The Healing Properties of Our Body. Is Prevention Better than Cure?

 

The British idiom “prevention is better than cure” or “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” in the US is often quoted elsewhere throughout the world.

Cambridge dictionary defines this to mean:  

“it is better to stop something bad from happening than it is to deal with it after it has happened”.

This meaning applies generally to healthcare whether or not it would be better to prevent a disease from occurring, than to look for a cure for it. In other words, is preventive medicine better than curative medicine? Let’s have a look.

Determining whether curative or preventive medicine is "better" or "more effective" depends on the context, including the type of disease, the healthcare system, and societal goals. Both have distinct roles and benefits in healthcare. The advantage in preventive medicine is that it reduces disease incidence by adopting preventive measures, such as vaccinations, health education, and lifestyle changes, reducing the incidence of diseases, leading to healthier populations. It is also more cost-effective in preventing diseases than trying to treat them. For instance, vaccines are generally much cheaper to prevent than treating diseases like measles or polio. It also improves the quality of life by avoiding the pain and disability associated with diseases. Regular screenings and lifestyle changes can prevent chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Furthermore, preventive medicine lowers healthcare burden by reducing the number of people who get sick, preventive medicine decreases the burden on healthcare systems, allowing resources to be allocated more efficiently. Besides that, we also have long-term benefits where preventive interventions can have long-lasting effects, leading to healthier future generations through practices like maternal health education and early childhood interventions, adopting good dietary habits, exercise, and incorporating public health policies such as clean water, anti-smoking campaigns.

Curative medicine on the other hand too has its advantages by directly addressing Illness. Curative medicine focuses on diagnosing and treating diseases once they occur, which is essential for acute and chronic conditions that cannot be prevented. Firstly, curative medicine provides immediate relief from symptoms and can be lifesaving, particularly in emergency situations, surgeries, and treatments for severe infections. The advanced medical interventions include surgeries, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies that can cure or manage conditions effectively. Medical intervention is critical and necessary for complex diseases that are not easily preventable, such as genetic disorders, certain cancers, and autoimmune diseases.

Curative medicine such as the use of antibiotic treatments, surgeries, chemotherapy, dialysis, and intensive care drives medical research, innovation and technological advancements that can eventually inform preventive strategies as well.

The advantage in preventive medicine is its effectiveness in reducing overall disease burden. Vaccinations and public health measures for example can prevent large-scale outbreaks and control endemic diseases. Preventive measures are also cost-effective by saving more money in the long run by reducing the need for expensive treatments and hospitalizations. Preventive care has long-term and a broader impact on population health and can lead to systemic improvements in public health and longevity.

Comparatively, curative medicine has an immediate and specific impact on treatment outcome. It is indispensable for treating existing illnesses and managing conditions that cannot be prevented. It provides necessary interventions for acute and chronic conditions that, if left untreated, could be fatal or severely debilitating.

Both has their advantages. The most effective healthcare system integrates both preventive and curative approaches. Preventive medicine reduces the incidence of diseases and promotes overall health, while curative medicine ensures that those who do fall ill receive the necessary treatment. A balanced approach ensures comprehensive care, maximizes health outcomes, and optimizes resource use.

Thus, neither approach can be considered universally superior; instead, their effectiveness is maximized when used complementarily, tailored to individual and population health needs.

Having explained all that, it can also be another way. Often it is also unnecessary to treat, worse still over treat a disease with all kinds of drugs and medications without even allowing the body to naturally heal itself. Let’s have a look at how the body heals itself naturally without interference.

The human body has remarkable self-healing abilities, which can often eliminate the need for medication or surgery. Here are several examples of how the body can heal itself and the mechanisms involved:

Cuts and Bruises can heal themselves through natural processes such as haemostasis. When a cut occurs, blood vessels constrict, and clotting begins to stop the bleeding. Then there may be inflammation. When this occurs white blood cells move to the injury site to fight infection and remove debris. There is then proliferation by new tissue and blood vessels to help the wound start to close. After this there is remodelling where the wound matures, and the new tissue strengthens and integrates with the surrounding tissue. The healing time for small cuts can heal within a few days to a week, depending on their severity.

