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Posted on Mar 16, 2005, 5 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
There is a curious tendency in conventional medicine to label a set of symptoms as a disease. For example, I recently spotted a poster touting a new drug for osteoporosis. It was written by a drug company and it said this: "Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak and fragile bones." The poster went on to say that you need a particular drug to counteract this "disease.
There is a curious tendency in conventional medicine to label a set of symptoms as a disease. For example, I recently spotted a poster touting a new drug for osteoporosis. It was written by a drug company and it said this: "Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak and fragile bones." The poster went on to say that you need a particular drug to counteract this "disease."
Yet the language is all backward. Osteoporosis is not a disease that causes weak bones. Osteoporosis is the name given to a diagnosis of weak bones. In other words, the weak bones happened first, and then the diagnosis followed.
Another drug company defines osteoporosis as "the disease that causes bones to become thinner." Again, the cause and effect are reversed. And that's how drug companies want people to think about diseases and symptoms: First you "get" the disease, then you are "diagnosed" just in time to take an expensive new drug for the rest of your life.
But it's all hogwash. There is no such disease as osteoporosis. It's just a name for a pattern of symptoms that indicate you've let your bones get fragile. And to treat it, western doctors will give you prescriptions for drugs that claim to make your bones less brittle.
We should really call it Brittle Bones Disease, and describe the treatment in plain language - exercise, vitamin D, mineral supplements with calcium and strontium, natural sunlight, and the avoidance of substances like soft drinks, white flour, and added sugars, which strip away bone mass.
Diabetes is another condition given a complex name that puts its solution out of reach of the average patient. Type 2 diabetes isn't technically a disease. It's just a natural metabolic side effect of consuming refined carbohydrates and added sugars in large quantities without engaging in regular physical exercise.
The name "diabetes" is meaningless to the average person. It should be called Excessive Sugar Disease. If it were called Excessive Sugar Disease, the solution to it would be rather apparent.
Cancer is another disease named after its symptom. To this day, most doctors and patients still believe that cancer is a physical thing: a tumor. In reality, a tumor is only a side effect of cancer, not its cause. A tumor is simply a physical manifestation of a cancer pattern that is expressed by the body.
Yet the language is all backward. Osteoporosis is not a disease that causes weak bones. Osteoporosis is the name given to a diagnosis of weak bones. In other words, the weak bones happened first, and then the diagnosis followed.
Another drug company defines osteoporosis as "the disease that causes bones to become thinner." Again, the cause and effect are reversed. And that's how drug companies want people to think about diseases and symptoms: First you "get" the disease, then you are "diagnosed" just in time to take an expensive new drug for the rest of your life.
But it's all hogwash. There is no such disease as osteoporosis. It's just a name for a pattern of symptoms that indicate you've let your bones get fragile. And to treat it, western doctors will give you prescriptions for drugs that claim to make your bones less brittle.
We should really call it Brittle Bones Disease, and describe the treatment in plain language - exercise, vitamin D, mineral supplements with calcium and strontium, natural sunlight, and the avoidance of substances like soft drinks, white flour, and added sugars, which strip away bone mass.
Diabetes is another condition given a complex name that puts its solution out of reach of the average patient. Type 2 diabetes isn't technically a disease. It's just a natural metabolic side effect of consuming refined carbohydrates and added sugars in large quantities without engaging in regular physical exercise.
The name "diabetes" is meaningless to the average person. It should be called Excessive Sugar Disease. If it were called Excessive Sugar Disease, the solution to it would be rather apparent.
Cancer is another disease named after its symptom. To this day, most doctors and patients still believe that cancer is a physical thing: a tumor. In reality, a tumor is only a side effect of cancer, not its cause. A tumor is simply a physical manifestation of a cancer pattern that is expressed by the body.
