An accompanying article highlights the growing issue of biopiracy, whereby a pharmaceutical company may exploit the knowledge of traditional practitioners in the ongoing search for novel compounds with which to patent the next generation of drugs. This biopiracy effectively steals the intellectual property of traditional people and herbal practitioners, seemingly without consideration or compensation.
The generation of new pharmaceutical drugs appears to be more concerned with profit than helping to heal. And when all is said and done, just how many people are being actually healed by drugs? Managing symptoms with drugs is not the way to heal the body, indeed the longer drugs are used, the more risk of side effects. Therefore on a risk/benefit analysis questions must seriously be asked, as medications are one of the leading causes of death in today's world, according to the ANH article.
Drugs may be very useful in accute and emergency situations but some of them could be doing more harm than good in the treatment of chronic disease. Chronic disease is often related to diet and lifestyle issues rather than bad luck or offending the gods as some will tell you. The future of medicine lies in the ackowledgement of these issues and a move towards greater scrutiny of corporate interests, alongside the acceptance of traditional medicine as an ancient, bona fide medical regimen which has much to offer in treating the root causes of disease rather than the risky managment of symptoms.
No comments:
Post a Comment