Energetics of Medication
There are many advantages and good reasons for using medication. I am not against the use of medication at all, however I think that it is important to understand that using medications for various reasons can bring on one hand an immediate relief of your symptoms, but on the other hand it creates a long term effect on bodily systems and how they function. This means that taking a medication for the relief of pain and inflamation will often reduce your suffering but in the long run, it may create more complications.
The ancient Chinese divided pathogens that enter the body into six different categories or climates. These are: dryness, coldness, dampness, wind, heat and fire.
In ancient times we would expect simple processes such as the damp rainy whether of autumn (which has a downwards, heavy quality) entering the body and causing depression (which also has a downwards, heavy quality).
Now, in the modern world we have many new pathogenic influences/climates which effects the body such as radiation - a pathogen of heat or medication which may have a variety of different qualities.
Here are examples of common medications and their energetic effect on the body:
Steroids and antibiotics - these bring a climate of coldness into the body. We can see it clearly when we have an infection or inflammation with signs of heat and after taking these drugs, the heat signs are reduced (suppressed). This is the short term effect of the medication. In the long term two processes are taking place:
First, the coldness of the medication is effecting the liver and the 'digestive fire' (which is the right heat that is needed for digestion) and cools it down. The result is reduction in the body's ability to assimulate/absorb nutrients and a repression of the immune system (physically we know today that these drugs effect the liver and the intestinal flora which is related to our ability to absorb nutrience and is forming 70% of or immune system).
The second process that takes place is due to the fact that the body always tries to balance itself. It always offers a reaction that is opposit to the climate which entered the body. In the case of steroids and antibiotics which bring coldness, the body reacts with heat or with heat and dampness. Often people use medication again to balance this reactive heat. This creates an ongoing cycle and layers of reactive heat and cold with dampness. The more we cool the body's reaction of heat - greater heat and dampness will be produced as a reaction later on.
The result of suppressing the bodies reaction again and again can be later the cause symptoms such as fluid retention, cysts and other inflamatory and even autoimmune processes.
Antidepressants - are a family of drugs which introduce a climate of dampness into the body. It is often used to treat depression and anxiety. Here, the damp nature of the drug puts the person under a hazy wintery cloud so they do not feel either up or down - just even. They can only experience life through a thick grey cloud. Sideffects of antidepressants can be of a damp nature such as weight gain, more depression, fatigue or low libido. After long time of introducing dampness to the body, it may react with the opposit climate - dryness. Symptoms of dryness may be constipation, dry mouth and in older people, one of the side-effects are dryness of the bones and bone loss. Sometimes the damp climate of antidepressants can cause a reaction of anxiety. Anxiety has the direction of up as appose to the downward heavy direction of the drug.
Therefore, it is always better, when possible to use methods which support the bodies own wisdom and nature in order to achieve health. Any time when there is an imbalance, (which means that there is a disturbance in the bodies climate) if we introduce medication, we are offering another climate which the body will react to later on. It means that rather than making things more simple, they become more complex. There is no right and wrong, however it is important at each situation to assess what would be the right course of action.
Acupuncture is very effective in supporting the body to discard sideffects of medication.