The difficult decision to let patients die

My biggest frustration while working as a healer is a common lifestyle factor that destroys a person’s long-term health (and in many cases will be directly responsible for eventually killing them); and this lifestyle factor also greatly impedes all real healing and in some cases prevents it from working at all; and what makes this situation so frustrating is that this lifestyle factor is state-sponsored; indeed it is seen as an essential element of life and in some instances it is even illegal for citizens to not partake in some aspects of this lifestyle factor. Am I describing a society of eight hundred years ago in the West which had every aspect of life dictated by the unchallengeable tenets of some all-powerful religion? I might as well be. In fact, on one level, that is exactly what I am describing. This situation of eight hundred years ago when Christianity was accepted in the West as the only source of true knowledge on the workings of all the important aspects of life, and was the only source of culture for most people, and which dictated how all people should conduct many aspects of their everyday lives—indeed, demanded that they conform to its tenets—this situation is a perfect metaphor for the position that this modern lifestyle factor holds in society today. So, what is this modern lifestyle factor? Of course, it is Western medicine.

I currently have a patient who is on a cocktail of eleven different chemical remedies, some of which he has been taking for as long as fifteen years continuously. These are: Aspirin, Bendroflumethiazine (a diuretic), Bisoprolol fumarate (beta blocker), Nicorandil (potassium channel openers), Ramipril (ACE inhibitor), Simvastatin (cholesterol lowering), Metformin Hydrochloride (antidiabetic), Mixtard (insulin), Tramadol Hydrochloride (analgesic related to codeine/morphine), Clobetasone Butyrate cream, and an antihistamine. I was tempted to write here “and a partridge in a pear tree”, but this is no laughing matter. The patient is 53 and his health is in a poor state. In fact, I am surprised that he is as well as he is, considering this barrage of chemical remedies that he has been subjected to for the past fifteen years.

When I see a patient like this one, what impresses me is the resilience of the human condition. It is impressive that people can not only survive, but can even function fairly well in their day to day lives despite being subjected to this type of treatment.

Most chemical remedies are deliberately designed to stop the body from working in some way. What impresses me about the human condition is that, despite this practise, they still manage to continue living and to get on with their life. It seems to me that Western medicine (when practised as described above) is just one more impediment to living life in the modern world. Add to this all the other stresses of Westernized life, and it is amazing that we survive. Yet, survive we do. This impresses me.

Back to my patient. What do I do?

Of course, having the insight into this subject and the strength of feeling on this issue that I do, I always discuss with patients the detrimental effect on their health that any chemical remedies they are taking might be having. Indeed, it is my duty to do this, as an holistic practitioner; when behaving according to my professional code of ethics, I cannot avoid but to do it.

Some patients hear this and, after a few treatments (of proper Chinese Medicine acupuncture), having then experienced the difference that natural healing has already made to them, decide to stop taking the chemical remedies and their health blossoms. With other patients, they choose to make no changes, for whatever reason.

This often means (with a patient on a number of strong remedies) that their health cannot be improved beyond a certain level, and will never be returned to a normal state.

In these situations, with patients who are very ill, I have come to realize that I have to stand by and allow this lifestyle factor to take its toll on them, even if I can clearly see that this is going to eventually lead to their death. Of course, this is a difficult thing to do. But people have the right to make this decision for themselves.

Over the last few days, I have been considering this issue, both in general and in relation to this current patient. And I have come to realize that this is exactly what I must do. In future, I will continue to mention the detrimental effect that these substances have on a patient's health (in the same way that I tell them about the detrimental effect that the other life-style factors might have on their health), but beyond that, if they choose to continue taking them, and I will preserve my energy for fighting this particular battle in another way, a way that will hopefully prove far more effective.

I can only fight such propaganda by producing my own “propaganda”. I have been planning to write a book on proper acupuncture for years, and one of its aims is to explain the whole of this ancient and powerful system of healing in such a way that Westerners can understand, which has not been done before. And it has not been done because it is an almost impossible task. But if I can achieve it, in the manner I have visualized, then this will be the most efficient and effective way that I can make a difference on this issue.

Of course this is sobering, but for me in particular, I now know where I should be focusing my energy. You should only fight the battles you can win.

 

Postscript

With the above mentioned cocktail of chemical remedies, I would not like to give the impression that it is damaging to the patient’s health purely because of the large cocktail involved. A lot of the individual remedies (such as the diuretic, beta blocker, ACE inhibitor, and so on—which are very commonly prescribed) would be damaging to most patients' long-term health if they were taken for a prolonged period, even if they were only taken one at a time. But of course, if you put a number of them together, you are almost certainly guaranteeing that the patient’s long-term health will be seriously damaged.

 

7 April 2010