[*Note - The new title of this blog reflects a focusing of emphasis, as explained in this first post.]

Everything that happens to us affects our health, from the food we eat to the company we keep to the clothes we wear. One way to conceive of the world is to see Nature as the all container, Life as an aspect of Nature, Human Life as an aspect of Life, and Civilization as an aspect of Human Life. It is hard to refute this four-fold construction as every idea fits into this scheme somewhere. (Physics – Biology – Human Anatomy and Physiology – Anthropology)

The Native Americans have a concept of medicine that goes beyond the boundary of Western medical science. In their scheme everything that happens to us is medicine, good or bad. The art and science of life in that belief system is to avoid the bad medicine and approach the good medicine.

Take drugs for example. There are several types: illegal, prescription, over the counter, and the unnamed drugs – alcohol, tobacco, sugar, coffee, and others. All drugs have their medicinal uses in the right quantities for certain specific conditions. For example, heroin dosage can be very carefully controlled to avoid creating addiction by only providing enough to just relieve the pain, and is used in this way in some hospitals in England for example.

Aspirin can be helpful in the right quantity, but too much produces ulcers. Antibiotics can help, but chronic use can kill helpful intestinal bacteria. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing, while too little can be ineffective.

But bad medicine can include joining a political movement that is poorly led, misguided, and ill advised. It can include associating with destructive personality types. It can include building a home on a landslide, or a beach house on a beach that is frequently subject to hurricanes.

An individual life is a cycle of birth, growth, and death. During each life wisdom is accumulated, the knowledge of good and bad medicine. Our challenge in life from this medicinal perspective is to learn what is good and what is bad, how much of a thing is too much, and how much is too little under what circumstances.

Being Here Now

 

In the moment is all we have.

We grow every day, every month, every year.

The decades pass by and we grow wiser,

Each lesson changing us into something more,

Imbuing us with knowledge.

 

Therefore, since we cannot predict what

We will know when we are more than we are today,

And since we cannot be but greater today than we were before,

This unique moment of our being is all we really can know.

 

As such, our personal resources are all we have,

Our personal condition admittedly limited.

We are humbled even by who we will be

When we know more.

 

Therefore we can and must accept ourselves in the present,

Grow by learning from our experience,

And realize that by our own future standards

Today we are humbled by being less than we will be.

 

Thus, striving to learn from the present is the key.

The seeds of future growth are planted in the present

The only answer to the question of how and what to plant

Is to follow our hearts then, for our hearts never lie,

And are our connection to the infinite consciousness of the world.

 

NBS

8-16-2008

Jack London Square

 

 

This changes our definition of good and evil from a polarized and dualistic polemic to a more rich and complex understanding. Any medical practitioner needs to become aware of these subtle complexities. But a larger view of medicine also can become possible, one that looks at all projects and problems as being medicinal, not just medical problems but social and environmental problems as well.

In short, life can be seen a series of challenges to the individual and society as a whole to differentiate good medicine from bad medicine, comprehend the issue at hand, and treat the problem accordingly. This applies to an environmental issue such as sudden oak death, a disaster potential such as a weak dam structure, a personal health issue such as a damaged immune system, or a social issue such as a broken educational system accompanied by a rising crime rate.

Looked at in this way, prevention is the wise course to take in dealing with the challenges listed above. Disease prevention, disaster prevention, and crime prevention all fall under the heading of good medicine. Appropriate technology such as the development and use of renewable energy, appropriate personal hygiene to avoid infections, and drug treatment programs to help addicts avoid jail are just three examples of the value of preventive measures that can be taken to avoid the much greater expense of dealing with disease, social diseases, ecological threats, and disasters after they have happened.

Let us take the energy crisis of the moment as an example. This crisis is multidimensional involving global warming, air pollution, and economic and military self-determination. Prevention would dictate that we do what the Danes have done – get off fossil fuels and into renewables.

But the US has languished for decades in spite of the petroleum issues of the seventies – the Santa Barbara oil spill, the 1973 Arab oil embargo, and the 1979 oil crisis. Prevention would have consisted of a major domestic energy conservation program, a shift of autos to smaller and more fuel efficient versions, domestic development of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and the development of electric transportation systems including electric mass transit and electric cars.

The lack of preventative means is indicative of a lack of wisdom on the part of American civilization. The subsequent cost – the failure of the US automakers, the political instability in the Middle East, the huge trade imbalance and the high price of gasoline – are all traceable to the failure to apply good medicine at the right time. Getting off the dependency on fossil fuels is good medicine for the country and the planet.

The view that life is medicine is a simplified way to evaluate and frame challenges in our society, our lives, and our world. It is a wholistic way to organize our understanding of the world and life. This blog is now dedicated to expanding this understanding, and bringing good medicine to its readers.