There is a saying that I hear every now and then which more or less states that everything good is bad for you. I think that is totally untrue. I have the opposite mentality that everything is good. I base that simply from the Bible.
Genesis 1:31 (NLT – New Living Translation): “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
Of course you don't have to look very hard to give examples that there are very many bad things in this world. You would be absolutely correct! I believe that everything is good:
Yes, yes, I'm sure you can blow that argument apart with fringe cases and extremes but hear me out.
Just for fun consider food. It is vital to live. Then again too much food makes you sick. Food isn't bad but at the wrong time, wrong amount, wrong type, etc?
As a Pharmacist I stand in front of a large number of medications and dispense them each and every day. I am very meticulous in making sure I check and dispense the correct dose. Reason? The wrong dose likely won't give the proper result.
Let's take Ibuprofen as an example. It is an effective pain reliever used by millions and maybe even billions of people annually. Now lets look at the dose.
100mg Ibuprofen dose -- Useful for children but likely not enough for an adult.
200mg Ibuprofen dose -- Useful for adults for pain relief
400mg Ibuprofen dose -- Useful for adults as maximum pain relief and some anti-inflammatory effect
800mg Ibuprofen dose -- Maximum pain relief and maximum anti-inflammatory effect.
1600mg Ibuprofen dose -- Very high risk of serious side effects like kidney damage, ear drum damage, stomach ulcer etc.
Admittedly this is a very simplified example as toxicity can result at the lower doses and there is individual variability. However, the fact remains:
Actually let me change something to many things.
Now here is a fun thing for you to think about and a real pharmacy question.
When I worked in Washington state condoms for family planning were paid for by the state but the stipulation was in an amount reasonable for personal use for a months supply.
Here is your skill testing question:
How much sex is too much in one month 🙂🙃😎
....and no, I'm not joking. If I give out an unreasonable supply then the Pharmacy doesn't get paid. If I give too few then I'm not fulfilling the heart of the law to make sure people have access to family planning and STD control. However, I can honestly say that my schooling didn't tell me how often normal people have sex.
Here is your next thought provoking question.
What do you do when someone wants to get 30 x 12 count boxes of condoms. 360 total with a value of about $500 HBD. Remember if you say its OK and the government disagrees your Pharmacy just lost $500. If you say NO then the customer will say "but they are free for personal use". Or perhaps you want to get them to sign your billing log to say that "Yes, I typically have sex twelve times daily".
What were your answers?
Is twelve times a day too much?
I don't personally know the answer and I really wish the state gave better guidance. My personal thought is someone would be tired, sore, and likely have little personal life at 360 times a month.
However, that's not my actual point.
My point is:
Sex is good.
No sex is bad.
Too much sex is bad.
Sex with someone who is too young, not ready, too drunk, not your spouse, etc is bad.
It comes down to (as I wrote before)... right purpose, right time, right amount, right reason etc.
Now lets take a look at things that usually get a lot of press as "Bad for you".
Right now I'm in Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim. I'm not Muslim but I can tell you that alcohol, while not banned, is expensive and restricted in the country. The reason is that the Qur'an prohibits alcohol. A ChatGPT search gave me this verse:
Qur’an 5:90 “O you who believe! Intoxicants, gambling, sacrificing on stone alters, and divining arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. So avoid them that you may be successful.”
I do not drink alcohol as I've seen what it can do to people. When I've seen my son's drink it makes me sad. However, I will not say that alcohol is bad but rather that limits matter. Now I could point out its medicinal uses like making herbal tinctures or for rubbing alcohol but I believe the Qur'an makes a distinction for medical use (I certainly could be wrong).
I actually look to the Puritans who were settlers into North America hundreds of years ago. They were a very devout Christian sect that followed very strict moral laws. Guess what? Much of what they drank was lightly alcoholic. Not to get drunk but rather because alcohol kept them from getting sick from various water borne diseases.
