Preventative v. Curative/Palliative

This isn't really an all out discussion or debate on the matter. This is simply just an observation to add to it.

Recently (lets say for the past few months) whenever I decide to wake up early in the morning (<9am) I get afflicted with a runny nose that lasts till around noon. And when I say runny nose, I mean my nose is basically a faucet of mucus till the middle of the day. I've narrowed it down to the days where I have to go to school, when I wake up at around 7am. Now, I have woken up at similar times outside of school days where it also happens; but it doesn't match the severity as the school days.

It has gotten so problematic that I finally caved in and decided to get medci' for it. I got some anti-histamines (benadryl to be exact) and at first, they worked like a charm. It was pretty awesome, until I realized the awful, awful side affects. See, to my own surprise, I have been pretty attentive and operational in class at the hours of 8am-11am. However, when I take benadryl I feel like I'm back in highschool. My forehead was basically making out with my desk for the duration of the class. I've found a solution (take 2 the night before) but it made me start thinking.

This is a pretty good example to demonstrate the whole preventative v. treatment (Curative/Palliative) ideology. As far as I'm aware, there seems to be a physical trigger to my symptoms. Whether it's my personal morning biology, the fog of cat hair that hangs in my room, or the classroom itself. Fixing whichever one of these is causing the problem would essentially be "preventative"; i.e. solving the trigger so that I won't succumb to sickness in the first place. However, I choose the treatment route. Whether or not it could be attributed to my western upbringing is a different story. The point is I ended up simply treating my symptoms with some medicine.

Now, the problem I see with that is the underlining ailment is still there. Whatever is causing my immune system to activate is still in my environment. It is an extremely short-term solution (albeit one you can extend arguably forever). Not only that, the 'treatment' itself is (as most treatments are) basically a giant mallet; and if you're swinging for a fly you'r going to have causalities. In the case of taking antihistamines the side effect is basically an intense onset of drowsiness. There is no way around it, in fact the pills that say "non-drowsy" are only so because they also add a ton of caffeine in it to counter-act the main drug. So not only are you  "treating" your initial condition, but now you are treating the side-effect of the initial treatment. You're basically fixing broken duct tape with another piece of duct tape.

In the long-run that just means I'm trading one inadequate solution for another. What if the cause of my symptoms is in fact the cat hair? And by simply treating the symptoms, I'm forcing my lungs to breathe even more. Eventually I might end up with pneumonia because I decided to quell my bodies cries for help. What if it's the classroom? Maybe the tiles still carry asbestos and they're beginning to take affect. Again, instead of dealing with the warnings my body is giving me, I am brushing them off.

To me that demonstrates why I wholly prefer preventative over just treatment. With preventative, you attempt to look at what's causing the problem, and grasp the big pictures. It's a long-term solution that makes you stronger. Where as with treatment, when you're just medicating the symptoms and not the problem itself, it leads to a very lacking short-term solution. You might not only be causing more harm than the original symptom thanks to side effects, but you are weakening yourself in the long run. It's like not brushing your teeth and simply filling in the cavities till you have to get dentures. Sure it works but in the end you lose all your teeth.