Medicines Cure Fear, Not Disease
- Madhukar Dama
- Aug 16
- 13 min read
Prologue
Before we begin, pause for a moment. This is not another health article telling you what to do. This is a mirror. Ask yourself a few questions honestly:
How many times have you swallowed a tablet only because of fear, not because of actual suffering? Do you run for tests the moment you hear a disease name on TV? Did your doctor ever give you medicines “just in case,” even when your reports were normal?
Look at your own family — is someone living permanently on pills for BP, sugar, acidity, or sleep? Have you noticed how new “awareness days” and health camps arrive right before new drugs appear in the market? Did you ever continue medicines out of fear that stopping them would make things worse?
Think of the little things: a cough, a fever, a small pain. Do you immediately imagine the worst because of what you read online or hear in the news? How many times have you stocked up on antibiotics, vitamins, or tonics — only to throw them away later?
Do you also feel hospitals and pharma companies make health sound more complicated than it really is? And most importantly — are you ready to question whether “treatment” is always for your health, or sometimes only for the market?
If these questions make you pause, then this article is for you. Because what we call “healthcare” today is often nothing but a carefully manufactured cycle of fear and consumption.
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1. Freedom and Health Were Replaced by Panic
Human health has always faced real problems — fever, injury, infection.
But what we see today is different.
Modern medicine is built not only on treating illness, but on sustaining your fear.
Every day you are reminded:
“Check your sugar.”
“Monitor your blood pressure.”
“Get your annual scans.”
“Watch your cholesterol.”
“Don’t skip your pills.”
This is not guidance. This is conditioning.
The aim is not to make you healthy once and for all.
The aim is to keep you permanently worried — and permanently paying.
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2. The Market Logic of Medicine
Step One: Widen the Sick Population
Numbers are redefined so that millions become “at risk.”
In India, the definition of diabetes and hypertension thresholds were lowered, which suddenly converted lakhs of normal people into patients overnight.
Step Two: Offer a Quick Relief
Medicines give you comfort, control, or stability.
But they rarely solve the underlying condition.
Once you stop, the old symptoms come back — stronger.
Step Three: Create Permanent Subscriptions
Just like you pay monthly for electricity or mobile data, you now pay monthly for survival.
Tablets, syrups, inhalers, injections — your panic keeps the subscription alive.
Step Four: Build Panic Campaigns
Media headlines: “1 in 3 Indians at risk of cancer/diabetes/heart attack.”
Hospitals push full-body checkups with fear-based ads.
Pharma companies fund “awareness days” for every condition from thyroid to back pain.
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3. Disease by Disease: How Panic Was Converted Into Business
Here is a direct, exhaustive list across categories, showing real examples from India and the world.
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A. Heart & Blood
Hypertension – BP limit was reduced from 160/100 to 140/90, and now even 130/80 is “at risk.” Millions of Indians became patients for life.
Cholesterol – Normal cholesterol is treated as dangerous. Even healthy adults are put on statins.
Heart Attack Fear – Corporate hospitals advertise “executive heart checkups” costing ₹10,000–₹25,000, making every office worker believe death is near.
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B. Diabetes & Hormones
Diabetes – Instead of changing food systems, walking habits, and sleep cycles, patients are kept on metformin, insulin, and newer expensive drugs. Blood sugar goes down, but dependence goes up.
Hypothyroidism – India is now the thyroid capital of the world. Levothyroxine is sold as a lifelong solution, but iodine imbalance, poor gut health, and lifestyle issues remain ignored.
PCOS – Teenage girls are put on birth control pills for “hormone correction” while real causes like processed food and sedentary habits are never addressed.
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C. Respiratory
Asthma – Inhalers give relief, but pollution in Indian cities keeps the crisis alive. Instead of clean air policies, drug markets expand.
Allergy & Sinus – Crores of Indians use antihistamines daily, but nobody asks why food and environment have become so hostile.
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D. Infectious Diseases
Flu and Viral Fevers – Every season you see fear-driven campaigns for vaccines and antivirals. In 2023–24, flu shots became as aggressively marketed as soft drinks in metros.
Tuberculosis – India has the highest TB burden. Medicine kills bacteria but poverty, malnutrition, and overcrowding are untouched — ensuring a steady stream of new patients.
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E. Autoimmune Disorders
Arthritis – Expensive biologics control pain, but diet and inflammation roots are not corrected.
Psoriasis – Ads for creams and injections keep people dependent, but toxin elimination and gut correction are never in the picture.
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F. Digestive Disorders
Acidity (GERD) – Proton pump inhibitors are India’s top-selling drugs. They suppress acid, but long-term use damages digestion. The moment you stop, burning returns.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Medicines control diarrhea or constipation temporarily. Doctors rarely discuss pesticide-laden food or antibiotic misuse as causes.
