Example of a Medical Myth

Example of a Medical Myth

I find it useful to unravel the deceptions in the medical world, one small example at a time, to get glimpses of how the mechanism works.

In general, allopathic drugs are given to counteract a process that is determined to be either harmful or causing discomfort. Symptoms are to be eradicated, and treatment is aimed at this level. The assumption is that if you get rid of the symptom, you’ve gotten rid of the problem.

Let’s look at the way the drugs work. Antacids are a good example. Too much acid? Take a chemical to counteract that. Either interfere with the mechanism that produces stomach acid, or simply neutralize the acid with an alkaline substance.

Here’s an analogy to help illustrate what this approach is actually doing:

Say you are heating your house in the winter. You produce all this good heat that is very useful to you. But at some point you notice that your windows are not sealed properly. Now the heat is leaking out, and all the good heat is actually causing a problem to certain delicate bushes on the other side of the windows.

What do you do? Allopathic medicine would ask, what is your symptom? The delicate bushes are getting too much heat. What should we do about that? Well, we have two options. Either we can turn off the heat in the house! Or, we can bring some cold air into the house to neutralize the heat as soon as it is produced.

Now, because of certain indoctrinated beliefs about how medical things work and what I should expect as a patient, I consider these two options as perfectly valid. I’m even glad to have two options rather than just one.

What is the glaring omission that we have been conditioned not to see?

• No one has ever suggested that I might do something about the windows leaking heat.
• No one has ever suggested that deliberately sabotaging the heat production in my house might be quite detrimental to me as a person who needs heat.
• No one has ever suggested that window leaks are actually caused by too little heat in the house. When the heat goes below the optimal level, the windows become leaky.

Well, maybe the analogy breaks down there, and our houses don’t exactly work that way — but the body does!

The acid that is causing burning in the esophagus is simply in the wrong place, just like the heat leaking out to the bushes is in the wrong place. It belongs in the house, in the stomach. There in the stomach it is absolutely harmless, and that’s where it does the job it’s supposed to do, that we need it to do, to digest food properly and control various microbes.

When because of antacids or poor diet or unremitting stress, the stomach acid level becomes too low, that causes the esophageal valve to leak and allow the good stomach acid to get up into the esophagus which is very sensitive. The esophagus doesn’t have the protective mucus membrane that the stomach does. So, even a little acid there burns.

Here’s the vicious circle we have:

• Antacids and poor diet cause too little stomach acid.
• Too little stomach acid causes the valve to leak.
• Even though there’s very little acid available, even a small amount getting into the esophagus will burn.
• Heartburn or acid reflux results.
• Then we’re told, trained, to take antacids.

Around and around again. Is that a solution?

If we’re simply offered “natural” alternatives, we still may not really understand the fallacy of symptom suppression, and it’s easy to fall into the same trap. Even “natural” alternatives can be and are often be used in the same suppressive way.

In this example, if you took baking soda to neutralize the acid, you’d be using a “natural” substance but in a way that contributes to the same vicious circle.

The first step toward the truth is recognizing when something isn’t working, and choosing not to participate in it anymore.