“However, too many ads continue to promote an overly simplified model of causation. For example, headaches are not caused by a lack of aspirin in the brain; however, taking aspirin often cures a headache.”
– Laura L. Smith, Depression For Dummies, 2021
Is a headache a symptom? or is it an illness, or a disease? Do we cure symptoms? Illnesses? Or only diseases?
Does aspirin cure headaches?
“A headache for example might be the result of a cold, a migraine, high blood pressure, meningitis or a brain tumour, each requiring a different treatment rather than a “cure for headache“. – Craig Thornbur – Theories of Medicine
What does the Theory of Cure say?
In the theory of cure, we cure by addressing “curable cases of illnesses.” A cure is an action, not a thing, that addresses a cause of illness. An aspirin cannot cure – but the action of taking one might cure.
An illness is the intersection of a cause and its negative consequences, the signs and symptoms of the cause. If we successfully address the cause with an action – the negative consequences will disappear. The illness will be cured. If the illness also caused damage – that damage is another illness, requiring another cure. However, a simple headache is just a symptom, not an indication of other damage.
When we only address the negative consequences, the cause is still present. In many cases, the cause will recreate the negative symptoms. The illness was not cured, or perhaps it was only temporarily cured. In today’s medical theory, temporary cures do not exist. In the new theory of cure, temporary cures are common, sometimes effective tools on the path to a permanent cure.
In the theory of cure, an illness is cured when:
- the cause has been successfully addressed,
- when signs and symptoms have disappeared or dropped below the level of an illness, and
- no more medicines are needed for that illness.
Is cured vs Has Been Cured
Sometimes a case of illness “is cured” without conscious actions. Sometimes an illness “has been cured.” The phrase “has been cured” indicates that the cure was a consequence of intentional actions – by ourselves, family, friends, or others – perhaps professional medical assistance. Healing is unconscious, unintentional curing. Curing is a conscious action to cure. “Is cured” is a statement that the cause is no longer present, no longer causing illness. “Has been cured” refers to intentional curative actions to address the cause.
The common cold is cured when
– the infection is gone,
– when the signs and symptoms have disappeared, and
– when no more medicines are needed.
However, we can only say that a case of the common cold “has been cured by…x” when we believe that the action x is responsible for the cured status. At present, our medical systems claim “there is no cure for the common cold” because they do not believe any action can be responsible for a cold cured. Most cases of the common cold are easily cured, without medicines. The same is true of most illnesses.
Most cases of headache are easily cured, without medicines.
In many cases, the signs and symptoms of a headache are the only present cause of the illness. The other causes are stresses in the past, not accessible to present cure actions. Some cases of headache are best viewed as simply symptoms of distress, without a cure cause. When our health, healing, or time, addresses the stress – the headache is gone. Cured. In these cases, an aspirin cares for the pain as the headache passes.
Some cases of headache have a present cause, causing signs and symptoms of the illness. Addressing the signs and symptoms, without addressing the cause, does not cure.
Healing is curing. Curing intentionally, is not healing. Curing and healing address the present cause of the illness. Caring only addresses signs and symptoms, but not cause, as illustrated in this image.
The overlapping areas indicate situations where a single healing, caring, or curing accomplishes multiple goals . Sometimes, caring addresses cause – with or without intention. The distinctions between healing and curing are not always clear. Sometimes, a single action might be healing, curative, and caring.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Dehydration Headache
The presence of dehydration can cause a headache. If we take an aspirin to deal with the pain, but do not address the dehydration, then once the aspirin wears off – the headache will reoccur. In this case, the headache is the symptom, dehydration is the cause. The illness is only cured when the cause is addressed. In this case, the aspirin is only a temporary cure.
Dehydration can be caused by excessive consumption of alcohol in the past “the morning after the night before.” A hangover is often cured by healing and our natural life processes. We wake up in the morning, drink some water, juice, coffee, or tea, and gradually, the dehydration fades away. We might take an aspirin to diminish or stop the pain – but we don’t expect it to cure the headache, nor to cure the dehydration. We take the aspirin – and see that the headache is cured. But we understand that taking the aspirin was not the cure. If it helped us to get moving, helped us to re-hydrate. Perhaps it was a part of the cure, an action of caring for the sufferer, alleviating the suffering as the natural cure progresses.
Like the common cold, many people want to find a miracle cure for a hangover – even though most hangovers are easily cured by healthy actions, and few by medicines, and none by miracles.
The dehydration that causes a headache often causes other negative signs and symptoms. We ignore the dry mouth, the muscle aches, the nausea, because the headache is the most severe. If we cure the dehydration illness – all of the signs and symptoms will disappear. But an aspirin can’t do that.
“Diseases which arise from repletion are cured by depletion; and those that arise from depletion are cured by repletion; and in general, diseases are cured by their contraries.” (Hippocrates)
The only dehydration cure is re-hydration.
Injury Headache
A whack on the side of the head can cause a headache. In this case, the “whack on the side of the head” is in the past. We cannot go into the past to address it. The head is aching because it is injured. It may take time for the injury to heal – and depending on the damage, it might never heal completely.
In this case, taking an aspirin is a palliative treatment, a symptomicine, caring – not curing. We don’t expect it to cure. It makes us feel better. We understand that the aspirin will wear off and we will decide to take it again, or not, as the symptoms fade.
Stroke Headache
Having a stroke can cause a headache. The stroke that causes a headache might be mild, almost invisible, moderate, or severe and deadly. Taking an aspirin for the headache not only cannot cure – it might cause the patient to avoid medical attention for some time. The aspirin might allow the condition to grow worse by making the person feel better.
Can stroke be cured? The short answer is yes, stroke can be cured — but it occurs in two stages. First, doctors administer specific treatment to restore normal blood flow in the brain and stop further damage. Then, the patient participates in rehabilitation to cure the secondary effects that result from the stroke.
Flint Rehab: Can Stroke Be Cured?
In this case, the stroke is the illness to be cured. A headache is a sign or symptom. An aspirin might appear to cause a temporary cure, but it does not address the cause of the pain, the damage of the stroke.
Unknown Cause
What if we don’t know the cause of the headache, and we take an aspirin, and it goes away?
When we view the headache as the “cause of our discomfort” and the aspirin addresses that cause, then taking an aspirin is a cure. If there is only one headache – and now it’s gone, that’s sufficient. Some might argue that the cause of the headache was not addressed by the aspirin, but such debate is moot. The headache is gone. Maybe it was just a temporary status, a temporary pain, cured by the aspirin.
Chronic Headache
When a headache is chronic, or repeating, we can view the series of headaches as a higher level illness with a higher level chronic or repeating cause.
The cure of a chronic or repeating illness is to address the chronic nature of the cause.
If, for example, someone gets a hangover headache every Sunday morning, we might guess the cause – excessive drinking on Saturday night. If we successfully address that cause, by eliminating the Saturday night excesses, the chronic or repeating headaches will be cured. This cure does not fail when -next year – the patient drinks too much and gets a headache. A single case is not a chronic or repeating headache. The chronic headache was cured.
The cure for chronic or repeating headaches does not cure any specific case of headache. It also does not stop the patient from occasionally overindulging and getting a new, non-chronic headache.
Cure-ious Quotes
The theory of cure gives us a wider perspective, a way to look at quotes about cure in different ways, from a broader perspective, helping us to develop a more comprehensive view of cure.
The Theory of Cure website has a random “cure quote generator” that presents a random cure quote from a growing library of over 2700 quotes about cure from hundreds of different authors. Cure-ious quotes is a set of posts that explore those quotes from the perspective of the theory of cure.
To your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure