I once read an interesting article in the newspaper: A major hospital in Taiwan, which boasts the largest daily outpatient volume in Asia, commonly experiences the phenomenon of "three long and two short." The three "longs" are: the long queue for registration, the first "long"; the long waiting time for consultation, the second "long"; and the long wait at the pharmacy to collect medication, the third "long." The two "shorts" are: the short time the doctor spends on consultation; and the shortness of breath patients feel on their way home after a day of hassle.

Furthermore, the book "Western Medicine Harms Health" published by Warm Current Press revealed: "In 1962, a major strike in Saskatchewan, Canada, led to a 17% drop in mortality. In 1976, doctors in Los Angeles, USA, protested against the insurance system with a collective strike, resulting in an 18% drop in mortality. Later that year, doctors in Colombia, South America, went on strike for 52 days, and the mortality rate dropped by 35%. When the doctors returned to work, the mortality rate immediately returned to its usual level. The longest doctors' strike in history was in Israel in 1973, lasting 85 days, with a 50% drop in mortality. When you see these two pieces of information, what do you feel?

You must be wondering why this is the case? As early as in the monthly "New Chinese Medicine" edited by Dr. Zhang Gongrang, a Chinese and Western medicine practitioner in Hong Kong (1955.5.10-1958.6.30), Western orthodox medicine was referred to as "old medicine," and natural medicine as "new medicine." He believed: "Old medicine is a curse to society, not a blessing." He said:

1. No matter what form the disease takes, it comes from one cause, that is, the accumulation of waste toxins in the body.
2. Disease is a self-healing process and should not be fought against.
3. The power to cure the disease exists only within the patient's body, and it can be brought out with the right methods.
4. Chronic diseases are the result of old medicine's suppression of acute diseases. These suppression policies include drugs, serums, anesthetics, glandular preparations, X-ray treatments, and surgeries to remove diseased organs.
5. The accumulation of waste and toxins in the body requires bacteria to decompose them, so there must be disease first, then bacteria, not bacteria first, then disease. This is just like a clean house naturally has no flies, but this does not mean that disease cannot be transmitted by bacteria. The pre-existing factors for bacterial activity are the reduction of vitality and the accumulation of waste in the body. This is completely ignored by old medicine.
6. Natural doctors, because they understand the unity of disease, can achieve amazing effects in treating diseases. They are not like orthodox doctors who are confused by the complexity of pathology, wasting time on grasping external and superficial symptoms. Natural doctors only seek the root cause of the disease, and after curing the root cause, they naturally achieve permanent results.
7. As mentioned above, the body is not passive and negative towards disease, but the most active, because disease is the body's effort to eliminate toxins that hinder all functions. Therefore, using drugs to fight disease is actually fighting the body, fighting the body's self-cleaning work, and the result is the more you fight, the less effective it becomes.
8. However, sometimes patients do get better after treatment, and without any other consequences, why is this? This is because their bodies have sufficient vitality and resistance to deal with the toxicity of the drugs. It's not that they got better because of the treatment, but that they got better despite the treatment.
9. Doctors, whether in major or minor, internal or external medicine, all ineffectively and ignorantly use methods to suppress symptoms and hinder natural work, thinking they can cure diseases. Natural doctors, on the other hand, acknowledge the omnipotence of nature, humbly admit their own incompetence, and say: "It's not me, only nature can cure the disease. I just do what I can to help nature." This is why orthodox doctors fail and natural doctors succeed.
10. Jesus said to his disciples, "By their fruits you shall know them." Let all men and women in the world look at the "fruits" of orthodox medicine! They are all before our eyes!

New diseases, such as neurasthenia and pernicious anemia, are increasing year by year. Chronic diseases, such as cancer, gout, diabetes, kidney disease, asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, etc., are deepening year by year. Influenza is prevalent like a plague. Mental disorders are triumphantly rising step by step. Family illnesses such as indigestion, constipation, colds, and coughs are more common than ever. Isn't it time to replace the old medicine with a new one?