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G. Bones & Muscles
Osteoporosis – Instead of teaching about sun exposure and diet, women are sold calcium tablets and bone-strengthening drugs.
Back Pain – One of India’s biggest painkiller markets. Instead of correcting posture and building strength, pills are given endlessly.
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H. Neurological
Migraine – Painkillers and triptans are sold in millions. The causes — poor sleep, screen strain, dehydration — stay hidden.
Parkinson’s – Medicines help tremors, but lifestyle interventions are almost absent from care in India.
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I. Mental Health
Depression & Anxiety – Antidepressant sales in India doubled in the last 10 years. Instead of social reform and community healing, pills are pushed as the main solution.
ADHD in Children – In Western countries, stimulant drugs make billions. In India, this is now rising in metros with private schools demanding “diagnosis” to justify special fees.
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J. Cancer
Breast Cancer – Screening camps are run in malls and offices. Fear brings in healthy women for mammograms and biopsies, feeding hospital revenue.
Prostate Cancer – Global studies show many men die with prostate cancer, not from it. Yet panic ensures aggressive surgery and chemo.
Thyroid Cancer – Even harmless nodules are treated as threats, leading to full removal and lifelong dependence on synthetic hormones.
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K. Children’s Diseases
Obesity – A junk food-driven crisis. Instead of banning products, markets sell weight-loss supplements for kids.
Vitamins – Even healthy children are put on tonics, syrups, and powders because “immunity” is portrayed as fragile.
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L. Pre-Disease Traps
This is the biggest goldmine:
Pre-Diabetes
Pre-Hypertension
Osteopenia
Borderline Personality
Mild Cognitive Decline
Each one means you start medication when you are not sick — and never stop.
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4. The Current Example – India, 2025
India spends ₹2 lakh crore annually on medicines.
The top-selling drugs are painkillers, acidity tablets, diabetes pills, BP tablets, antibiotics.
70% of this is long-term, repeat purchases.
Markets are built not on cures, but on continuity.
During COVID, this was most visible:
Panic over oxygen, Remdesivir, and vaccines made pharma profits soar.
Even after the crisis, booster shots and fear campaigns continued.
This pattern repeats across all diseases.
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5. Permanent Panic = Permanent Market
You are not cured.
You are converted into a monthly subscriber of fear relief.
Stop the pill → symptoms return.
Skip the checkup → you feel guilty.
Ignore the scan → you feel unsafe.
Your panic is the most reliable revenue stream.
Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance firms do not want closure.
They want permanence of disease identity.
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6. Conclusion
Medicines today are less about health, more about managing your panic at a price you can pay forever.
This is not conspiracy — it is open business.
Look at the top ten drugs in India. Not one is curative. All are maintenance products.
The truth is simple:
You were not given medicine to be free.
You were given medicine to stay in the market.
Healing Dialogue with Madhukar: Breaking the Fear of Diseases
Characters:
Madhukar – natural healer, simple and calm.
Ajja (grandfather) – 74 years old, retired teacher.
Ajji (grandmother) – 68 years old, traditional homemaker.
Raghav (father) – 42 years old, IT professional.
Meera (mother) – 38 years old, homemaker.
Ananya (daughter) – 14 years old, school student.
Aarav (son) – 8 years old, playful child.
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Scene:
The family has come early morning to Madhukar’s courtyard. Birds chirp, castor plants sway in the background, and a pot of buttermilk rests in the corner.
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Dialogue:
Ajja: (sighs) These days, every newspaper headline tells me about one new disease. Yesterday it was dengue, today it is cancer, tomorrow it will be some unknown fever. I feel old and weak just reading them.
Madhukar: (smiles gently) Ajja, what you are reading is not news, it is business. Fear is their raw material. Medicines are their product.
Ajji: But Madhukar, TV keeps saying that at my age I must do yearly scans, blood tests, bone tests. Otherwise they say something hidden might kill me. How to ignore that?
Madhukar: Ajji, tests cannot stop death, they can only create fear before death. Life is not meant to be lived chasing reports. You already live carefully – you cook clean food, you walk daily, you sleep on time. That is stronger than any test.
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Raghav: I work in IT. My office health camp told me my cholesterol is high. They gave me tablets. If I don’t take them, they say I may get a heart attack anytime.
Madhukar: Raghav, tell me – is your heart pain-free now?
Raghav: Yes.
Madhukar: Then who planted this fear of “anytime heart attack”? Not your body – it was the report. Remember, cholesterol is not an enemy. Stress, sleeplessness, fried food, lack of walking – those are. Correct these, and your body will balance itself.
