Month: March 2025

Is your prescription a medicine, a symptomicine, or a crutch? What is a medicine? What is a symptomicine? What is a crutch? Is your alternative treatment a medicine, a symptomicine, or a crutch?

Webster’s: a medicine is “a substance that is used in treating disease or relieving pain and that is usually in the form of a pill or a liquid“. This definition is quite broad. A medicine might cure a disease. More often it’s just used to treat a disease, or relieve symptoms. Most medicines make no claim to cure. Most just prop you up, so you can ‘live with your disease’.

A medicine that cures your illness is a curative – but curatives don’t cure, the action of taking the medicine cures. However, most medicines only treat symptoms – most medicines are symptomicines.

Symptomicine: a medicine that only treats signs or symptoms of an illness. A symptomicine might be an approved drug that reduces our pain or other symptoms of disease without curing. It might be an alternative health product. It might even be a preventative, like a vaccine, reducing our symptoms of “fear of disease” without curing anything.

Crutch: props up an unhealthy or failing system. A crutch can be temporary, to wait for or facilitate a cure, or a permanent attachment, with no hope of a cure.

Some medicines, like painkillers are like a crutch. They prop you up until you can get better. Other crutch medicines are designed to “hold you up” forever. This design ensures ongoing sales. A real crutch is only sold once. A crutch drug has ongoing sales potential.

Are most medicines cures, symptomicines, or crutches? What do you think? If it cures the disease, it is a true medicine, a cure, otherwise, it is probably a symptomicine or a crutch.

In 2013, I researched the 100 best selling medicines. Most make no claim to cure. Less than 5 of the 100 best selling medicines sold in 2013 have potential to cure any illness. Ninety-five percent cannot cure, any disease. Are these all symptomicines?

I just checked the top selling medicines of 2024 – and little has changed since 2013. Not one of the top ten best sellers of 2024 actually cures any disease – they are all either symptomicines or crutches. Here’s the 2024 list:

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Best Selling Medicines in 2024

Keytruda strengthens the body’s immune response against cancer, but can cause immune disease. Does not cure. Crutch.

Ozempic (semaglutide) increases insulin production and reduces liver sugar production in type 2 diabetes patients. Does not cure. Crutch.

Biktarvy prevents the HIV from multiplying and decreases viral load. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Eliquis – prevent blood clots. Does not cure. Crutch.

Dupixent used to treat eczema, eosinophilic or oral-corticosteroid-dependent asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, COPD with an eosinophilic phenotype, eosinophilic esophagitis (EOE), or prurigo nodularis. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Skyrizi used to treat autoimmune diseases. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Darzalex used to treat multiple myeloma. Does not cure. Crutch

Stelara used to treat autoimmune diseases. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Opdivo used to treat cancers. Does not cure. Crutch.

Humira used to treat inflammatory conditions. Does not cure. Symptomicine.

Best Selling Medicines in 2013

The top ten best selling drugs of 2013: Abilify, Nexium, Humira, Crestor, Cymbalta, Advair Diskus, Enbrel, Remicade, Copaxone, Neulasta. Here’s what Drugs.Com says about each of them:

Abilify: is used to treat the symptoms of psychotic conditions. No longer in top 100.
Nexium: is used to treat symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease. No longer in top 20.
Humira: reduces the effects [symptoms and possibly damage] of a substance in the body that can cause inflammation. Number 3 in 2024.
Crestor: reduces levels of “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and triglycerides in the blood, while increasing levels of “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) Crutch. No longer in the top 20.
Cymbalta: affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced and cause depression. Crutch. No longer in the top 20.
Advair Diskus: prevents the release of substances in the body that cause inflammation. Crutch. No longer in top 100.
Enebrel: is used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis, and to prevent joint damage caused by these conditions. No longer in the top 100.
Remicade: is used to treat [symptoms of] rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and ankylosing spondylitis. No longer in the top 20.
Copaxone: will not cure MS, but it can make relapses [symptoms] occur less often. No longer in the top 100.
Neulasta: stimulates the growth of white blood cells in your body. It is used to prevent neutropenia, a lack of certain white blood cells caused by receiving chemotherapy. Crutch. No longer in the top 100.

Symptomicine or Crutch?

Most approved medicines are symptomicines, used to manage signs and symptoms, not curing any disease. Your disease will not get better when you take these drugs. You might feel better – even as your illness grows worse and worse.

Some are crutches. Crestor, Cymbalta, Advair Diskus, do not directly affect symptoms of your disease. Neither do they cure. What do they do? They change some of the health balances in your body, like a crutch supports our balance. Our natural cholesterol balances, brain chemical balances, and inflammation balances are part of our healthiness and part of our illness. Are these the best treatment for our diseases? No. They do not cure. We might classify these medicines as ‘imbalancers’. But a more accurate term would be ‘crutches’. They are used when our doctor thinks we are out of balance, to shift us back into balance, in the hope that this will make us less sick from our disease.

