“Used correctly in the right amounts, medicine can cure, but when misused it turns into a dangerous poison.”
Many modern people think of medicine as something that promises cures. But the real definition of medicine is a substance used for a certain illness, in the right dosage, administered at the right times, that is used only as needed to effect a cure. Even the correct medicine used for the same illness can become a poison if the dosage is wrong.
Since different people will react differently to the same illness, it is wrong and problematic to use the same medicine in the same way on everyone.
Since ancient times, Eastern medical science has said that “medicine should be administered in accordance with the illness” and “in the right dose.” Dosage must be individually prescribed, even for the same illness, in order for the medicine to manifest its maximum efficacy with the least harm.
Therefore, no matter how precious a medicine, it is harmful and without benefit when not specifically tailored to the illness and the patient.
It is only in the hands of a true master physician that a medicine is really a medicine. Even good medicine becomes a poison when used recklessly without first determining the specific illness, and assessing the resistance and physical constitution of the patient.
Similarly, no matter how many drugs a pharmacy might have, they can only be effectively used when one knows the medicines’ essence and can correctly diagnose the patient, while all the medicines would be dangerous and unusable to the layman. In the hands of a master physician, even plants and insects found at the roadside are good medicines, but they are all poisons if used by the incompetent. One might go so far as to say that anything at all could be either a curative or poison. Which it becomes depends on the situation and how it is administered.
In spite of these facts, many people still think that anything called “medicine” will definitely work as one. That is because they have a superstitious faith in medicine. It is a frightening illusion responsible for the inestimable loss of health, life span, and wealth.
It is truly a dangerous situation.