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Meera: I get WhatsApp forwards daily – about breast cancer risk, about thyroid problems in women, about PCOD in girls. They make me restless.
Madhukar: Meera, these are not health messages. They are advertisements disguised as warnings. Every message ends in suggesting some checkup, some hospital, some pill. That is how fear spreads. You already follow simple habits – home food, castor oil pack, walking. That is your real shield.
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Ananya: In my school, my friends talk about depression, anxiety, vitamin deficiencies. Some even take pills. I feel scared – what if I also have something hidden?
Madhukar: Ananya, your age is for running, laughing, studying, playing. Not for swallowing pills. Remember, the more you listen to others’ fears, the more you lose your freedom. You are healthy because you are active. Trust your body.
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Aarav: (innocently) Amma says I should use sanitizer every time I touch anything. But I like playing in mud. Will I fall sick?
Madhukar: Aarav, mud is your real doctor. Playing in soil gives your body strength. Sanitizers kill not just germs, but also your body’s natural army. Wash hands with plain soap and water, that is enough.
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Ajja: Hmm… so you mean most diseases are not real?
Madhukar: Ajja, diseases are real. But the fear attached to them is manufactured. Look – fever is natural, cough is natural, pain is natural. They are signals, not enemies. Markets make them into enemies so they can sell you lifelong fear.
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Ajji: What about this “regular health checkup culture”? Even our neighbour says he spends 10,000 rupees yearly just on tests.
Madhukar: Ajji, yearly checkups are like yearly bribes to fear. If the report is normal, fear waits for the next year. If it is abnormal, fear begins immediately. Either way, market wins, patient loses.
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Raghav: Then what is the real way of living without fear?
Madhukar:
Eat simple, freshly cooked food.
Avoid packet snacks and fast food.
Walk daily, breathe deeply.
Once a week, use castor oil pack on the belly.
Once in 15 days, fast lightly.
Avoid unnecessary medicines.
Trust the body’s signals instead of rushing to hospitals.
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Ananya: So basically, don’t run behind fear.
Madhukar: Exactly. Fear is the biggest disease. Once you cure that, other diseases become smaller.
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Ajja: (smiling) You know, Madhukar, my father always told me – “Live so that your last day feels like any other day.” I had forgotten that.
Madhukar: Ajja, that wisdom is more powerful than any pill.
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Closing Scene:
The family sits quietly. Ajji pours buttermilk for everyone. Aarav laughs, spilling some on his shirt. The mood has shifted – lighter, calmer, freer.
Madhukar (softly): Remember – medicines cure panic, not disease. Your body cures disease when you give it time, food, and peace.
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✅ This way the dialogue touches all generations:
Old: cancer, bone scans, tests
Middle-aged: cholesterol, BP, thyroid
Women: breast cancer, PCOD, WhatsApp fear
Youth: depression, vitamin fear
Children: sanitizer, germs
One Year Later: The Same Family, Less Fear, More Freedom
Household snapshot (from their own notebook)
Unnecessary clinic visits: 0 this year (one planned eye check-up only)
Antibiotic courses: 0
Monthly medicine spend: down from ~₹8,000 to ~₹2,400 (mainly essentials)
Sleep: lights out by 10:00 pm, screens out of bedrooms
Weekly rhythm: ambali/buttermilk daily, fermented batters, 5–6 days walking, Ekadashi fasting, oil bath twice a month, belly castor oil pack 2–4×/week
no heated arguments during meals or after 9 pm
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Ajja — fear of BP and heart attacks → steady, simple living
Then: Checked BP several times a day, kept tablets in pocket “just in case,” news headlines triggered panic.
Now: Checks BP twice a week, logs it calmly.
Early dinner, 20–30 min morning walk with aarav, 10 slow breaths before sleep.
Castor oil belly pack twice a week; warm shoulder rub on stiff days.
With his doctor’s review, no dose escalations this year; one redundant pill was stopped.
Line he repeats to himself: “I manage my day, not just my numbers.”
One small scene: When a neighbour forwards a “sudden death” article, ajja finishes his walk, drinks buttermilk, and smiles: “Breaking news cannot break my breath.”
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Ajji — fear of hidden cancers and weak bones → sun, food, movement
Then: Routine “full-body” scans urged by friends; calcium pills and “memory” syrups; felt fragile though she functioned well.
Now: Sun on face and forearms every morning; light squats while holding the kitchen counter.
Sesame-jaggery laddus weekly, leafy greens, sprouted pulses.
Warm castor oil knee rub on market days; pain noticeably less.
No “just to be safe” scans; only symptom-led checks.
