and processes') -- although Eastern medicine tends to respect this principle far more than Western Medicine does. Western medicine has been corrupted and toxified by Narcissistic Corporate Capitalism as it is played out through the Super Pharmaceutical Companies whose thinking for the most part -- at least until the watchful, critical eye of the natural health industry stepped in to blow the whistle on this practise, has been: 'Why worry about homeostatic imbalance in the body; it just means another drug that we can develop to counteract this imbalance and put more money into our pharmaceutical pockets?
The roots of the pathological elements of Western medicine are deeply imbedded in the pathological elements of the Narcissistic Pharmaceutical Companies, and by extension, everything associated with this pathology: Narcissistic Corporate America, Narcissistic politicians in bed (collusion) with Narcissistic Corporate America, and even narcissistic doctors who lose their medical integrity as they get swept up in this whole process. This is not to challenge the medical integrity of all Western doctors because I know that there are many, many hardworking, very good medical doctors out there. I like my doctor who I have had for almost ten years now. She may not agree with some or many of my philosophical beliefs (especially if she knew them in their entirety). I see articles on her wall that emphasize the fact that herbs too -- just like drugs -- can cause complicating side effects. I respect her medical opinions and the fact that she cares for me as a patient. And in turn, she I think respects -- or at least accepts -- the fact that I don't generally like antibiotics and that I am very wary (my parents would probably say say 'paranoid'), about 'getting onto a medical merry-go-round that I can't get off'.
This brings me to my final point. In 1995 it was all about 'theory' -- my learning all about nutritional-natural health medicine and its 'deconstructionist' attack on Mainstream, Orthodox, Western medicine.
In 2007, it is no longer about theory. This baby boomer has gotten 12 years older and what was about theory is now about 'life and death' -- my own. Liver problems that were not a serious problem or interference in my life back in 1995, now are. A combination of a genetic condition (spherocytosis) along with perhaps too many years in the bars, and/or even too mamy ingested herbs (my parents' -- or at least my mom's -- belief) have made my evolving latent liver problems of 1995, a serious, toxic reality in 2007. A week in the hospital I have experienced before, but not the 2 and a half months of recurring jaundice problems. My recurring bouts with jaundice -- partly caused by my spherocytosis and partly caused by some toxin(s) in my environment that I have ingested (alchohol and/or a legal but toxic inhaled chemical like paint fumes) -- have usually gone away in a week not to return for another year or two until a bad lifestyle and/or another 'accidentally inhaled environmental toxin' conspired to bring me down again.
What I am saying is that my medical choices here and now are no longer simply based on the type of philosophy that I have been evolving over the last ten to twenty years. They are based on what I think will best keep me alive and healthy. So if I opt out of an upcoming 'liver biopsy', it must be heavily emphasized that this is a very personal choice that has involved much internal conflict and debate, and I do not recommend it as a general choice for anyone who has been told by a doctor that they should have one. However, in my case, I am just coming out of 2 and a half months of recurring jaundice -- almost clearing it twice, and then getting thrown right back into the middle of it again. About two or three weeks ago I went into the hospital for an 'ERCP' operation to remove the possibility of any 'stones blocking a bile duct' and causing my jaundice. I was just about clear of my jaundice when I went into the operation -- and two days later I was back in 'full jaundice mode' again. It has taken me over two weeks to almost clear this last bout of jaundice -- and now I have the immediate reality of another operation -- the liver biopsy where they take a small piece of your liver off your liver to test it for the cause of possible dysfunction. I have decided that the risk of not knowing what is wrong with my liver at this point in time -- everything subject to change -- is less than the risk of another liver setback through the risk of another jaundice attack.
I will rest with this decision even though it could conceivably be a very bad one.
I will aim to heal my liver through the course of nature, God, good nutrition, and hopefully staying away from bad, toxic ingestions and/or inhalations. Bad choices can still be made out of sloppiness and/or returning to bad habits that shouldn't be returned to. This morning I had two coffees which I have not had in over 2 and a half months. That is both a good and a bad thing: good in that my liver felt good enough that I actually 'wanted' a coffee, and felt like my liver could deal with it, process the caffeine; but bad in that I had one more coffee than I should have had and my liver is now telling me that. (Actually, I should be still staying away from
all caffeine but this morning I got a little 'overconfident'.
So what I am saying here is that the 'baby boomer generation' -- and even the 'generation before us, my parents generation' -- is very much in the middle of a medical 'conflict of philosophies and paradigms', an evolving medical revolution if you will, that should not be treated as a 'righteous, either/or' war but rather as an evolving synthesis of Western and Eastern medicine that can only benefit from this integration. Regardless, real choices have to be made by real people -- such as myself in the example above -- and oftentimes, 'either/or' decisions or 'integrative' decisions need to be made that could very well have life and death consequences. God forbid, if I should die in a couple of years, it would probably be apparent to many -- and offered up as a 'lesson' against the dangers of natural health thinking -- that I should have gone to my liver biopsy operation and found out what was wrong with my liver. (Either that or I continued to make bad 'nutritional choices'.)
