Friday, October 7, 2011

Western Medicine & Public Death Care

Western medicine seems to put far more emphasis on treating symptoms resulting from poor lifestyle choices and circumstance. Decades of living a loveless life, not sleeping enough, and continually stressing about disease and dysfunction can wreak havoc on the immune system.

Take someone, let's say a man approaching middle age who has worked at a petrochemical refinery for ten hours a day for the last twenty years and whose basic diet is comprised of convenience foods and cheap beer. His exercise is limited to getting in and out of a pickup truck and walking a few steps several times a day. His sixteen year old daughter is dating some drug dealer twice her age, and he hasn't made love to his wife in almost a year. He feels immeasurable guilt about a clandestine visit to a "massage" parlour he impulsively made when he was drunk... six years ago. He has his mobile phone next to his ear for an average of an hour every working shift.

Our candidate goes to the doctor complaining about headaches and gastrointestinal issues, and the doctor asks, "Do you smoke?"

He smokes about ten or fifteen cigarettes a day, has the occasional cigar, and stresses about cutting back. The doctor prescribes a magic quit-smoking-pill and tells him not to make another appointment until he's quit smoking.

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