She tells other grandmothers: “My fear was heavier than my bones.”
One small scene: ajji and ananya shell peas on the veranda; no TV health scares playing in the background—just conversation.
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Raghav — fear from health camps (cholesterol, acidity, “borderline everything”) → habit, not packages
Then: Office packages flagged “borderline” values each year; PPIs for acidity; late dinners and late emails.
Now: Early dinner (7:30 pm); 8–9k steps most days; stairs over lift.
PPIs tapered off under his doctor’s supervision after meal-timing, chewing, and pack routine improved digestion.
Two belly castor oil packs weekly; Sunday oil bath twice a month.
6 kg lighter; more steady energy through the day.
He jokes: “I switched from health packages to habit packages.”
One small scene: When HR mails the “executive heart screening,” raghav replies politely “Not this year,” and goes for a walk with ajja instead.
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Meera — fear fed by forwards (thyroid, breast cancer, PCOS) → curation and calm
Then: Late-night symptom Googling, WhatsApp health scare forwards, constant self-checking.
Now: Digital hygiene: leaves health groups that sell fear; reads only from sources she trusts.
Kitchen leadership: weekly plan—ambali, simple sabzis, fermented dosa/idli; packet snacks largely out.
Sleep restored: warm castor oil belly rub most nights; phone out of bedroom.
Monthly self-awareness (not obsessive self-exams), and only symptom-led doctor visits.
Her line this year: “I feed family, not fear.”
One small scene: A relative insists she do a “preventive scan package”. Meera smiles: “My prevention is in my plate, my breath, and my pace.”
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Ananya — fear of labels (pre-diabetes, depression, infertility, acne) → strength and rhythm
Then: School camp hinted “risk”; friends on quick-fix pills; scrolling health content created anxiety.
Now: Hockey three evenings a week; sun time after classes.
Social media limits; no calorie-panic apps.
Acne settled with food discipline and weekly castor oil scalp/face massage (light, warm, gentle).
Periods tracked without panic; more sleep, fewer screens.
Her self-talk: “I am not a future patient; I am a present person.”
One small scene: A friend suggests a “hormone cleanse kit.” ananya smiles, shares her simple routine, and they go for a jog.
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Aarav — fear of germs and “weak immunity” → play, soil, simple care
Then: Sanitizer after every touch, antibiotics for seasonal coughs, fear of playing in mud.
Now: Plays in the kitchen garden with ajji; soap-and-water handwash, not constant sanitizers.
Two seasonal colds this year, both managed with tulsi tea, rest, warm castor oil chest/back rub, and patience.
Sleeps by 9:15 pm on school nights, eats unrushed breakfasts.
His line: “Mud makes me strong.”
One small scene: At a birthday party, he chooses fruit and curd first, cake second—no lecture, just habit.
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What they stopped doing
Panic buying of supplements and tonics “just in case.”
Annual “full-body” check packages with no specific symptoms.
Late-night health Googling and fear-forward groups.
Arguing after 9 pm or during meals.
What they kept (and protected)
Daily walking + breathing practice (whole family, short and doable).
Castor oil practice (belly packs 2–4×/week; local rubs for aches; oil bath twice a month).
Fermented, simple food and steady mealtimes.
Seasonal fasting (Ekadashi) and quiet evenings.
A small notebook: one page per month—sleep, walks, packs, mood, spend. The act of tracking keeps fear small.
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A page from their notebook (June)
> Walks: avg 6 days/week • Packs: 3/week • Oil bath: 2× month
Screen-off by 9:30 pm • Lights-out 10:00 pm
Clinic visits: none • Medicines: only ongoing essentials, no new adds
Spend: ₹2,350 • Notes: Family dinner on time improved everyone’s sleep
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Closing scene with madhukar (month 12)
They visit the courtyard again. No long complaints, no urgent questions.
Madhukar: “What changed most?”
Ajja: “I stopped letting headlines control my heartbeat.”
Ajji: “Sun and food did more than my fears ever did.”
Raghav: “Habits beat packages.”
Meera: “I curate inputs; my mind is quieter.”
Ananya: “No labels. Just living.”
Aarav: “I grew tomatoes!”
Madhukar (smiling): “Good. Keep your day simple and your breath steady. Panic belongs to the market. Courage belongs to you.”
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Final, grounded summary:
The same family—Ajja, Ajji, Raghav, Meera, Ananya, Aarav—replaced manufactured fear with daily discipline. They didn’t chase perfect numbers or endless scans. They built quiet habits that made fear unnecessary. The result is visible: fewer pills, fewer bills, deeper sleep, calmer minds, and a home that lives health instead of buying it.
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Take Care
Dr. Madhukar Dama
