Читать книгу Trust Your Gut - Gregory Plotnikoff - Страница 48

You probably have heard that old joke about a man going to a doctor and saying, “Doctor, it hurts when I move my arm this way.” The doctor says, “Okay, don't move your arm that way.” Pharmaceutical advertising turns this joke on its head, transmitting to us the exact opposite message. The message no longer says, “Don't do that.” Instead it says, “Okay, you can still do that if you just take a pill first.” Medications are helpful for many people, but sometimes they can also serve to mask important signals from the body.

The mass media is the way we receive commercial messages in the modern world. Whether transmitted by television, radio, print, or the Internet, messages about the gut expressed through advertising deeply affect the way people think and feel about the intimate processes of their own body. American media, in particular, is saturated with pharmaceutical ads; they're everywhere. And why? The pharmaceutical industry's very existence relies upon patients asking their doctors for “that medication I saw on TV.”

What do you see when you watch a commercial for an over-the-counter or prescription gut medication? You see people with gut distress standing on the sidelines of life, not joining the party because they can't eat pizza. You hear them saying no to dinner out because they are terrified they might get a bout of diarrhea.

Medications sometimes prevent you from listening to the very important messages your gut is trying to send.

The hard sell? Medications put the fairness back in life. They are the great equalizer. It's unfair that your gut says, “Don't eat this food that everyone else is enjoying” or “I have to go to the bathroom even though the timing couldn't be worse.” Sure, the medications let you do what everyone else is doing, but sometimes they prevent you from listening to the very important messages your gut is trying to send. Why listen to a possibly inconvenient or embarrassing message when you can take a pill and make it go away?

Pharmaceutical ads also reinforce the longstanding and incorrect belief that symptoms and sensations of the body are simply annoyances to be eradicated. They devalue the notion that the stomach irritation that flares up when you eat pizza might be useful information about what your body needs for healing. For example, heartburn, indigestion, and irritation are desperate signals to protect you by saying, “Pay attention to me! This food doesn't agree with you, and it's going to hurt you! Don't put us through this suffering!”

Pharmaceutical companies take a great deal of time and expense to redefine what is normal to a sufferer of gut distress. We believe your body's sensations are important messengers trying to help you heal. We believe your body's own integrity is the new normal. Drug manufacturers treat these sensations as obstacles to having a good time.

So let's assume that the guy goes ahead, takes an acid-blocking medicine, and then eats pizza until he's totally stuffed. What happens then? Probably nothing for a few minutes. But within an hour or two, he likely will feel indigestion because his body doesn't tolerate the wheat, dairy, or tomato sauce in the pizza. This disrupts the ecology of his gut. He will probably react with either constipation or diarrhea.

And this is what happens after just one episode. If he continues to use acid-blocking medicine to tolerate eating pizza despite his body's warning signs, other problems follow. For example, the acid-blocking medicines change digestion over time, because we need a certain amount of stomach acid in order to properly absorb important nutrients from our food. The result: our pizza lover ends up with an increasing cycle of pain, bloating, bowel irregularity, and incomplete digestion of his meal.

Instead of ignoring your gut, start ignoring commercials. Ads by the large pharmaceutical companies say, “Turn off your gut's messages; they are unimportant at best and harmful at worst. You can live like everyone else if you only stop listening. This pill will make your gut shut up. It will put the belly aching to rest.”

The problem is that even if you ignore your gut's communication, your very wise body—your somatic wisdom—will find ways to get the message across. To find relief from the endless cycle of gut distress, it is critical to open—not shut off—the communication between you and your gut.

Take Action

Try this mini-exercise the next time you see a television commercial for a gut medication.

1 Watch it carefully.

2 Write down its message about your gut symptoms.

3 What is the commercial telling you about your life?

4 Does it stir up any emotions in you?