Why I Don’t Take Medicine
Why I Don’t Take Medicine
I’m aware that admitting / proclaiming that I don’t take medicine sets me up to be bucketed in with the nutty religious people who handle snakes and let their kids die on rare occasions before allowing them to go to the hospital.
That’s not me.
My policy is to not take drugs unless it is a life or death situation. I’ve never even swallowed a pill.
I consider our current understanding of science, including medicine, to be both totally amazing and also way behind the wonder of nature. When I learn about how nature solves problems, I’m amazed at the beautiful simplicity.
When I see how medicine solves problems, I’m normally extremely wary.
What drug doesn’t have side effects? How many drugs that people take have side effects that we aren’t even aware of? How many of them circumvent natural bodily processes to the extent that we can’t possibly understand everything that goes on as a result? How much of older medicine seems barbaric now? How much of our medicine will seem that way soon?
Then there’s the immune system, which has been meticulously evolved over our entire existence as a species. Is it possible that our immune system has learned a trick or two in all these years? And MAYBE, since a core component of the immune system is it’s ability to learn to heal, we should just let it do it’s thing and build it’s repertoire?
I’ll let my immune system get a little target practice and build an internal pharmacy, rather than throwing it for a loop with some pills every time I get a cough.
Now don’t get me wrong, if it’s the choice between me dying and me taking medicine, I’ll go for it. Body processes be damned, I’m not ready to leave.
But when the choice is between any level of discomfort and taking medicine, I’ll take that discomfort.
As an example, about ten days ago I noticed a small rash on my leg. No big deal.
The next day the rash was bright red and very itchy. Upon closer examination I realized that it was behind my knee, on my upper calf, and on my thigh in a couple places.
The next day it was so itchy that wearing shorts hurt. At least it’s not spreading, I thought.
The next day it spread to the top of one foot and the bottom of the other. It was getting bubbly and very painful.
The bubbly rash on the bottom of the one foot was the worst part and made it very painful to walk.
The rash was so bad that I decided that once I got to Hong Kong I would see a doctor to make sure it wasn’t going to kill me eventually.
Then it spread to my chest and hands.
But I noticed something - the first places the rash showed up were by far the worst. Every new location was a bit more mild than the last.
I’m no scientist, but to me that seems a lot like my immune system learning and getting stronger. The rash on my chest was itchy but never bubbled up.
Now the rash is all but gone. There’s just a slightly red patch where it was on my foot. I didn’t even go to the doctor because it was almost healed by the time i got to HK.
Meanwhile, I didn’t have to compromise my body by slathering it with steroid cream, and I will probably never get that rash again.
Other than chewable aspirin that I accepted as a kid because I didn’t know better and because they tasted like candy, I’ve only taken medicine once. Oh, and I did the eyedrops (but not the pain medication or the valium) when I got my eyes lasered.
I was in college and got a sore throat. That expanded into a full blown fever and cough.
It was strep throat.
After a few days my throat swelled up so much that it was brutally painful to swollow. Then my whole mouth and gums swelled up to the point that chewing was agonizing.
I went to the doctor.
“It’s strep. You need to take this medicine.”
“I don’t want to. How long will it take to go away on it’s own?”
“If you let it go on for a few more days it will kill you and it will not go away by itself.”
I was pissed, mainly at my immune system for not handling this one, and agreed to take the pills.
A day later I returned and got chewables instead because my attempt to swallow a pill left one pill missing under a cabinet and the dining room table covered in water.
I took the chewables and the strep went away.
I wouldn’t necessarily tell everyone not to take any medicine, but I’d suggest not taking it unless it’s absolutely necessary, with you being the arbiter of what qualifies as absolutely necessary.
I believe that as a result of not taking medicine I have a super immune system. I tend to get illnesses last, if at all, when I’m around sick people, and I always recover very quickly.
(13 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ...
July 4th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Hey Tynan,
Awesome article. I myself will usually just let a headache pass on its own.
However, your stance on medication seems to be in direct contradiction to the theories you follow, most particularly those in “The Fantastic Voyage.” Ray Kurzweil takes 250 pills per day, plus who knows what other treatments. In that book he says that the human body is far less than perfect, and that we should use modern science to make it even better
If not medicine, what about vitamins? I mention this because you said you have never swallowed a pill, so I’m assuming not.
Especially for somebody who wants to live forever and is getting cryogenically frozen, I thought that perhaps resveratrol or any other good pill would factor in your lifestyle - at least a multivitamin. Cutting yourself off from the “totally amazing” science that is available today - in either medicine or supplements - seems like a wasted opportunity.
