What REALLY Happens When You Take Medicine?

Hello Health Campions. I'm sure you've heard  the expression "don't do drugs" but apparently  

there are good and bad ones because some of them  are mind-altering and those are illegal. They're  

banned. They're called street drugs. And then there  are those that are habit-forming like very potent  

things like opioids and heroin and those are also  illegal, but then on the other hand if they don't  

alter the mind, but they alter some other organ  function, then they're apparently okay. And if  

they have toxicity and side effects then they're  still around. If they account for 50% of all the  

opioid deaths they're due to prescription drugs  then that's still just the cost of doing business. 

and if these opioids make you 40 times more  likely to transition into a heroin addiction  

then that doesn't change anything either they're  still okay and we have over a million heroin users  

in the united states today the vast majority  of those have transitioned from a prescription  

drug mostly because the prescription gets you  hooked and then they withdraw the prescription  

so now people go into the street drugs instead and  here's what really really blows my mind is it's  

still okay to advertise directly to the consumer  ask your dermatologist call your doctor talk to  

your doctor ask your doctor ask your doctor that's  between you and your doctor we can no longer  

advertise for alcohol or cigarettes we don't think  it's sexy to get drunk and smell like an ashtray  

anymore but it's very attractive it can so enhance  your lifestyle by using as many medications as  

possible. It's only two places in the world that  this is still okay and that's the united states  

and new zealand all the other countries in  the world have realized that that's probably  

not a good idea Because this topic is both  sensitive and super important I urge you to  

watch the whole video because if you watch bits  and pieces and you take things out of context now  

you will miss the whole intention and the bigger  picture of what we're trying to accomplish here.  

Also I want to tell you that this is not  medical advice I'm not your medical doctor  

that's not the purpose of this I'm  just trying to teach you and show you  

how the body works and how things interact  and give you some solutions some possibilities  

I do not want you to for any reason stop any  medication that you're taking as a result  

of watching this video that's for you and your  medical provider to determine. Another reason that  

you don't want to stop it is that your body gets  used to it anything you've taken for any length  

of time it changes your physiology your body  down regulates and up regulates and if you just  

withdraw it cold turkey it could have some very  unpleasant consequences. What I do want you to do  

is to start learning as much as you can about  the body understand if you have a condition learn  

where it's coming from and then if you understand  what your body has adapted to to get into that  

condition now you can reverse that adaptation you  can undo the adaptation and then most of the time  

the condition goes away and then once you have  reversed or in the process of reversing it now you  

can have a discussion with your medical provider  who prescribed this medication and you can have an  

intelligent discussion about if and when to  change or stop that medication. So I want to  

use some examples to try to get some points across  and the first one I want to look at is health care  

cost how much are we spending on health care so  since 1970 to 2020 the nominal spending in terms  

of dollars have increased 50 times. It's gone from  75 billion to almost 4 trillion dollars and of  

course a lot of that is due to inflation but after  we account for inflation we still have a 7.6 times  

increase so in terms of real purchasing power we  are spending 7.6 times more on this healthcare.  

And if we relate it to gross national product  which is essentially how well a nation is able  

to afford this health care it has gone from seven  percent of GNP to almost 20%. 281 percent increase  

so it's becoming a bigger and bigger burden on  the national economy and on the individual economy.  

So every time there's an election one of  the main questions around election time is  

how are we going to pay for this right the  only question is how do we bring more people  

into the system how do we make sure that  a greater percentage of the population  

can get into the health care system and then  because it's so expensive how do we pay for it?  

No one is asking the only question that  really matters and the question on my mind is  

Is it working? Is anyone getting healthy.  If we're spending eleven thousand dollars  

close to twelve thousand dollars per  person and they didn't spend any on me  

zero was spent on me so someone got my  eleven twelve thousand dollars as well  

with all that money spent are we getting healthier?  Unfortunately what we're seeing is that the rates  

of diabetes are going through the roof heart  disease is increasing dementia is increasing  

autism is completely out of control at the  current trend is going to be one out of two  

kids shortly anxiety is going up sleep disorders  is going up and the list goes on and on and on.  

So I'm not trying to say I'm not trying to judge  this as good or bad but when we call it health  

care then people should get healthier right  so whatever we want to call this thing then  

we can all agree that with all the money spent  and with the poor results it is not health care.  