However, if I should be able to look back at this essay when I am 60 (I am 52 now), then I will say I made the right choice (assuming I am not yellow while I look back at it.) My morbid attempt at 'dark humor'. Ultimately, success rules and failure falls by the wayside which is the way that evolution should rule -- as long as it is not 'unethically and illegally lining someone's pockets at the expense of others who are paying for it.
db, July 15th, 2007.
Perhaps my new study was based partly on my spending too much time in the bars -- and starting to worry about it. I'd been separated for four years and had two kids, one living with me, my son Michael, 10-11 years old at the time, the other my daughter, Jennifer, 5-6 years old at the time, living with my ex-common-law spouse.
It was all about 'theory' but I liked it. The study of natural and nutritional health was partly 'deconstructionist' before I knew what that word meant. In other words, it was 'rebellious' -- rebelling against orthodox, mainstream, Western medicine. It was 'scientific (and non-scientific) medical philosophy with a clout, with a hammer' a la Nietzsche, a la Dylan -- two of my favorite writers today (but before I'd really read any Nietzschean philosophy).
Ten years of 'Eastern based, nutritional-herbal-natural health, medicine (EBNHNHM)-- or NHM to make it workably shorter) -- 'deconstructively' hammering on Orthodox, Mainstream, Western Medicine (OMWM) have resulted in some significant changes and modifications to the way is OMWM practised. The evolutionary results have been 'classicly Hegelian' in their ongoing, evolutionary result -- 1. thesis: OMWM, 2. anti-thesis: NHM, 3. synthesis: a still evolving, Western-Eastern, Integrative Medicine (WEIM).
We have to remember that OMWM is based largely on Pharmaceutical (meaning drugs) -- as opposed to Nutraceutical (vitamins, supplements, herbs...) -- Medicine. And the history and evolution of pharmaceutical medicine cannot be detached from the history and evolution of 'Narcissistic, Illegal Capitalism' -- meaning conflict of interest and white collar, corporate crime -- the same roots that have brought us ENRON, the Liberal Ad Scandal, and now the engimatic, controversial Conrad Black -- both good and bad -- with his alleged 'unethcial-illegal bad side' rising to the surface and dominating all the good things that he may have done in and for the world... Money -- or rather the unethical-illegal influence of money -- raises its ugly face again.
As much as we may want to not think about it, to ignore it, deny it, 'put the lid back on this ugly can of worms' just as Freud put the lid back on the ugly can of worms of 'sexual child abuse' back in the 1890s when it wasn't going over well with the Victorian public, so has the 'evolution' of Illegal, Narcissistic Capitalism, negatively influenced the evolution -- or rather the 'regression' -- of both science and medicine: the unethical-illegal influence of money, conflict of interest, greed, has negatively influencing people, and in particular, Corporate North America, here as everywhere else we are seeing it (business, politics, sports...) into taking 'illegal, narcissistic short cuts designed to make much more money much faster -- and here's the kicker -- at the expense of other people who are getting financially hurt in the process, and in the case of science and medicine, even physically hurt -- or even killed, under 'doctor and pharmaceutical protective, non-transparency laws' that confuse or cloak 'disease-caused injuries and deaths' with 'medicine-caused injuries and deaths' -- hammered at
Unethical-Illegal-Narcissistic-Capitalism or UINC (as opposed to Ethical-Legal-Humanistic Capitalism or ELHC)-- whether in politics (Liberal Ad-Scam), business (ENRON), or sports (steroids) always operates under a cloak of darkness, a cloak of -- undemocratic, non-transparency, toxic functioning, or rather, dysfunctioning (on a societal level). Narcissistic Capitalism is 'Capitalism with a Toxic Side Effect' just as 'Narcissistic Capitalist Medicine' is 'Medicine with a Toxic Side Effect'.