If you have ever used a crutch, you know one thing – the best thing about a crutch is when you throw it away. When you regain your health. Unfortunately most medical crutches are designed to be bought and used for life. They make no attempt to cure, no attempt to heal your body nor to restore your ‘natural balance’, your health.

The action of some drugs is more complex. Copaxone ‘makes relapses [of MS] occur less often’. But what are ‘relapses’ of MS? According to MS Active Source “A multiple sclerosis relapse is the rapid onset of new, or worsening of previous, symptoms that last at least 24 hours.” Copoxone does not address the disease of MS, only the symptoms.

Neulasta stimulates the growth of white blood cells. It changes the natural balance of your body, stimulating production of more white blood cells. Neulasta is an imbalancer, like Crestor, Cymbalta, and Advair Diskus. It’s a crutch, but it’s a very specific crutch, used to help you deal with the damage that chemotherapy has caused. We might also classify it as a symptomicine, because it fights against the symptoms of chemotherapy white blood cell death.

Conclusions

In summary, of the top ten best selling medicines of 2024, not one cure. In the top ten of 2013, there are no cures.

A symptomicine is a crutch, for symptoms that the patient notices. A crutch is just a symptomicine, for signs that the doctor notices.

The top ten best selling medicines of 2014 don’t cure anything, – no change from 2013. Is medicine progressing, or just sales?

Why does this happen? It’s actually very simple. Medicines that cure a disease don’t have big sales, because they work themselves out of a job. Medicines that don’t cure, but ‘make you feel better’, can sell you a subscription to ‘feeling better’, even as your disease gets worse. These are the best sellers, the medicines that make the most money. If you were a drug company, which drug would you prefer to design, test, and sell? Symptomicines and crutches.

What about green medicines? What about alternative medicines? Are most alternative medicines also only symptomicines? I have not done an in depth analysis, but the same logic probably holds. The medicines that sell most, do not cure.

Whether you are considering patent medicines, prescription medicines, or green medicines, ask one simple question: can this medicine cure my disease – or is it only a symptomicine?

Where are the Cures?

How many cures have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the last 50 years? Not one. The last time a CURE won the Nobel Prize in Medicine was 1945 – 80 years of no Nobel Prize winning cures. We need a new paradigm.

If you have an illness, and you are looking for a cure – a symptomicine might give temporary relief, but if you want a cure, you need to look beyond symptomicines.

To find cures, we need to look beyond medicines, to health. Most cures come from health, not from medicines, as we learned in the post “Diseases cured – but not by Medicines-medicines”.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

“A thorn in the flesh would ultimately be cured by Nature. It would heal out; but this would be a painful, a tedious, perhaps a dangerous process. The surgeon extracts the thorn; the case is now a simple wound that heals in a day.”
Strachan, John M, Nature in the Cure of Disease : a lecture, 1861

Theory of Cure

A cure is a cure. An element of cure, an elementary cure is present when a causal element of illness has been successfully addressed.

Extracting the thorn is a cure. If a doctor extracts the thorn, we might call it a medical cure – but few doctors, when extracting thorns, claim to cure. Instead, they might suggest that the patient cures through healing, that a cure cannot be broken into elements, and therefore – the doctor did not “cure,” they only aided the cure.

In the theory of cure, a cure, an element of cure is an intentional action to address a cause of the illness. It makes no difference if the cure is accomplished by self, perhaps by a dog biting the wound, pushing the thorn out, by a grandmother with a tweezers, or perhaps a grandchild operating on grandad, or a nurse or surgeon in a clinic or hospital. It’s the same action.

A cure.

Cure Quotes is a collection of over 3000 quotations about cure. Clicking on the cure quote link provides a random cure quote.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

“Every cure has functions: healthing and addressing the present cause.”

 Every case of illness has two potential cures: to health the patient, or to attack the present external cause. In many cases, the best path, and the safest path is to improve healthiness. In other cases, most especially in emergencies, we must address the external cause. In some cases, the best cure is a blend of both cures. This illustration shows the two functions:

When a failure of Healthiness is the Cause

Alternative practitioners often speak of curing by addressing the terrain – often described as the unhealthiness of the afflicted. Healthiness is wider and deeper than the common concept of terrain, which is generally limited to the physical body.

A person’s illness might emerge, be caused, when healthiness in diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, or environments falls. These domains are the wider terrain. In each case, the cure is to improve the specific deficient healthiness. In some cases, an illness accumulates unhealthiness causes – and many cure many improvements in healthiness are needed.

There are two types of illness caused by unhealthinesses, status illnesses and lifestyle illnesses.

