Natural Medicine
Natural medicine's place in American healthcare is a hotly debated subject. Opinions range from none (it's all useless old wives' tales with no base in science) to all (a mistrust of doctors and a belief they have sold their souls to pharmaceutical companies). Here is my humble opinion. For acute injury and illness, modern medicine takes it, hands down. As natural cure guru Jonny Bowden says, 'if I'm in a car accident, please don't take me to an herbalist'. Where does natural medicine fit? I see it in two places. First, in the treatment of a chronic illness, such as arthritis, hypertension, even cancer, it may be useful in conjunction with modern medicine. I do not see anything wise about using acupuncture, instead of chemotherapy, to treat cancer. However I would be open to trying some alternatives including nutritional supplements and a special, reduced sugar diet, along with the modern treatments. If you have a serious illness, always talk to your doctor before embarking on a natural treatment path. They can tell you if there is any danger associated with treatment interactions, or if any aspect of your natural treatment plan could be harmful to your particular condition. If your doctor is not supportive of natural medicine, consider consulting a doctor who is. Try The Institute For Functional Medicine Website and click 'Find a FM Practitioner'. The third area, where natural medicine really shines, is in prevention. With many conditions, you are much better off preventing then trying to treat it after the fact. In this important area, modern medicine can be surprisingly absent.
Warning
Please be very careful when ordering supplements and natural cures, especially off the Internet. These items are not monitored by any regulatory agencies, and could theoretically contain anything. Buy only from reputable sources, and know what you are taking. Google it. Do an hour of research to make sure you know any possible side effects, the right amount to take, etc. To illustrate this, I'll take a 'colorful' example from a few years ago (sorry, bad pun).
I was a guest at an evening wedding with a rather large wedding party (seven or eight people on each side). One of the groomsmen, let's call him Larry, was a close friend of the groom when they were young adults. Unfortunately, Larry had experienced many personal troubles since, including a devastating drug addiction. Now well into middle age, Larry had pulled himself together and reconnected with old friends. That is a credit to his inner strength and I'm sure he suffered more than I can imagine. That being said, let's get back to the story. As the wedding ceremony progressed, I noticed something looked wrong about Larry. Larry's complexion had a uniquely grayish tint. Later, at the reception dinner, as the sun set, this gray appeared to darken to the point where I heard murmuring about 'his liver shutting down' and 'feel like someone should call an ambulance'. It began to feel surreally like a bad horror movie. I pictured Larry ducking out with each member of the wedding party, returning them with a skin shade very similar to his. By the time the dancing started, things would take a turn for the worse and there would be scene reminiscent of the second half of 'From Dusk To Dawn'. But this never happened and I digress. By dancing, someone had talked to his fiancé, and she explained that as part of his fight to get off drugs, he had ordered a 'natural detox cure' from the Internet. That 'cure' was a colloidal silver solution. Some say colloidal silver is said to have antibiotic properties, however chronic use results in a PERMANENT skin discoloration called Argyria. If you Google colloidal silver, you immediately are bombarded with pictures of people with skin discoloration exactly like Larry. With just a little research, he could have avoided this disfiguring condition. And remember, whenever you have even the slightest doubt, consult a medical professional.
I was a guest at an evening wedding with a rather large wedding party (seven or eight people on each side). One of the groomsmen, let's call him Larry, was a close friend of the groom when they were young adults. Unfortunately, Larry had experienced many personal troubles since, including a devastating drug addiction. Now well into middle age, Larry had pulled himself together and reconnected with old friends. That is a credit to his inner strength and I'm sure he suffered more than I can imagine. That being said, let's get back to the story. As the wedding ceremony progressed, I noticed something looked wrong about Larry. Larry's complexion had a uniquely grayish tint. Later, at the reception dinner, as the sun set, this gray appeared to darken to the point where I heard murmuring about 'his liver shutting down' and 'feel like someone should call an ambulance'. It began to feel surreally like a bad horror movie. I pictured Larry ducking out with each member of the wedding party, returning them with a skin shade very similar to his. By the time the dancing started, things would take a turn for the worse and there would be scene reminiscent of the second half of 'From Dusk To Dawn'. But this never happened and I digress. By dancing, someone had talked to his fiancé, and she explained that as part of his fight to get off drugs, he had ordered a 'natural detox cure' from the Internet. That 'cure' was a colloidal silver solution. Some say colloidal silver is said to have antibiotic properties, however chronic use results in a PERMANENT skin discoloration called Argyria. If you Google colloidal silver, you immediately are bombarded with pictures of people with skin discoloration exactly like Larry. With just a little research, he could have avoided this disfiguring condition. And remember, whenever you have even the slightest doubt, consult a medical professional.
Endorsement
Warnings aside, there are many wonderful 'natural' treatments out there. Old wives' tales? Maybe. But survival to the status of 'old wife' in a time before antibiotics indicates that maybe old wives did know a thing or two about how to stay healthy. Humans have thousands of years of experience with plant based cures, and maybe that knowledge shouldn't be so lightly tossed aside in the name of science. Many of the pharmaceuticals out there are synthetic versions of substances found in plants. Why synthetic? A plant is not patentable and is widely available to the public to produce independently. Plus, a plant contains many substances, making it very difficult to pinpoint exact cause and effect. A synthetic substance is isolated, and works really well in a double blind study, and returns the most profit to the pharmaceutical company. But that does not necessarily make it the best treatment for every human, all the time.
