Acting Too Hastily Only Backfires
Patients or their family members often try every possible means to solve a single problem—Chinese medicine, Western medicine, health supplements, folk remedies—and the result is counterproductive. The patient’s problem is not solved, but instead a variety of serious side effects are brought about: diarrhea, hematochezia, damage to liver and kidney function. This blind approach of throwing every method at the problem is very dangerous.Whether medicines, health supplements or foods, any of them may, while solving one problem, bring about new problems. Moreover, when too many such things are taken, the stomach and intestines cannot tolerate them. Some problems require time and patience to solve; they cannot be solved simply by heaping up all kinds of medicines and supplements. Weak patients do not necessarily benefit from more tonification; over-tonification causes problems. In patients such as cancer patients, taking too many tonics may cause the cancer to develop wildly. Patients with low blood counts, if given too many blood-building measures, may also encounter all sorts of problems. For example, if platelet-raising drugs are used excessively, thrombosis may occur—this is even more troublesome than thrombocytopenia. Diarrheal patients, if given simultaneously all kinds of anti-diarrheal drugs, foods and supplements, will instead become constipated.When solving a patient’s problems, give the body a period of time. Anyone who takes in too many medicines or foods in a short period may develop problems; the liver, kidneys, stomach and intestines will all be overloaded. Once these organs develop problems, it is like pressing down one gourd only for another to bob up: the old problem is not yet solved when a new one arrives. Difficult problems should be left to doctors; at the same time, give the doctors time. Doctors will follow the principle of safety and effectiveness, and do what is appropriate rather than excessive. Professional physicians have undergone rigorous medical training; they know more than laypeople about the side effects of drugs and foods, and they have seen many medical mishaps, so their caution has a basis.The ancients said that excess is as bad as deficiency; overtreatment is sometimes worse than no treatment at all. Many patients die from overtreatment, and much overtreatment is precisely caused by the impatience of patients and their families. I have seen medical records in which doctors ask the patient or family to sign a statement declaring that certain non-standardized medical plans were requested by the family and patient; some even ask them to declare that certain drugs were medicines or supplements they purchased on their own outside the hospital. Why do doctors do this? Because it involves medical risk and responsibility. Doctors cannot withstand the demands of patients and families; when patients and families themselves adopt high-risk or excessive medical measures, they must themselves bear that part of the responsibility.Doing one’s utmost is a good thing, but one should first acquire some basic medical common sense before doing one’s utmost. If one violates the basic laws by which the body operates, excessive devotion becomes mere haste, and in the end it only backfires.