Some friends in my active WhatsApp group was sharing with me a video on the future medicine taken over by AI
Bill Gates: Within 10 years, AI will replace humans ‘for most things'
Let me share in turn with you (not all are grateful and thankful) my previous working experience in health care.
When I was working in IMR (Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) we used to conduct tens of hundreds of health surveys across the length and breath the country - into the villages and rural areas as well, sometimes deep inside the jungles where orang asli and natives live.
Our team would bring a mobile laboratory with us, including centrifuges and spectrophotometers for field work. We would make use of the government rural health clinics and place them there. Analysis of blood, urine and other biological samples would be analysed in the rural clinics, except for sophisticated analysis where we would packed them in ice and transport them to IMR
During our examination these jungle natives will tell us the different plants in the jungles they use to treat themselves - anything from fevers, tumours to snake bites so effectively without problem. We, doctors, dentists, behavioural and biomedical scientists and other biomedical researchers, nurses and laboratory technologists in our large team would listen carefully and learn from the natives and 'primitive' people the different types of plants and their names they would use to treat themselves from different diseases..
Our team were multidisciplinary drawing the professional expertise from other areas of specializations, such as medical anthropologists, nutritionists, dentists, sociologists, behavioural scientists, a bio-statistician because we wanted our studies to be as holistic as possible since heath-care is not just the domain of the medical doctor only. It is a holistic multi-disciplinary approach - see the official definition of health by the World Health Organization
"a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"
After we have examined them for the day, there would be several hours of learning sessions from the natives who would identify the plants and their medical uses for us. They were our mentors after that - not us teaching or treating them. They hardly suffer all those diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart and cholesterol problems like we do in the cities and urban areas.
It is a wonder how they manage to treat snakes bites in the jungles using medicinal plants to neutralize the snake toxins such as neurotoxins that damages the nervous systems, hemotoxins that damages the blood and blood vessels, cytotoxins from pit vipers that destroys cells and tissues, myotoxins that damages and disintegrates muscles and clotting mechanisms and other haemotoxins and neurotoxins instead of using polyclonal antibodies, anti-snake venom injections or other immunotherapeutic to neutralize the venom toxins.
Of course for tumours they may not necessarily be cancers. They may be benign tumours, but they can also be cancers, yet they treated themselves very effectively using jungle plants. The entire jungle with millions of different types of natural medicine God gave them were their biggest pharmacy on Earth and all for free. These natives never left their natural Garden of Eden to look for pharmaceuticals and petroleum products introduced over a 100 years ago by the billionaire Rockefeller as medicines now prescribed by doctors in towns and cities. Most of these bare-footed natives were in excellent physical and mental health for sure as assessed by our highly qualified medical and psychological and behavioural team from IMR and some from university hospitals who joined us. They don't suffer from any stress or stress -related chronic ills like us.
They don't even suffer from malaria even though when we take blood films from them to look for Plasmodium (malarial parasites or MP) all the samples were positive for MP. But they were not presented with symptoms of malaria such as fever, alternating with chills, general malaise, headache, nauseas and vomiting, abdominal pains
We know that malaria infection begins when an infected female Anopheles mosquito bites a person, the mosquitoes injects Plasmodium parasites into the bloodstream. The MP undergoes several stages in their life cycles - from sporozoites to merozoites and gametocytes in the erythrocytes (red blood corpuscles), and during the merozoites stage they cause fever when the RBC burst.
But these orang asli (natives) walk about very healthy showing completely no signs or symptoms of malaria. They seem to live happily in symbiosis with these malaria parasites in their blood - neither each troubling the other.
According to the late Emeritus Professor Dr Mak Joon Wah who was the Head of the Malaria Division at IMR, he told me that when they found the orang asli with malarial parasites in their blood were walking about without symptoms of malaria, they decided to treat them with chloroquine, ones of the antimalarial drugs. Six months later they went back to re-examine the community, and what they found was, they came down with clinical malaria instead. This shows we must not interfere with Nature. These communities have been living very happily with MP in their blood in a symbiotic relationship with one and another. But once we interfere with this relationship the infective agent (MP) gets upset and attacks the host.. This is the same with many infectious and communicable like diseases tuberculosis (TB) where there is multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).
Other examples of drug-resistant infective agents are methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) just to name two examples among many others.
Even other antimalarial drugs like quinine, amodiaquine, artemisinin derivatives like Artemether and Artesunate are beginning to show resistance to malaria.
I believe this is part of adaptation for the survival of the fittest as part of evolution (Darwinism medicine) where I am familiar.
I think this is a lesson we need to learn using drugs to fight against Nature. I don't think we can ever win against the might of Nature. This is the weakness and setback of modern drug-based medicine. We have no permanent cure with any of our chronic lifestyle diseases using drugs, and neither can we win against communicable diseases where we encounter drug-resistant bacteria and other infective agents emerging
As for lifestyle diseases. when the government relocated the orang asli into urban settlements most of them came down with all those chronic disorders - diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, infectious disease like those affecting cities and urban dwellers - that were never there when they live with Nature in their jungles
I believe that was how God came in to help them because they were so humble and lowly unlike us city dwellers who are too busy to think of God who could have guided us using natural plants as food and medicines as it was in the Garden of Eden. That's why our chronic diseases today could not be cured, but "controlled" and the patients asked to come back again for follow up in the next appointment for the same petroleum-derived "medicines" to "cure".
I feel very sorry for myself too, using my own medicine trying to 'cure' my own leg problem that was never "cured" by no less than 20 medical and surgical specialists who all treated me in vain.
This is just to share my live experience using my own medicine. This is a profound experience from my time as a medical researcher at IMR. My reflections on the wisdom of the orang asli and native communities in the jungles resonate deeply for me. It is truly humbling to realize that, despite their seemingly "primitive" lifestyle, they possess knowledge of nature's pharmacy far beyond what modern medicine has fully explored. Their ability to treat ailments, including venomous snake bites and tumours, using jungle plants is a testament to the intelligence and deep-rooted understanding they have of their natural environment.
My observation together with my team of doctors, medical, clinical and scientific colleagues have observed this and we have learnt much from these natives - that they not only be able to treat themselves from all kinds of illnesses, but they also remain free from the chronic diseases plaguing urban dwellers - diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stress-related conditions - is eye-opening. It raises important questions about whether our modern medical system, heavily reliant on synthetic pharmaceuticals, has overlooked the healing power of natural medicine that God has provided in abundance.
Perhaps their way of life, unburdened by industrialization, processed foods, and artificial chemicals, has shielded them from the diseases we now struggle to "control" rather than cure.
The way we observed this is God’s guidance to the humble and lowly, and this has profound meaning. It makes one wonder whether true healing lies in simplicity, in harmony with nature, rather than in the complexity of modern pharmaceuticals driven by profit. The reality that chronic diseases are merely "managed" rather than cured raises valid concerns about whether medicine has, in some ways, deviated from its true purpose.
My own personal struggle with my chronic leg condition, despite seeing over 20 specialists, is heart-breaking. It highlights the limitations of even the most advanced medical knowledge when it comes to certain ailments. I truly empathize my own frustration and disappointment. It is a painful to experience first-hand the reality that modern medicine, despite all its advancements, still has gaps in understanding and treatment.
My story is not just a personal experience but also a powerful reflection on the state of modern healthcare. It reminds us that we should not dismiss traditional knowledge as "primitive" but instead learn from it.
There is so much wisdom in nature that remains untapped. Perhaps one day, science will catch up with what the orang asli have known for centuries.
We learn the depth of wisdom of these humble people. Do you care to share the same?
No comments:
Post a Comment