In the event of bone fractures, the body responds by inflammation and pain to rest the area.  Blood clots form around the fracture to stabilize the bone. Then there is soft callus formation where cartilage forms around the fracture as a temporary fix. After that there is hard callus formation where the cartilage is replaced by a hard bony callus. Following that healing process, remodelling takes place.  The bone is reshaped and strengthened over several months to years. The healing time for fractures can take several weeks to months to heal, depending on the bone and the severity of the fracture.

In the event of minor infections, the immune response is triggered.  The immune system detects pathogens and mounts an attack using white blood cells, antibodies, and other mechanisms. For example, a mild fever can enhance the immune response and inhibit pathogen replication. There is then resolution where the body clears the infection, and the immune system retains a memory of the pathogen.

The healing time for minor infections can resolve within a few days to a week. We then have muscle strains and sprains. The healing process involves inflammation, swelling and redness that occur as the body responds to the injury. During the repair mechanism, muscle fibres regenerate and scar tissue forms. This is followed by remodelling where the muscle tissue strengthens and adapts to prevent future injury. The healing time and recovery can take a few days to several weeks.

The mechanism of self-healing normally involves pain over the area to enforce rest.  The inflammation is the body's initial response to injury or infection. It involves the release of signalling molecules like cytokines and chemokines, which attract immune cells to the site of injury to begin the healing process. This is followed by cellular regeneration where certain tissues, like skin and the liver, have a high capacity for cellular regeneration. Stem cells in these tissues can differentiate into various cell types needed for repair.

The body is designed and equipped with an immune system. The immune system identifies and eliminates pathogens, clears out dead or damaged cells, and facilitates tissue repair. It involves clotting and coagulation. When blood vessels are damaged, the body initiates a cascade of events that result in the formation of a blood clot to stop bleeding and begin the repair process.

Over time, the body remodels and strengthens new tissue to restore normal function. This can involve the deposition of collagen, removal of excess cells, and integration of new tissue with existing structures.

Briefly summarized, while the body has impressive self-healing capabilities, the effectiveness and speed of healing can be influenced by factors such as the severity of the injury, age, overall health, and presence of underlying conditions. In some cases, but rarely, medical intervention is necessary to support or enhance the body's natural healing processes, especially for severe injuries, infections, or chronic conditions. However, understanding and supporting the body's innate ability to heal can often reduce the need for unnecessary medication or surgery. 

Most of the diseases seen these days are chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, gout and arthritis, osteoporosis, and even depression to name a few are diseases of unhealthy lifestyles. How is it possible to treat these diseases due to damaging nutrition, sedentary lifestyles, obesity using chemical drugs without wanting to remove their root causes? The root cause through education, counselling and lifestyle modification are never addressed by the doctor except prescribing all kinds of unnecessary drugs for the patient to swallow the easy, short-cut way. How is the patient going to find a permanent cure if all these lifestyle root causes are never addressed? 

Similarly, it is very unfortunate when a patient sees a doctor for a minor injury, a fever or a minor infection that is not life-threatening; he is also being unnecessarily overtreated with all kinds of chemical drugs. The doctor does not even allow the chance for Nature to do her own work for which the body is designed. This unnecessary interference with all kinds of chemical drugs weakens the body’s own immunological, defence, healing and adaptation ability to be more resilient to future disease, infections and injury an area called biological adaptation, evolutionary biology or Darwinism medicine which I am familiar with after reading for a postdoctoral course at the University of Cambridge.

I think the body is specially designed this way to support our continuous survival under adverse challenging conditions and environment. A lot of people are being injured and insulted constantly by the external environment from pathogens to radiation and free radicals. These events occur every second of our lives. Without us knowing it, the body silently defends us, and the repair mechanisms are triggered off all the time.

In this way we survive the odds as we adapt. Nature knows best and we need to respect her healing powers. She is the best Healer to our body, definitely not the doctor for which I am one.  

Lim jb