Want another "it's bad for you" item? Look at smoking cigarettes. Tobacco is well documented to cause cancer, COPD/emphysema and a host of other problems. It is incredibly addictive and extremely hard to stop. It can't possibly be good, right?
Except if you look at its traditional use in ceremonies as a "peace pipe". Nicotine is actually very useful to help people become calm, alert and focused. Isn't that exactly what you want if you are negotiating treaties between people? If you are using nicotine only once a year for peace ceremonies and treaties how dangerous is smoking really going to be? How useful is it going to be for negotiations. Now I don't honestly know how often people met and smoked peace pipes but I am fairly safe in saying it wasn't done multiple times daily for life.
How many lives has cocaine ruined? How addictive is it? How many cartels have done horrible things to ensure its delivery with huge profits!
Yet originally the coca leaf which has trace amounts of cocaine in it was given to children to chew on for teething pain. Cocaine in very small amounts is a very good local anaesthetic.
I heard a statistic that the time from when someone first starts using meth (methamphetamine) until the day they die is about two years. I do not know exactly how true that is but as a pharmacist I see people with methamphetamine abuse issues and I can see their decline, erratic behavior, and general self destruction. Horrible, right?
Yet mixed amphetamine salts (Adderal) at exactly the right amount has helped many people with ADHD find mental focus and a better life using the drug.
In my province of British Columbia in Canada the health department has declared a Fentanyl crisis because so many people are dying from overdoses. Want to see numbers?
Source: Health Canada
Again, I've seen the problem first hand on the streets of Abbotsford and walking in some parts of Vancouver it is a very grim sight.
Then again. My father died of bone cancer. Near the end he was in excruciating pain and oral morphine was ineffective because his stomach effectively stopped absorbing the medication reliably. Fentanyl is powerful enough that it could be absorbed through the skin to give him some relief as his body was shutting down and dying. Fentanyl was responsible for my father being coherent enough for our final conversation in 2006.
I could keep going on and on about how "bad things" are "good" in the right situation. However, I'm going to make it personal and tell you about things I deal with. Some things I'm just not going to mention just because however, I can absolutely tell you that food and coca-cola are things I struggle with.
I love sweet things! I love my sugar. But is it harmful or not? Well, sucrose and other sugars occur naturally in many foods and especially fruits. An apple a day keeps the doctor away but honestly that apple has a lot of sugar in it.
Sugar isn't the actual issue, the amount of sugar is. Too much sugar? People get too many calories from carbohydrates and not enough from protein. People become overweight and malnourished. Then again if someone is seriously low in blood sugar a quick sugar boost can save their lives.
Yes, I'm actively working on my weight. Yes, its a struggle. Yes if I continue to be overweight there are a plethora of things that can go wrong. So... I fight to stay on the right side of balance but it is a daily challenge
I love coca cola even more than straight sugar. Caffiene, sugar, and no vitamins or minerals whatsoever. It helps make me fat. It keeps me from getting the sleep that I need. So, for the past month I have had only two small cans of Coca Cola. At that level I've found that my sleeping is better, my weight is slowly going down (but there are other food factors there as well) and I still wish I could have a coca cola every time I see it in the Super Indo here in Indonesia.
(sigh).
Someday I'll have a better relationship with sugar and cola. Right now I have to pay the bill for all the sugar and cola I've eaten in the past. Once that bill is paid and my weight is back where it should be I'll start looking at how much isn't harmful but until that day it is best just to avoid it.
I try not to vilify anything but seeing the ill effects of abuse of so many things make it easy to say "THAT'S BAD!!!" when in reality a more measured viewpoint is likely the honest one.
Still, I'm hoping my kids never try methamphetamine or cocaine. I hope they stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. Yes, there have a benefit but as I said before : right time, right place right amount and for some things its easy to say "just one more" and that causes no end of trouble.
Better just to say NO
... and avoid the risk.
...... Unless its really necessary 😄
And that's my take on the Hive Learners prompt. Thanks for reading this far. As always I love comments but no comment? No problem. Appreciate the eyes here anyways.
