One of the things that's always fascinated me is indigenous medicine and how it's sourced. Out of the millions of plants in the rain forest, how do people know which ones to seek out for specific medical conditions, especially when so many others would be toxic or at best ineffective? I certainly don't buy the “we know because the gods told us” explanation, but at the same time, humans haven't been around long enough to figure it out through a process of elimination.
The real answer of course is that we learned by observing animals, eating the same things they eat when they get sick… Animal cultures have indigenous medicine as well. When animals get sick, they seek out specific plants, sometimes traveling great distances to get the right ones for the illness they have (because we — the animals of the planet — co-evolved with these medicinal plants in a chicken and egg fashion). It's really quite amazing. Anyway, I was reading about this in Riddled with Life (by Marlene Zuk), a book that makes a case for the symbiotic need for disease, and it quoted a funny little bit by the World Health Organization titled “The History of Medicine”
2000 B.C. Here, eat this root.1000 A.D. That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1920 A.D. That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1945 A.D. That pill is ineffective. Here, take this penicillin.
1955 A.D. Oops … bugs mutated. Here, take this tetracycline.
1960-1999 39 more “oops.” Here, take this more powerful antibiotic.
2000 A.D. The bugs have won! Here, eat this root.
That said, I've quit taking the Lyrica (neuropathic pain meds). Its pain control was minimal at best (I really prefer just taking the hillbilly heroin on rough days when it comes down to it), the side effects were unpleasant (mood issues, mental clumsiness, and peripheral vision hallucinations), and almost everyone who wrote me with personal experiences had quite negative things to say about what had happened to them or a family member. Like I said before, I'd really rather have a clear head and be in pain than have a muddied sense of reality — so yeah, pain it is…
…but…
……it does make a good t-shirt!
Post a Comment