The silent killers
Pills. There is just about any pill for any illness and they come with a long list of side effects that often promote the exact symptoms that were supposed to be treated in the first place. But I have also noticed that it's super easy to get hooked on them for essentially forever. The system fosters this sanctioned dependence: The doctors get to keep their patients and the pharmaceutical companies make a handsome profit as well. There is no reason for it to search for low cost alternatives or keep the therapy short (by issuing free advice that e.g. promote a healthy life style). Once you get used to inhale some chemicals or swallow a pill, it becomes part of your daily routine - it becomes part of you.
Personal experience
I'll keep it short, but some months ago my doctor told me that I have asthma, fortunately not a very bad case, but it would still need treatment. It all sounded pretty logical and it made sense that inhaling some small amounts of cortisol would help my lungs. But I also know that cortisol weakens the body over time. It created dependence and before you know it you actually really need it. Essentially, your disease artificially improves by treating the symptoms of a disease. Your body adapts to the treatment and becomes weaker by producing less hormones etc. So in my case, my lungs were getting dependent on that cortisol and removing that intake would make things a lot worse very quickly. It doesn't take long to realize that these treatments have no end date - you are supposed to take them for the rest of your life, and the doses will only increase over time.
Taking things back into my own hands
I can imagine that some might be okay with that prospect. But for me that is not an option: a healthy life entails for me that I am not dependent on any medication for longer periods (if I am fortunate enough to have been born with a healthy body). So what's the alternative? That of course always depends on the individual case, but for me it is breathing exercises. In only several weeks I have been able to greatly strengthen my lungs and the effect is much greater than what I had through medication. That may only be because my ailment is not as bad as it is for others, but even in those cases I am sure that it would have an effect and could lead at least to the reduction of medication.
Before you know it
you are hooked on half a dozen of pharmaceuticals that often also have interaction effects. The system (i.e. conventional medicine) doesn't have an alternative to that outlook (I should point out that I am not totally against conventional medicine as it is fantastic for emergencies and operations - but both are physical methods of treatments). The personal journey I think is to have this insight and to look at other healing systems especially for chronic diseases. These systems are often much more holistic that have generational knowledge which can be thousands of years old. Through insight and trial and error we have come up with many things that simply work (without perhaps knowing why they work).
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