Away with this stale philosophy, which fails to see the relationship between dietary errors and lifestyle errors and the body and disease, which "fights" disease but bows in fear and despair before it, lacking confidence! Let us enter a new era in world history—an era in which patients must take full responsibility for their own suffering, acknowledging that illness is the result of their own errors and ignorance (whether conscious or unconscious), and not a punishment from an unkind heaven and earth! (Excerpted from "Natural Therapy" magazine, issue 124, pages 2-3, on the crux of why traditional Chinese medicine has been unable to revive and how it can be revived—by Chen Chouyi)

The above ten points are not difficult to see the following three points of reflection:

1. Even without the "three long and two short," the fate of those who solely accept orthodox Western medical treatment, from high-ranking officials and nobles to common laborers, is quite similar (former U.S. President Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, suffered from lymphoma and passed away about six months after receiving the most thorough chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments).
2. If modern medicine only satisfies or obsesses over the meticulous study of "pathology (phenomenological medicine)," it will inevitably fall into the quagmire of "treating the symptoms but not the root cause," making it difficult to extricate itself, let alone cure diseases and save lives.
3. If one does not understand that disease is a manifestation of the body's vitality (self-healing ability or natural healing power) striving to resist the cause of illness or the battle between good and evil, any therapy that suppresses the "battle" can at best achieve temporary "improvement" (an illusion), while leaving behind the cause of illness or creating new causes; the worst part is that it weakens the body's self-healing ability.

Taking the most common cold as an example, regardless of the type of cold, its cause is nothing more than [the decline of vital energy first, followed by the invasion of pathogens], that is, a decrease in resistance (immunity), allowing various viruses to take advantage of the weakness. Once the virus invades the body, it will parasitize within the cells (at this point, antibiotics are helpless against it), and then trigger inflammation, sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, fever, body aches, chills, and other symptoms.

Western medicine treatment for colds is generally divided into four types of medication:

1. Antipyretic and analgesic agents
2. Cough suppressants
3. Expectorants
4. Antihistamines

The following explains the true efficacy and effects of these four major categories of drugs:

1. Antipyretic and analgesic agents: Commonly used drugs include the aspirin series, the pyrazolone series, phenacetin, and other series. This series of drugs works by inhibiting the central nervous system that controls pain and fever throughout the body, so in the efficacy classification of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, they belong to the "central nervous system drugs." Aspirin series drugs can paralyze the high-temperature part of the body's temperature center, causing body heat to gradually decrease; phenacetin series drugs stimulate the low-temperature part of the body's temperature center, causing body temperature to drop. While achieving this goal, aspirin can cause tinnitus, headaches, nausea, and even lead to gastric ulcers or gastritis, and gastric bleeding. Long-term use can adversely affect hematopoiesis, reducing white blood cells; for people with specific constitutions, it can also cause rashes or palpitations and asthma. Additionally, it can affect the metabolism and loss of vitamin C. The commonly used aminopyrine in the pyrazolone series, when mixed with the hypnotic barbital, is a very effective pain reliever, but its side effects often include drug rashes, mucosal inflammation, nausea, or gastric bleeding. Most of the side effects of this type of analgesic drug appear on the skin, and once a drug rash appears, it is difficult to subside, even developing into a mole-like drug rash, and in severe cases, the skin surface is damaged and peels off. Those who care about beauty must be cautious! Long-term use can gradually reduce liver detoxification function; kidney function declines daily, bone marrow is damaged, and the heart is also adversely affected. The side effects of the pyrazolone series can cause gastrointestinal disorders, damage bone marrow, and destroy hematopoietic function. If taken in large quantities, there is a risk of shock and death. This series of drugs has long been banned from production and sale in the United States. Phenacetin can lead to anemia, kidney dysfunction, and is also one of the carcinogens. According to reports from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, its carcinogenicity is most commonly associated with paranasal sinus cancer, followed by kidney cancer, bladder cancer, etc.
2. Cough Suppressants: Cough suppressants are divided into two types: central cough suppressants and peripheral cough suppressants. The representative drug of central cough suppressants is codeine phosphate, which is one of the components of the narcotic opium. Codeine phosphate stimulates the brain center, numbs the head, and achieves the purpose of suppressing cough. However, it belongs to the narcotic series of drugs and is prone to habituation. A well-known peripheral cough suppressant is ephedrine, which is used to treat asthma and is contained in the Chinese herb Ephedra. Ephedrine is a peripheral cough suppressant, and how it excites the tracheal nerves is still unknown. Ephedrine can dilate the trachea and indeed has the function of suppressing cough, so it is used as a bronchodilator to inhibit asthma attacks. Ephedrine can cause heart palpitations and increase blood pressure, and it also belongs to the adrenaline series of bronchodilators; when heart palpitations accelerate, that is, excitement, adrenaline is naturally produced in the body. If digitalis, a cardiac stimulant, is administered, it is difficult for adrenaline to appear in those with coronary artery disease and prostatic hypertrophy. Another reason is phlegm. When inflammation occurs in the airway or trachea, secretions accumulate, and mucus or other impurities (dust) become phlegm. Coughing occurs when phlegm is expelled from the body, so coughing is a defensive reaction of the body. In such cases, suppressing cough arbitrarily is not advisable. If cough is suppressed, the impurities (secretions) in the airway and trachea cannot be expelled from the body, and cough suppressants should not be used. Instead, expectorants should be used, and the cough will naturally stop.
3. Expectorants: Dissolve thick mucus, making it easier to expel from the body. Creosote and guaiacol can achieve this purpose and are included in comprehensive cold medicines. Another type of expectorant can stimulate the mucous membrane, increasing saliva or other secretions, making it easier to expel mucus. Such expectorants have no side effects, but for cold patients without mucus, taking comprehensive cold medicine containing such expectorants is not an optimal treatment.
4. Antihistamines: Treat allergies caused by colds, and comprehensive cold medicines contain antihistamines. Antihistamines are quite effective in treating nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, and other symptoms of nasal mucosal inflammation caused by colds, but they are not without side effects. Antihistamines are similar to tranquilizers in that they work by allowing the brain to rest. If you feel sleepy after taking cold medicine, such cold medicine contains antihistamines. Therefore, one should not drive after taking cold medicine containing antihistamines, and should avoid consuming alcohol at the same time. In addition to the side effect of increased sleepiness, there are also phenomena such as thirst, blurred vision, difficulty urinating, palpitations, and constipation.

The above provides a brief overview of the pros and cons of Western medicine's "symptomatic treatment" for colds. It is not difficult to see that the so-called treatment is only about eliminating symptoms. It has no effect on the actual causes of these symptoms, such as the decline of vital energy and low immunity, and viruses, and can even be harmful. Often, many cold patients take comprehensive cold medicines, which is equivalent to adding and multiplying the side effects of various drugs. Although the medicine is prescribed by a doctor, and the doctor has enough professional knowledge to control the use of the medicine, the side effects do not disappear because of the doctor's professionalism.

Therefore, the saying "all medicine (Western medicine) is three parts poison" is true. How can doctors and patients not be cautious! Here, it is advised that if one is not at ease without taking cold medicine, try to avoid taking two or more cold medicines at the same time, because various cold medicines are roughly similar, and in addition to easily producing interactions between various drugs, their side effects will also add and multiply.

The best way to prevent and treat colds is natural therapy or traditional Chinese medicine (omitted in today's lecture). Based on the author's experience, people who often consume health foods such as Ganoderma lucidum, pollen, and propolis (regardless of gender, age) rarely catch colds. Even if they occasionally "win the lottery", they recover easily. A few years ago, my third-grade son had a high fever and vomited at school. I rushed to the school and fed him a small amount of warm water with six times concentrated Ganoderma lucidum powder first, and on the way home (about 10 minutes later) fed him the same amount again, and the vomiting stopped. Half an hour later, when we got home, I immediately fed him about 200CC of warm water with 6 grams of Ganoderma lucidum powder, and then every four hours; drank more water, did not eat anything, let him rest, listened to baby sleep music, and at 10 o'clock that night fed him a bowl of oatmeal. As a result, the fever subsided the next day, the illness was cured, and he returned to school. The school teacher was very puzzled. Remember, for those with a cold, more rest, more warm water, and attention to nutritional supplementation are the most basic and natural therapies.

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