It is this 'toxic side effect' -- or rather 'stream of toxic side effects' that have been driving the 'critical deconstructionism' of the natural health industry against Pharmaceutical Medicine (and by association, Mainstream, Orthodox, Western Medicine)for over ten years now. With very positive results. The 'toxic, non-democratic, non-transparency, narcissistic functioning of Pharmaceutical Medicine' -- in the 'hiding of drug side effects for over 20 or 30 years' has been greatly hampered, modified, and brought under significant, if still only partial, control. Now if a pharmaceutical company wants to advertise one of its drugs on televisison, it becomes almost comical -- in a dark, sad, tragic way -- to hear the television commercial list off a string of anywhere up to 5 to 10 possible side effects. Don't take 'Lipitor' if you have liver problems or if your muscles start wasting away, or if you start losing your memory (remember 'good cholesterol' has important, life-preserving and enhancing functions involved in 'cell protection', 'muscle-building', 'hormone functioning' and 'brain functioning' -- and Lipitor (as well as other drugs which function on the same principle as Lipitor) which is designed to stop or partly stop the liver from making cholesterol, does not properly distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol -- anymore than antibiotics can distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' bacteria in the colon -- in proper functioning, the good bacteria usually controls the bad bacteria and prevents the bad bacteria from getting out of control; when antibiotics wipes out both good and bad bacteria in the colon there is often a 'rebound effect' where 'surviving, opportunistic bad bacteria' -- as well as evolving and developing a 'resistance' to the antibiotic being used -- will also take advantage of the absence of 'good bacteria' in the colon and 'go wild' -- like a class of young kids with no teacher in the classroom -- and before you know it, the patient is on a 'merry-go-round of different antibiotics' trying to bring the 'wild, bad bacteria back under control' (as well as often 'yeast') where what is really needed is 'the supplementation of probiotics' to replace the good bacteria that have been eliminated by antibiotics. (Richard Firshein, D.O. The Nutraceutical Revolution, 1998).
Natural Health Medicine has some roots in Western history but by and large it represents a pardigm of medicine that is based in Eastern philosophy and Eastern Medicine. The thinking is partly -- and significantly -- different than that of Western medicine -- based at least partly in its Socialist-Communist Roots.
Now remember I am an integrative philosopher here; not an 'either/or' philosopher. For the most part, I do not believe in 'either/or' philosophy.
My philosophy is called 'DGB' Philosophy -- 'Dialectical-Gap-Bridging' Philosophy.
My philosphy is post-Hegelian (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis) and aims to always 'homeostatically balance opposing, conflicting philosophies' -- to bridge the gap between 'left and right', 'Liberal and Conservative', 'Republican and Democrat', Capitalism and Socialism'...
Eastern medicine may not have developed the 'technology' of Western medicine nearly as quickly as Western medicine. But then again, Eastern medicine has usually not believed in 'quick fixes' -- Western Society's idea of 'fast food and fast medicine' -- that ignore the insidious, surfacing of 'drug side effects' (the most cynical amongst us would say that this just means more money in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies who only stand to benefit from the auxillary sale of 'side effect medicine'.)
It has been said that the best Eastern doctors are viewed as the ones with the least number of patients -- because most of their 'patients' are healthy, the crux of what we now call 'Preventative Medicine' in Western Society. Gee -- how long has it taken us to learn the idea of 'Preventative Medicine' and 'good, healthy nutrition' -- 50 years of antibiotics and faster and faster, processed foods, 50 years to learn that even bacteria are 'smart', sometimes smarter than our smartest scientists and doctors as they 'mutate', 'compensate', 'learn', and 'evolve' just as we humans do. It has taken us a long, long time to give the simplest of life forms -- viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi...and even to respect the wonder of evolution in the very new Western concept of 'plant immune systems' that have to protect themselves against these very small killing life forms -- just as we humans do. Why wouldn't a plant like 'pau d arco' develop an 'immune system' that protects itself against fungi and yeast when the plant is living in the middle of South American rain forests where fungi flourish? And why would a person who takes pau d arco in order 'gain the advantage of the plant's fungi defeating immune system' in order to deal with yeast problems. Or ingest probiotics that do much the same thing -- release 'good bacteria' that 'help to get rid of yeast'.
Now, to be sure, the herbal and vitamin industry has been taken over by Corporate -- and by extension -- Narcissistic, Capitalist America. Which means that it is subject to many if not all of the same types of problems that I have been spelling out relative to Pharmaceutical and Orthodox, Western, Medicine. The roots now are the same. People taking unethical and often illegal short cuts to make more money -- faster.
I am an idealist and would wish for nothing better than to see the 'ultimate and harmonious integration of Western and Eastern philosophy, science, and medicine'. I want to see hospitals and doctors that are trained in, respect, research, and practise both types of medicine -- along with their evolving post-Hegelian negotiation and integration of thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis.
Both Western and Eastern medicine share the philosophical and scientific belief in the principle of 'homeostasis' ( 'the need for the wholistic balance of the body involving all of its respective, individual organs and processes') -- although Eastern medicine tends to respect this principle far more than Western Medicine does. Western medicine has been corrupted and toxified by Narcissistic Corporate Capitalism as it is played out through the Super Pharmaceutical Companies whose thinking for the most part -- at least until the watchful, critical eye of the natural health industry stepped in to blow the whistle on this practise, has been: 'Why worry about homeostatic imbalance in the body; it just means another drug that we can develop to counteract this imbalance and put more money into our pharmaceutical pockets?
