Could it be that fewer pills make for better health? Yes, says Dr. B. M. Hegde in a July 6 article in Money Life News & Views magazine. Dr. Hegde, “the People’s Doctor,” writes, “less medicine for the elderly gives them better health to enjoy life. It will add life to their years while it might also add years to their life!”
Today, after reading Dr. Hedge’s article, I happened to make a call to help a friend obtain some new car insurance. While answering questions, the agent informed me that because of her advanced age my friend would need to get a doctor’s statement documenting that she was physically able to drive. I explained that this friend was a lifelong Christian Scientist who not only did not have a family physician but had not seen a doctor since the 1940s, when she was treated for a broken arm. There was a moment of silence, then the insurance agent exclaimed, “Well, she’s healthy and this age because she hasn’t filled her body with pills and medicines through the years!”
Less Medicine, More Health is the title of a new book by Gilbert Welch that backs up that sentiment. Drawing on his twenty-five years of medical practice and research, Welch notes in this book that problems are created when the general public clings to powerful assumptions about the value of treatments that they can’t benefit from. Furthermore, he states, “The American public has been sold the idea that seeking medical care is one of the most important steps to maintaining wellness. Surprisingly, medical care is not, in fact, well correlated with good health. So more medicine does not equal more health; in reality the opposite may be true.”
In the Bible, it is clear that Jesus never prescribed drugs in order to heal sickness or disease. His medicine was always a spiritual approach, applying God’s spiritual laws to heal whatever the malady was. And if those laws were based on divine truth, as Jesus’ claimed, then they must still be true and available today.
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Christian healer Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick. Truth casts out error now as surely as it did 19 centuries ago.”
So what is this Truth that Christ Jesus applied to humanity’s needs with healing results? Wasn’t it that God is Spirit -- all good and all-powerful -- and that man is His image and likeness? Jesus understood the ever-presence of the power of God, and that understanding allowed him to restore health to those who were sick. And, as we learn to have more trust in the loving nature of God, we may find we are less dependent on drugs to keep us well.
After a lifelong search for health, when Eddy failed to find relief through material means, she turned wholly to God and discovered the spiritual laws (or divine Principle) underlying Jesus’ works, and was restored to health. She named her discovery Christian Science.
For over a century, Christian Science has awakened mankind, like my friend, to the effectiveness of reliance on divine means for better health. My friend’s long, healthy life is a testament to God’s ability to meet all our needs.
Christian Science does not rely on a “natural” approach or “lifestyle changes” to improve health, as does Dr. Hegde. Interestingly, though, Dr. Hegde does say “Enough medicine is already in our body. The day we understand real science, we will stop reaching out to drugs.”
Step by step, as we strive to depend on God – whose ways, according to the Scriptures, are higher than human ways -- we can ultimately trust Him, not pills, to make us well.
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Debra Chew writes about the connection between thought, spirituality and wellness from a Christian Science perspective. She has been published in USA Today, chattanoogan.com, Knoxville News Sentinel, Memphis Commercial Appeal, UK Health Triangle Magazine, and the Jackson Sun & JS Health Magazine.