A person with internal head injuries would need immediate surgery to save his life as loss of blood in the body is like clock of life ticking away fast. Modern medicine is the only practical way to save life in patients that require attention right away. With more than 1 million lives being lost to road accidents only, modern medicine has an irreplaceable role to play.

Conventional medicine offers treatment for almost every ailment and the ever forward marching researches ensure that cures keep coming. If immediate surgeries are kept aside and the focus is shifted towards general ailments, modern medicine’s importance and our dependency on it just gets magnified. Headaches, Nausea, Viral infections, Vitamin deficiencies and so many day to day health problems are solved by just popping a pill. But there’s a downside to this instantaneous cure culture – We can become addicted to it.

It has been scientifically proven and a general understanding that a healthier lifestyle can improve a lot of health conditions like high cholesterol, obesity, depression and so on. But, still a 2012 research from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association found that 81% of adults in the US use OTC (over the counter) drugs as a first response to minor health issues. Bringing lifestyle changes is much more difficult to achieve and sustain than just taking a drug to treat symptoms. Ask yourself, the last time you had a headache, did you drink lots of fluid and sat in solace till it subsided? or you took a Saridon? Most of us would say that the latter was the first choice as every other solution would have taken a lot of time and painful hours.

The problem is not our choice of relief, but its effect on our bodies. Drug tolerance is first issue. It means our bodies become used to the medication, and its effect gets lower with every dose. Our doctor may need to increase the dosage then and the cycle may continue. Another downside of modern medicine is that overdosing can mean risk of life for most of us. In a 2020 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  , it was revealed that more than 70,000 Americans died from drug-involved overdose in 2019, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids. Opioids are a type of narcotic pain medication prescribed for severe type of pains.

Our immune system has been fighting diseases for ages even before medicines came into existence. The point being made here is not to devalue the benefits drugs provide, but to not get addicted to them. Positive lifestyle changes like healthy eating, good sleep cycle and mindful daily habits can improve our health and mental well being. The next time we feel minor pain in the head, let’s not quickly pop a pill to subside it. Our body isn’t a blender that will mix everything finely. Let’s try to keep modern medicine for what it serves well the most – managing any immediate threat to life!