Also, I thought that as a vegan you would be supplementing for B-12, as it is notably exempt from vegetarians. Yes, there is some research that certain multivitamin formulas could increase the likelihood of prostate cancer - but on the other hand, the Earth’s soil has been so depleted of vitamins and minerals that we could never get the same nutrients our caveman ancestors got without supplementation.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks Tynan.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I can pretty much talk pain away all the time now, and rashes. I don’t really see any limit to this.
Your immune system is infallible, except when you have something emotional going on that drains it’s energy. Clear that up, it can sort ANYTHING out.
This isn’t just my belief, it’s demonstrable, and I’ve not encountered anything that disproves it.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:00 am
I do this anyway. Mainly on the basis that I can’t swallow pills too. Tried EVERY way suggested, putting it in yoghurt etc, for just cod liver oil pills (What is your opinion on them btw? Yay or Nay?).
As a result, like you, I’m never ill. I’ve had one cold and chickenpox in my life. That’s it.
Nice post, as usual.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:19 am
As someone who has seen more than my share of western medicine and managed to swallow more pills (prescription) before I turned 15 than most people will in a lifetime I pretty much agree with Tynan and Magnus.
Pills now are a last resort in urgent times. All those pills have perverted my natural immunity and I’ve even built up such a tolerance that even strong pain pills are no longer effective. Instead I let my body heal itself, get a massage and/or meditate.
I’m slowly coming around to the minds ability to affect our health like Magnus mentions, both positively and negatively.
July 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Good post, made one very similar to it a while back actually. Interestingly enough I wrote about how I made out with a chick who had strep (thats a fun secret to find out the next day), got morbidly sick for one day, and then felt amazing the next morning.
Recently I went backpacking with a friend to Panam/costa rica and a similar event happened. Some people in the hostel were sick, I caught some type of flu. For one day I felt like hell, the next day, awesome.
________________
Hey T
B-12 is an interesting topic (Im mostly vegan myself, only eating wild fish on occasion). From what I’ve read though…
1. We really have no idea how much we need since its such a small amount
2. Bacteria in our mouths produce b-12 (once again, we dont know if its adequate though)
3. b-12 does in fact come from plants on a long enough time line, animals dont just magically produce this stuff.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I rarely take medicine, less than once a year. I get the occasional cold once a year sometimes with flu like symptoms, but it passes on its own. Aside from that, I do not get sick and rarely get headaches. Eating healthy and reducing stress seems to be a better vaccine that the medical alternatives.
On the other hand my dad does not eat healthy, has high blood pressure, gets headaches everyday, and eats advil like candy on a daily basis (which is odd to say because I don’t eat candy). It would seem his condition is not genetic because I don’t share the same afflictions, but more related to lifestyle.
I just read this article in which medical science is finally catching on: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/111710.php.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
the best medicine is good hygene. wash your hands very very often. 6 months in asia and never fell ill, no matter how much streetfood i stuffed in me.
a very good medicine is to also thank your body everyday. a little “thank you” gives your immune system more confidence.
i never take medications unless it’s very necessary (in the case of phneumonia and preventing pregnancy…). but it’s also because i try to boicott the pharmaceutical industry of today’s world. it’s a really nasty buisness.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Are you also opposed to vaccines?
July 12th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Hey,
I really agree with this thing. I rarely take medicins. Only maybe some anti-coughing syrup when I was 12. And the past 3 years (I’m 19 now) I have taken paracetamol and some stuff called diclofenacnatrium. It was because I got injured at my knee (3 times) and it got all thick (fluid in the joint making it almost double the size). It also hurt like hell. So I would need to take those pills 3 times a day and then for 2 weeks. And most of the time I would get 3 the first two days and then after one week almost none anymore. And that’s about all the medicin I ever had.
Also a comment to Noora, washing your hands is ok, but don’t wash them like you have mysophobia. Some bacterials on your hands could also keep your immune system up to date.
However, I have one point of criticism on you Tynan. I’m studying molecular life sciences, so medicin could be part of my research in the future (I don’t want to research aspirin or something, I want to research in medicines that are literally life saving). All the side effects medicines COULD have, will happen only on 1% of the people using them. Those medicines are tested and all the side effects are noted down. ‘Normal’ people don’t get those side effects most of the time, but due to genetic variation, some people might respond differently to the medicine, causing the side effect. However, the more occasional side effects are necesarry evils of those medicines, and those would still need to be researched on.
But for the rest of it, this is yet again a great article