The next obvious question then becomes "What is  health?" According to the world health organization  

health is a state of complete physical mental  and social well-being and not merely the  

absence of disease so if disease is the signs and  symptoms of a disease and our health care system  

only addresses signs and symptoms of disease but  it does nothing to bring you closer to a state  

of physical mental and social well-being then  that's another indication that it's not a health  

care system. Unfortunately most people take health  for granted we pay lip service to it and we say  

that health is the most important thing there is  but most people don't really appreciate it until  

it's gone when we have signs or symptoms when  we're feeling bad or when something scary happens  

that's when people do something. They go to the  doctor and the doctor asks what's the problem and  

we tell them our symptoms. But the symptom is not  the problem the thing that is causing the symptom  

is the problem. So this is pretty much like a car  the instrument panel is giving you feedback on how  

the car is doing and if you get a warning light, an  indicator then that's like a symptom. It's the car  

telling you that something's wrong something's  missing if you don't change and address this  

then it will get worse. And if you have more  indicators more signs and symptoms now you know  

that there's more stuff out of balance and if you  don't address it then the consequences are going  

to be even worse. So you're driving and you see  all these indicators and you feel very uneasy so  

you think I need to do something about this. Now  here's the big question if you simply solve the  

problem by covering it up if you put a piece of  duct tape over the indicators if you cover them up  

then if you did that a million times or a million  people did that how many times would the car  

get better? Right. Everyone knows the answer is  zero if you ignore the underlying problems the  

car will never get better then why do we do that  with signs and symptoms because the same thing  

applies when we cover up a sign or a symptom  we allow the underlying problem to get worse.  

In addition to that we're also adding toxicity to  the body and we have two marvelous organs in the  

body. Two organ systems. The liver and the kidneys,  and their job is to figure out what is valuable to  

the body what we want to keep and what is a burden  on the body what do we want to try to get rid of.  

And these organs are so amazing that they have  basically a hundred percent success rate in  

keeping or discarding the stuff that needs to stay  or go. So nutrients like minerals and fats amino  

acids glucose the body is very very successful  virtually zero of this gets discarded it all  

gets kept. And on the other hand the things that  are foreign, synthetic materials, toxic materials  

things that are not beneficial but rather a burden,  the body is virtually a hundred percent successful  

at discarding it. Maybe not on the first turn but  pretty soon after the circulation has gone through  

these organs a few times virtually a hundred  percent of this is gone. So urea is a waste  

product. Pesticides are foreign toxic substances. All other sorts of waste that are leftovers the  

body gets rid of, and the exact same holds true  for medication. It is not of any long-term value to  

your body, so a percentage of this medication gets  discarded every time it passes through the liver,  

and that's why you have to keep taking more. Now I  know I'm laying it on pretty heavy here but don't  

misunderstand this as me saying that medication  is all bad it's all about the timing and  

purpose so there's a benefit versus risk there's  a cost benefit to this. If there's a crisis. If your  

normal regulatory mechanism if your physiology  has failed, then medication can save a life  

if we have extreme depression that's like a  vicious cycle that spirals out of control and  

if someone is going to take their life  and we can give them a medication and  

save their life, then that is entirely appropriate.  If someone has type 1 diabetes where an organ has  

failed the pancreas no longer makes insulin  or if we have surgically removed the thyroid  

or the pituitary, then we can't make those  molecules in the body and they need to be  

replenished. Very very appropriate and  life-saving virtually 100 percent of  

people died with type 1 diabetes and now they can  live virtually normal lives. If we have acute pain  

burn victims trauma broken bones car accidents,  pain medication can get you through that crisis.  

If we have anaphylactic shock people could die  but a simple shot of epinephrine saves their life.  

If you have bacterial encephalitis or meningitis  you would most likely be dead within 24 hours  

without the right antibiotic. So these are cases  where it is entirely appropriate it's life-saving.

It's priceless to have the medication available  when we think that just because the medication  

is so great here it should be applied to  everything such as lifestyle conditions  

now we need to think a little differently we have  the wrong picture of how these things fit together.  

When the problem is due to a gradual adaptation  when we have a lifestyle that the body adapts to  

when we push the body out of balance over a period  of years or decades then the pill is not the  

solution. The pill isn't going to change anything  about the underlying condition it's not going  

to bring the body any closer to balance. And the  classic example of course is metabolic syndrome  

syndrome x insulin resistance. And the extreme sad  example is when you have a type 2 diabetic someone  

who has already too much insulin and we give him  more insulin, because we think the blood sugar  

is the problem well the blood sugar is the problem  because it has too much sugar so we need to reduce  

the sugar not add more insulin. And also in many  cases of chronic pain where the pain is due to  

inflammation or it has developed over a long  period of time now if you give a pain medication  

you give short-term relief but you're not  helping restore any function. And most of the time  

through conservative care and lifestyle  interventions you can solve the vast majority  

of chronic pain. I want to ask this question again  from my point of view and this is what I ask  

patients in the office a lot of times I ask. What  is health? And then I say health is when everything  

works the way it's supposed to and then I ask. The  problem that you have presenting with here today,  

if everything in your body was working  perfectly would you have this problem?  