A status illness occurs when a healthiness drops enough to cause illness. When we don’t drink enough water, eat enough healthy food, get enough healthy exercise or rest, we might suffer a status illness slowly or quickly quickly. Simple dehydration, a hangover, scurvy, and injuries are status illnesses.

Lifestyle illnesses are slower. The are typically caused when our actions are only mildly unhealthy, but the unhealthiness and the damage accumulates. Sometimes, the foods we eat are only mildly unhealthy, but the unhealthy consumption becomes part of our life, eating junk food every day, smoking or drinking too much, or not getting sufficient rest of body, mind, or spirits can all lead to lifestyle illnesses. Lifestyle illnesses are chronic, persisting until the unhealthy actions and their consequences are addressed.

Note: Some cases of hangover are both a status illness and part of a lifestyle illness – in which case it requires two cures.

Chronic depression, for example, can be caused by many lifestyle factors. It can be caused by chronic dietary problems – deficiencies or excesses. It can be caused the ongoing pressure of chronic physical (bodily), mental, and spirit issues, like being physically confined to a house or a wheelchair. It can also be caused by abuse in a community – an external cause.

How do we recognize, or prove an illness is caused by unhealthiness? By the cure – the cure proves the cause. If we cure an illness by improving healthiness alone, the illness was caused by unhealthiness. If changing the diet cures a case of depression – the cause was an unhealthy diet. If changing the patient’s mind and spirit cures the depression – even though they are still confined, unhealthiness was the cause. If we partially cure it, by addressing one or more of the causes – it’s a partial cure. However, in our current medical paradigm, depression is considered to be incurable and has no ability to understand partial cures of any disease.

Most illnesses are unhealthiness illnesses. Most status illnesses are easily cured. Lifestyle illnesses are difficult, but not impossible to cure, the cure takes time and requires persistence. We know how to cure unhealthiness illnesses. But, cures for unhealthiness illnesses are not medical. No medicines improve healthiness. As a result, few, if any cures that come from improving healthiness can be recognized medically. Modern medicine declares, almost with pride, “there is no cure for … the common cold, influenza, a hangover, or alcoholism” and denies cure claims. I’ve had many colds, influenza few times – and yes, a hangover or two – all cured. There are claims of alcoholics cured, but like the common cold cured, nobody cares. The cure is not a medicine.

When the cause is External

Many causes of illness are located external to the diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, or environments, the six healthiness domains. Our diet might be disrupted by winter. Our bodies might be attacked by a bacteria, or a tiger. Our minds might be disrupted by external misinformation or propaganda. Our spirits might be weakened by events that break our faith in self or others. Our communities might be disrupted by competition or war. Our environments might be disrupted by a volcano, or a neighboring factory or other source of pollution. These causes are “not us.”

Physical or mental abuse is an external illness – even though the specific injuries are internal. These cases require an external cure to address the abuse, and an internal – healthiness cure – to address the injury consequences.

A case of depression might be caused by physical or mental abuse by self or others. It can be caused by isolation – by intentional solitary confinement. Only a cure proves a cause. If the depression is cured by removing abuse, or by being let out of solitary confinement – that was the cause.

As with healthiness illnesses, a case of externally caused illness might have several causes, requiring several cures, or several externally caused illnesses might be present at the same time. However, medically, few illnesses are recognized as having two cure causes.

Many medical treatments to address external causes are actions that decrease healthiness, even if only temporarily, often attacking specific healthinesses in the faith, or hope that the patient will recover from both the treatment and the illness. An antibiotic attacks all bacteria, good and bad, under the assumption that the good bacteria will recover but the bad bacteria will not. Curing a badly broken arm sometimes requires medical actions that temporarily make it worse.

Most externally caused illnesses are chronic. Why? If an external cause is temporary, the resulting illness is a status illness – the temporary cause is no longer present. If we have a thorn in our finger or a nail in our shoe – we remove it, and are left with an injury, a status illness that requires healing. Most externally caused illnesses that are not chronic are cured so easily, like removing a thorn, that we ignore the cure action.

On the other hand, when an external cause is present over time, the illness is chronic. The cure is to address the chronic nature of the cause. Chronic abuse cannot be cured by healing the injuries, nor by fighting the abuser, the cure is to separate the abused and the chronic abuser.

Medicines rarely address chronic causes. There is no medicine that can cure chronic eating, leading to obesity, no medicine that can cure smoker’s cough created by chronic smoking. There are no medicines that can cure chronic abuse by another person or a community. Most chronic illnesses cannot be cured by medications.

Injuries

Injuries exist in the boundary between healthiness causes and external causes. As a result, they often require both cures – external actions and internal healing.

An injury is a hole in our healthiness. It might be a hole in our body, our mind, our spirits, or our communities. The injury is both “us” and “not us.” We are not the accumulation of blood in a bruise, even though it is inside of us. We are not the hole. But the hole must be filled – with us. And if there is damaged flesh, it becomes a scab that is scraped away or falls of.

