I AM

Have you seen the documentary, “I AM?”  It’s an interesting and insightful film.  I recommend it.  Here it is, for you to check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJvZnJN0xbA

The film makers seek to find answers to two questions.

1.  What is wrong with our world?

and

2.  What are the solutions to the world’s problems?

(Spoiler alert) – The answer to both questions is the same.  It is –

I AM.

I am what is wrong with the world.  I am the solution to the world’s problems.

Kinda profound, if I do say so myself.

We all have problems and solutions within us.  I assert that they are in balance as well.  Those who cause huge problems are a huge part of the solutions.  Those who cause small problems are still part of the solutions, but they’re a smaller part.  People fluctuate between perpetuating problems and perpetuating solutions.  The pendulum swings from problem to solution – in our individual lives, in our institutions and in our world.

No one is the solution without recognizing that they are the problem as well.  There are those who are the problem without being the solution, but they generally fail to recognize that they are part of the problem – they fail to see that there is a problem and imagine, out of ego and narcissism, that they are neutral.

It’s called responsibility.  I am responsible for the problems that I cause in the world and I am responsible for solutions to them.

It took a long time for me to accept responsibility for my floxing, and I sill like to think of myself as more of a contributor to the solution than to the problem of people being hurt by fluoroquinolones.  Sure, I can take responsibility for putting the pills in my mouth, for self-medicating, for having a breakdown when I got sick, for not communicating what happened to me to my doctor, for the anger that I feel toward the medical system, and plenty more.  Got it.  I am responsible for all of those things.  I am also responsible for creating this site to bring light to the problem, for offering people stories of hope and healing, along with snippets of “deep thoughts by Lisa” – these things are part of the solution.  They’re the least that I can do and I have every intention of doing more to change the situation of people becoming disabled from unnecessarily strong chemotherapy drugs being frivolously prescribed to treat infections.  My pendulum is in solution mode for the problem of fluoroquinolone toxicity.  And fluoroquinolone toxicity is a problem, a big one.

Doctors, and the medical system as a whole, don’t seem to see the problem though.  They are stuck in the narcissistic, false view that they are the solution without being part of the problem.  They fix things, cure diseases and heal people, right?  Sure – those things happen.  Doctors should be proud of every life that they save and every disease that they cure.  But those accomplishments do not diminish the pain that they inflict.  Along with the good that has come with modern medicine, harm has come as well.  The rise in “diseases of modernity” such as autoimmune diseases, obesity and its complications, ignored diseases (like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, gulf war syndrome, adverse drug reactions, etc.), autism, mental illness (it’s not a choice), dietary intolerances, etc. are at least partially, if not fully, caused by pharmaceuticals, doctors and the medical system.

It’s not that difficult of a concept – pharmaceuticals cause mitochondrial damage, those mitochondria create massive amounts of oxidative stress and the superoxide and/or peroxynitrate cycles within the cells cause direct and indirect (through damage to DNA and negative gene expression) harm.  Also, destruction of the microbiome and its balance are really bad ideas that cause all sorts of problems.

Of course, the whole process is complex and difficult to understand when you get into the details.  It’s too difficult for most doctors to see, not only because it’s hard and they’re too busy to look at scientific research, but also because they’re stuck in their ideas of what “should” be.  Drugs “should” metabolize out of a person’s body in a short amount of time.  Antibiotics “should” kill bacterial cells while leaving host cells intact.  Fluoroquinolones “should” not damage DNA.  Doctors “should” cure diseases.  The medical system “should” be the solution, not the problem.

Too bad what “should” be does not align with what IS.

Every doctor, every drug, even every patient that buys into the system, is part of the problem.

It is time for everyone to recognize that with the good of Western medicine, some bad has come too.  It’s time for egos to be put aside and for people (mainly the doctors) to realize that they are responsible for recognition and creation of the problem – they are the problem.

Doctors and other people in the medical system are the solution as well.  Of course they are!  Who else could be?  They have the resources to solve the problems that they cause, and no one else does.

Patients are part of both the problem and the solution as well.  The information is available for patients to realize a large amount of what good and harm drugs and procedures do.  Patients can, and should, advocate for themselves and speak out when they see something that is wrong.

But first, both doctors and patients have to see that there are problems.  They need to see that the situation that we are in, with young people falling ill to chronic, disabling diseases, is not okay.  It’s a problem.

I can only hope that doctors will be willing to put aside their foolish egos and realize that they do harm along with good.  They aren’t going to realize anything or accept any culpability without pressure.  I am sure of that.  People who have been hurt by them (and the system that they are part of) need to rise up and make them aware of the harm that they have caused; the problems that their actions have led to.

Patient activists are responsible for putting pressure on doctors, the pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, and others in the medical field too.  We need to push harder so that those within the system are recognizing the problem and working toward becoming the solution.

I AM the solution.  (Along with cannabis – haven’t you heard?  It cures EVERYTHING.)

I AM the problem as well.  (Along with fluoroquinolones – seriously, I can connect them causally to every chronic illness out there.)

I have less power than the medical system and the pharmaceutical industry though, so, dare I say – I am less of the problem, or the solution than they are.

Solution mode is greatly needed.  From everyone.  Especially from those with power and influence.

Maybe my perceived lack of power is a cop-out though.  Maybe the answer is simple.  What is the problem?  I AM.  What is the solution?  I AM.

You are too.

“No man sets aside his old ways to seek the new until he personally feels the need for it.  This is why the great teachers urge men to see the awful condition they are actually in, rather than living by pretty words and nonexistent ideals.  Talking about love and peace when neither love nor peace are in their hearts is a cunning and destructive evasion of the facts.”  – Vernon Howard