The roots of the pathological elements of Western medicine are deeply imbedded in the pathological elements of the Narcissistic Pharmaceutical Companies, and by extension, everything associated with this pathology: Narcissistic Corporate America, Narcissistic politicians in bed (collusion) with Narcissistic Corporate America, and even narcissistic doctors who lose their medical integrity as they get swept up in this whole process. This is not to challenge the medical integrity of all Western doctors because I know that there are many, many hardworking, very good medical doctors out there. I like my doctor who I have had for almost ten years now. She may not agree with some or many of my philosophical beliefs (especially if she knew them in their entirety). I see articles on her wall that emphasize the fact that herbs too -- just like drugs -- can cause complicating side effects. I respect her medical opinions and the fact that she cares for me as a patient. And in turn, she I think respects -- or at least accepts -- the fact that I don't generally like antibiotics and that I am very wary (my parents would probably say say 'paranoid'), about 'getting onto a medical merry-go-round that I can't get off'.
This brings me to my final point. In 1995 it was all about 'theory' -- my learning all about nutritional-natural health medicine and its 'deconstructionist' attack on Mainstream, Orthodox, Western medicine.
In 2007, it is no longer about theory. This baby boomer has gotten 12 years older and what was about theory is now about 'life and death' -- my own. Liver problems that were not a serious problem or interference in my life back in 1995, now are. A combination of a genetic condition (spherocytosis) along with perhaps too many years in the bars, and/or even too mamy ingested herbs (my parents' -- or at least my mom's -- belief) have made my evolving latent liver problems of 1995, a serious, toxic reality in 2007. A week in the hospital I have experienced before, but not the 2 and a half months of recurring jaundice problems. My recurring bouts with jaundice -- partly caused by my spherocytosis and partly caused by some toxin(s) in my environment that I have ingested (alchohol and/or a legal but toxic inhaled chemical like paint fumes) -- have usually gone away in a week not to return for another year or two until a bad lifestyle and/or another 'accidentally inhaled environmental toxin' conspired to bring me down again.
What I am saying is that my medical choices here and now are no longer simply based on the type of philosophy that I have been evolving over the last ten to twenty years. They are based on what I think will best keep me alive and healthy. So if I opt out of an upcoming 'liver biopsy', it must be heavily emphasized that this is a very personal choice that has involved much internal conflict and debate, and I do not recommend it as a general choice for anyone who has been told by a doctor that they should have one. However, in my case, I am just coming out of 2 and a half months of recurring jaundice -- almost clearing it twice, and then getting thrown right back into the middle of it again. About two or three weeks ago I went into the hospital for an 'ERCP' operation to remove the possibility of any 'stones blocking a bile duct' and causing my jaundice. I was just about clear of my jaundice when I went into the operation -- and two days later I was back in 'full jaundice mode' again. It has taken me over two weeks to almost clear this last bout of jaundice -- and now I have the immediate reality of another operation -- the liver biopsy where they take a small piece of your liver off your liver to test it for the cause of possible dysfunction. I have decided that the risk of not knowing what is wrong with my liver at this point in time -- everything subject to change -- is less than the risk of another liver setback through the risk of another jaundice attack.
I will rest with this decision even though it could conceivably be a very bad one.
I will aim to heal my liver through the course of nature, God, good nutrition, and hopefully staying away from bad, toxic ingestions and/or inhalations. Bad choices can still be made out of sloppiness and/or returning to bad habits that shouldn't be returned to. This morning I had two coffees which I have not had in over 2 and a half months. That is both a good and a bad thing: good in that my liver felt good enough that I actually 'wanted' a coffee, and felt like my liver could deal with it, process the caffeine; but bad in that I had one more coffee than I should have had and my liver is now telling me that. (Actually, I should be still staying away from
all caffeine but this morning I got a little 'overconfident'.
So what I am saying here is that the 'baby boomer generation' -- and even the 'generation before us, my parents generation' -- is very much in the middle of a medical 'conflict of philosophies and paradigms', an evolving medical revolution if you will, that should not be treated as a 'righteous, either/or' war but rather as an evolving synthesis of Western and Eastern medicine that can only benefit from this integration. Regardless, real choices have to be made by real people -- such as myself in the example above -- and oftentimes, 'either/or' decisions or 'integrative' decisions need to be made that could very well have life and death consequences. God forbid, if I should die in a couple of years, it would probably be apparent to many -- and offered up as a 'lesson' against the dangers of natural health thinking -- that I should have gone to my liver biopsy operation and found out what was wrong with my liver. (Either that or I continued to make bad 'nutritional choices'.)
However, if I should be able to look back at this essay when I am 60 (I am 52 now), then I will say I made the right choice (assuming I am not yellow while I look back at it.) My morbid attempt at 'dark humor'. Ultimately, success rules and failure falls by the wayside which is the way that evolution should rule -- as long as it is not 'unethically and illegally lining someone's pockets at the expense of others who are paying for it.
db, July 15th, 2007.
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