Healing is a process of discarding what is not us, and replacing it with new “us.”

Illnesses often produce in injuries. Unfortunately, in many cases of disease, no diagnosis is possible until injuries occur. Mild illnesses, mild cases of illness and injury are seldom diagnosed – their cures – natural healings, are too easy. We get a normal case of a minor cut, a bruise, the common cold, influenza, COVID, and in most cases, we don’t even visit a doctor. If we do visit a doctor – we are sent home to heal, without any medical treatment or cure.

Severe injuries require medical attention. Ongoing injuries, perhaps caused by a lifestyle illness or by an ongoing external causes are often treated without attention to cause, without intention to cure.

Chronic Illnesses

Chronic illnesses, whether they are lifestyle illnesses or have chronic external causes are cured by caring. When we care for ourselves, we cure our lifestyle illnesses. When our communities care for our injuries, they cure specific cases. When our communities help us to change our lifestyle – or address an ongoing cause that is external to us, that’s a caring cure.

How can we tell?

How do we know if the cause is internal, a healthiness, requiring personal changes, or external requiring other actions?

The cure proves the cause.

If we cured a case of illness by improving a healthiness, then unhealthiness was the cure cause.

If we cured a case of illness by addressing an external cause, that cause was the cure cause. Note: If we fail to cure the illness with medicines, we need to look at improving healthiness as an alternative.

Variations of Curing

How can we tell if the illness is a status illness, cured with a one-time cure when the status is changed, or a process illness, a lifestyle illness or caused by an ongoing process external to the client?

Healing cures injury illnesses, status illnesses.

Curing actions address causes of status illnesses that cannot be healed.

Caring actions cure by addressing ongoing causes.

In each situation, most cures come from non-medical actions. But non-medical cures are ignored by medical professionals.

When choosing to address causes of illness with healthiness, or by attacking causes, one important difference must be understood.

Healthiness cures Sum

Actions that improve healthiness sum, harmonize, and multiply to improve healthiness. When we improve the the healthiness of our diet with healthy foods and our bodies, minds, and spirits with healthy exercise and rest, we improve healthiness in many ways. We might cure our illness without a clear understanding of the specific cause. But a cure is a cure. Who’s to complain about other improvements in healthiness?

Attacking Causes can Sum to decrease Healthiness

When we attack the cause of an infection with an antibiotic, we also attack our own healthy bacteria. When we take many antibiotics at once, more healthy bacteria perhaps even our healthy cells can suffer. Most drugs are poisonous, and poisons sum in the negative. When we remove inflamed tonsils or gall bladders with surgery, we lose our tonsils and our gall bladders, as opposed to healing them. When we take a painkiller instead of addressing the cause, we intentionally decrease healthiness, although in some cases this can aid a healing cure. We know that painkillers combined, or combined with other drugs like alcohol, can kill.

The Best Cures

How can we tell which cure is best? In some cases, improving healthiness is the best cure. In other cases, addressing an external cause is necessary. We might cure the common cold with chicken soup and rest, a slow cure. But we cure severe pneumonia with antibiotics – before the infection kills the patient.

When we can cure with healthiness, without medical actions – the cure is safer. But healthy cures are often slow. In emergency cases, we need severe actions, the risk of not curing is more important than the risk of actions.

Early Cures

When we can catch or diagnose the illness earlier, we can find and make more effective healthiness cures.

Medical protocols, on the other hand, often delay diagnosis until an illness reaches a critical state, because medical treatments are dangerous.

Modern medicine makes no claim to cure injuries – injuries are cured by healing. But improving healthiness is the best cure aid for healing. When we eat healthy foods, get healthy exercise and rest, our healing proceeds faster and the results are better. When our healthiness is low, healing slows.

Both Cures

In some cases, both cures are required. A case of depression, or arthritis, or hypertension might have many causes, which sum to create an illness. In other cases there might be many causes which can independently create the illness. A case of depression might be caused by malnutrition, or by toxic poisons or drugs, or by work or family stress, or by physical or mental abuse. Or it might be caused by all of them occurring at once. In these cases, a shotgun cure technique is often most effective. A shotgun cure consists of addressing as many causes as possible at once.

The best shotgun cures are multiple actions to improve healthiness. Who’s to complain if some unhealthinesses – not related to the illness – are improved?

Medical shotgun cures are dangerous. Using a shotgun technique to attack multiple external causes at once with drugs or surgeries – can be very dangerous.

How do we learn the best cures? By practicing. By curing.

Unfortunately, modern medicine ignores most cases of cured. Most cures occur without medicines.Subscribed

to your health, tracy
Founder: Healthicine, the Arts and Sciences of Health and Healthiness
Author: A New Theory of Cure

This post was first published on my Substack.