How To Get Off the Drug Merry-Go-Round

I have managed to stay prescription drug and antibiotic-free for the past 30 years. And I am no genius. (my dad once said, during the middle of a 3-year hitch-hiking trip around the world, "Glad you're going in one direction."). So if you are wanting to get off of prescription medicine, and replace it with the art of internal healing, then my example should give you great hope. I do believe that living with a non-medicated brain and body is one of the more underrated pleasures of life.

All of these tips throughout the HHWorks site give us a more accurate perception on the discharging and detoxification that occurs when a body is trying to heal. This is crucial information to know, because we are currently a society that believes that dandruff has something to do with the scalp and a bad hair day, instead of realizing that it's the overflow of a liver filled with hard fat and protein excess; we think a stuffed-up nose comes from some bug, instead of realizing the role that our mucous-laden white flour and hydrogenated fat sugar-cookie diet has played in its creation.

In the twenty five years I have been involved in nutrition, not a week has gone by without some version of the following scenario being played out: A person starts a nutritional cleansing program. The cleanse works well, immediately pushing out large amounts of life-deadening, disease producing, symptom-creating internal gunk, formed over the years by this person's lifestyle and meal choices. This internal gunk comes out through their nose, their throat, their lungs, their ears, their liver, their skin, their colon, their breath, their throat, hair, joint pain, and muscles, helping to create a massive list of symptoms. Upon seeing all this, the cleansing participant slips into automatic learned behavior, stops by the pharmacy on the way home, and picks up a variety of drugs that are designed for one thing: stopping the internal gunk from coming out.

For clarity, let's just call all of these drugs the Stopping-The-Internal-Gunk-From-Coming-Out™ drugs. I've seen people break out in a rash during a cleanse—fine, call it acne, hives, underarm rash, pimples on their back, itchiness, eczema, psoriasis, red chest inflammation, Rosacea, WHATEVER. They freak out and go to a dermatologist who dutifully applies one of the Stopping-The-Internal-Gunk-From-Coming-Out™ drugs, such as cortisone cream, Accutane, etc., to stop the rash from appearing, whereas the person thereby feels better because the rash or other breakout is now gone.

Accutane and cortisone cream are, of course, both well known liver toxins. The person then continues on a cleansing diet, and the body uses the cleansing foods to expel the drugs now stored in the fat cells of the liver, which are pushed out again through the skin and hair, creating more visible signs and symptoms, which of course further freaks out this cleansing program person, who goes back for a second dermatologist visit, and says, "The Stopping-The-Internal-Gunk-From-Coming-Out™ drugs you gave me aren't strong enough. Got anything better?". The skin doctor, being a good person who wants to diminish suffering, prescribes a stronger, more toxic Stopping-The-Internal-Gunk-From-Coming-Out™ drug, which then also has to leave the body through the skin, until finally the person gives up the cleansing program because "that really strange juicing program that I was doing was making me sick."

I've seen many, many people, upon learning that this is what may come out of their body during a switch to cleansing foods, stop the cleanse, and choose to keep that metabolic sludge in them. And we wonder why our country's rise in diseases seem to "appear out of nowhere." Why little Johnnie can't concentrate in school. Why childhood diabetes is almost 20 times what it was in 1960.

How do you get off this pharmaceutical drug merry-go-round?

1. Fuel your determination with knowledge. Develop a more logical perception of how health really works, and why the body is doing what it is doing, is needed all the more so during a cleanse. Read everything you can on cleansing, not only other books on the art of cleansing, but especially other people's end results and testimonials. You need to hear from those who have completed a cleanse, who can tell you what it feels like on the other side. You need to realize the powerful actions that you are taking during your period of cleansing, and the results that are happening at a cellular level. Talk with others who are also going through this process at the HHW Forum.

2. Get very, very clear on the full effects of the drugs you are taking. Go to RxList.com . Type in the name of your drug. In the resulting page, click on three tabs: Side Effects, Warnings, and Contraindications. It's critical you understand the price you're paying in order tamp down your body's symptoms.

By the way, if your detoxification is visible, take pictures throughout the process. Not all healing is visible, but if it is, keep taking pictures through the process, all the way until you are well again. If the pictures are clear and in-focus, emailing them and your story to us is worth $100 towards anything in the How Health Works store.

Scott