What Will Make Us Healthy Again? First, Do No Harm

Making decisions and taking actions that affect others is a principal dynamic that shapes human societies. Everyone has the potential to alleviate suffering or incite misery; our intentions and knowledge determine whether we support or harm those people within our sphere of influence.

The motivation driving our conduct shapes personal, community, and political realms. Creative inspiration guiding engagement and informed care are essential factors in determining beneficial outcomes.

Impetus and effect are conspicuous in the practice of medicine. A patient who openly presents their complaints and suffering to a physician enters a captive, vulnerable space. We expose body and soul to a healthcare provider with faith in their benevolence; trust is indispensable to this relationship.

A professional who can reflect on another’s illness or pain — and catalyze improvement with expertise, advice, and cures — needs to embrace a philosophical foundation and instinctive altruism to avoid debilitating reactions from remediation. Without virtuous guidelines, therapeutics can result in maladies far worse than the initial complaint.

The prerequisite disposition of those who assist a person in crisis is succinctly captured in the motto “First, do no harm” attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. He insisted that this simple way of thinking instructs all other principles of medical intervention.

The key concepts within the Hippocratic Oath outline the central precepts of practicing medicine:

“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman.”

Hippocrates consistently stated that an essential element of doing no harm was the recognition of a key responsibility of the physician — assisting patients in healing themselves:

“The natural healing power within every one of us is the greatest force in getting well.”

He also perceived that the well-being of society is intertwined with environmental factors and that the ills of the people should be addressed with this broad perspective:

“If you want to learn about the health of a population, look at the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the places where they live.”

Hippocrates’ contribution to medical philosophy, diagnosis, and treatment evolved from his observation that disease results naturally from one’s surroundings and habits. By extension, he upheld that determining a beneficial course of action requires addressing these underlying influences.

Doing no harm is not only a warning about the dangers of harmful procedures and noxious drugs. It is an admonition reminding physicians to look for the primary causes of illness and then support the innate ability to heal.

Second, Treat the Patient — Not the Symptoms

Effective therapies evolve from considering the external influences that have initiated an internal imbalance. Traditional medical techniques across all cultures and throughout history rely on this wisdom and aim to re-establish equilibrium within the human body and the environment.

This venerable approach to caring for patients is inseparable from the concept of doing no harm. The ability to provide lasting relief without causing additional suffering is directly related to understanding the origins of disease. Although the reduction of pain and treating the manifestations of underlying disorders are practical and necessary therapies, they are not the essence of the healing process.

Any deviation from a methodology that loses sight of the fundamentals of vitality has an inherent risk of unknowable repercussions. The use of repressive, symptomatic medications is guaranteed to initiate additional complaints and exacerbate suffering.

The only treatments that are truly safe and effective have no potential side effects.

Technological advances and life-saving emergency techniques have an essential function, yet contemporary healthcare initiates an alarming amount of damage and iatrogenic disorders. The overuse of toxic medications and unnecessary procedures to quell manifestations of underlying imbalance reflects an overt disregard for their life-altering adverse consequences.

The concept of doing no harm has been deemed unattainable, allowing the medical profession to virtually ignore the core principles of healing. The rampant increase in chronic conditions engendered by today’s healthcare standards and practices is the direct result of ignoring the straightforward guidelines of the Hippocratic Oath.

Ancient medical wisdom, regarded as obsolete and impractical, has been overshadowed by research focused on microscopic cellular dysfunction and invasive pathogens. While insights into the smallest parts of life can be informative, these revelations have dominated the development of therapeutics targeted at the microcosmic realm. Modern healthcare virtually ignores diet, lifestyle, emotions, and spiritual causalities.

Although physicians may be motivated to identify the underlying origins of imbalance and disease, they have limited access to the techniques and remedies addressing them. Doctors are not trained in essential therapies and use a pharmacopeia consisting primarily of chemical agents and antidotes that suppress illness. They are locked in a system where long-term regard for the patient is impossible.

Third, Healing Before Profits

Over recent centuries, an inverted and destructive structure evolved as traditional principles in medicine have been eclipsed. Doctors have lost their moral compass while being swept into an out-of-control for-profit enterprise. The healthcare industry has replaced the medical profession.

Physicians no longer provide a foundation for the well-being of a community by sharing expertise and guidance at the hub of their culture. They have been relegated to the periphery of society, and attempt to repair an increasingly damaged population with medications that give temporary relief and cause more suffering.

The contention that past standards are antiquated is erroneous. It is based on the deviously promoted misconception that discoveries of material functionality usurp the simplest general principles of healing. Many conditions result from damage and depletion. When detrimental environmental factors are removed and wholesome nutrition is restored, the body can heal itself.

The primary means of attaining good health are not the domain of a business model. Doctors who prescribe a pure and nutritious diet and encourage a peaceful, creative life have been relegated to the fringe of the medical world. Healthcare is steeped in an amoral milieu where pharmaceutical giants have minimal liability and maximum profits.

There is certainly a necessity in some critical conditions for procedures and medications with limited and known risks. However, moderating the disproportionate amount of harmful prescriptions and replacing the dispensing of symptomatic relief with sound lifestyle and dietary advice dramatically improves outcomes. The harm done by medical intervention will only end when this basic knowledge is the prime directive of restoring good health.

Supporting foundational needs and renewing the highest ethical medical standards will transform the world. This evolution requires all those working in healthcare to recognize that the integrity of society and the wellbeing of the people are inextricably interdependent.

 

yogaesoteric
October 8, 2024