And they say, no of course not. I wouldn't have  any symptoms I wouldn't have this disease  

I wouldn't have this pain if everything  was working then they wouldn't be there.  

So then I suggest, well why don't we make  it work again. Because if it's the lack  

of function that's causing the problem, if we can  restore the function then the body should return  

to health and no symptoms. And this is what happens  most of the time especially if we're patient  

and we take the time to understand and change. But this is a completely different perspective  

than medication because medicine does not add back  any function. If something's not working there is  

no medication that makes it work better again. It does not restore anything that is degenerated or  

missing and it does not actually provide anything  the body needs. But then what does medication do  

if food supports and provides things that the body  needs to create function, then medication actually  

does the opposite. Medication interferes when we in  our opinion think that the body is doing something  

wrong then we put in the medication to interfere  with what the body is doing. So medication  

blocks function it blocks receptors and in  doing that it either suppresses or increases  

certain functions. It changes the balance the  body is trying to accomplish it suppresses and  

it stops physiology. Now if we're interested in  health wouldn't it be a great question to ask  

"What is required for health?" and I often talk  about the triad of health this triangle where  

structural and mechanical has to do with the  movement that builds the brain the emotional  

is about purpose and well-being and peace of  mind because if we don't have this we can't  

really be in a healing state. But for the purposes  of this video we're going to talk about the  

chemical side of this triad because medication is  chemical it's biochemistry and how does that fit  

into the body versus nutrients. The closest most  people come to be amazed by the miracle of life  

is when someone gets pregnant. When they're growing  a new life inside them or when they give birth and  

they see this new living being that wasn't there  before. But think of this baby which indeed is a  

miracle it started with genetic material from  two people it became a cell and then that cell  

replicated and grew. Well that is exactly  what's happening inside your body  

every day. That miracle of life is happening inside  you all the time. And why am I saying that because  

you have cell turnover you have cells  breaking down wearing out and you make  

new cells. So this surprises a lot of people  90 percent of your cells are new every year  

so you go to the doctor and they look at you  they have your picture in the file they have  

your social security number and your name and they  treat you they think of you as the same person  

but you're 90 percent different. Right?  That's a miracle and then we want to ask  

what are these new cells made of where they come  from is any part of these new cells consisting of  

medication? Did medication contribute to build any  new cells? And the answer is no unless there's some  

toxic residue from some medication  that your body didn't get rid of yet.  

But the medication does not create any of this  miracle of life instead what makes that is  

building blocks that you get from food from fat  and protein. You need fuel to put these building  

blocks together and this fuel comes from fat carbs  and protein. And then you also need some catalysts  

to convert this fuel into energy and into the  building blocks and these are called vitamins  

minerals and enzymes. These are the things that  your body needs. Well what about side effects?  

If we take the time to read the fine print  there's pages and pages of unpleasant stuff.  

"...lower your ability to fight infections serious  sometimes fatal events including infections,  

tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system  and blood disorders and allergic reactions..." and  

we get the impression that if we experience these  side effects which might happen sometimes then we  

might get some symptoms and that would constitute  the side effects. We think that if we're unlucky  

then we get symptoms if we don't then we're free  and clear. But that's not how it works because  

the by definition these medications interfere  and they always create interference. You may not  

notice if you don't have a symptom, but it always  interferes. It always blocks physiology. It always,  

by definition, prevents your body from returning  to the balance that it thinks there should be. And  

in doing that, if we understand that homeostasis is  health, then we always have a lesser expression of  

health with a medication than without. Again it  doesn't mean they're all bad, but we just have  

to understand when they're appropriate and not. I  really hope you can see by now that I'm not saying  

that it's all good or bad, but it's more about  understanding what the body normally does and  

how medication interacts; so when it's appropriate  to use. They absolutely save lives in emergencies.  

They can absolutely get you through a crisis if  you're a burn victim if you have broken bones.  

I would absolutely opt for some painkillers  in that situation. They can temporarily  

provide some value if you have sky  high blood sugar Metformin isn't always  

a bad idea as long as you do something to address  the root cause in the meantime. However while this  

is super valuable in my opinion in my experience  I don't have an exact number but I would estimate  .

somewhere around 90 percent of all the  prescriptions are for lifestyle conditions. It is  

used in a way where it's not getting you through a  crisis and we think it solves a problem when a lot  

of times it actually perpetuates the problem.  If you enjoyed this video I think you'll really  

appreciate that one next. Thank you so much for  watching I'll see you next time. "...abdominal pain and  

yellowing of the skin or eyes rash, hives, swelling  of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty  

breathing or swallowing, aggressiveness, agitation  hallucinations or confusion, uncontrollable muscle  

movements as these could become permanent, sudden  death, stroke, heart attack, and high blood pressure..."