Americans a lot die in hospitals every year due to side effectsfrom regularly prescribed medications. Throughout America, a
huge amount of medication is prescribed on a daily basis. The
medical community openly acknowledges that fact that it does not
have any cure for several common diseases that affect people.
Most allopathic medicines have side effects that can range from
mild to severe. The reason for this is that most of these chemicals
have certain toxic properties. This is why there have been so many
prescription drugs that got pulled from the market after enjoying
several years of FDA approval.
The sad thing is that very few doctors nowadays bother to inform
patients about possible side effects due to close and cozy
relationships with the pharmaceutical industries.
Half of the truth is that pharmaceutical companies will only tell
doctors as much as they want to and not reveal the complete
picture. Therefore, the doctors are not completely to blame because
they cannot warn patients against side effects of chemicals they are
not aware of.
The trouble is that the business is so profitable is that these
medicine manufacturers are more concerned with profits and FDA
approval rather than the overall effect on the patients.
This is one reason why several doctors are now beginning to
recommend complementary alternative treatments, like herbal
therapies and medicines.
Here are some interesting facts:
• The totally amount of annual profits made by pharmaceutical
companies through sale of drugs in the United States alone is
over $100 billion
• More than 25% of all prescription drugs available contain plant
derivatives
• More than 80,000 types of plants are used all over the world
for medicinal purposes
• Over 75% of the global population depends on herbal remedies
for regular treatment
There are several choices available for people who are looking for
alternative remedies, including Acupuncture, Yoga, Qigong, Tai chi,
Ayurveda, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, homeopathy, energy
medicines, holistic approaches, and aromatherapy. In fact, the
number of herbal remedies available for different ailments equals
(if not exceeds) the number of regular drug treatments provided by
pharmaceutical companies.
The point is that prevention always was and always will be better
than any cure, mainstream or alternative. The advantage of herbal
remedies is that they move an individual towards a lifestyle more
geared toward prevention and cure in the early stages of any
affliction.
Pharmaceutical drugs work only after the problem has
development, they do not try to prevent problems because then the
manufacturing companies would go into a loss.
This is where herbal remedies leave the mainstream drugs behind.
This is also the reason why so many people are daily turning to
herbal therapies.
Herbal remedies treat the cause of the disease and not the
symptoms (like conventional drugs). Herbal remedies also have
almost no side effects.
Alternative medicine believes that natural health is a consequence
of a variety of different sources coming together. Thus it chooses the
best from various options available, in order to provide good health.
It does so by building the strong points, preventing the weak ones,
and generally dictating a lifestyle that is naturally
healthy. Alternative medicine branches that promote natural good
health include herbalism, natural hygiene, naturotherapy, and
nutripathy. Nowadays it has become common to provide these, as
complementary therapies to conventional methods of treatment.
Terms like alternative medicine and natural health always seem to
get associated with the Far East. It should be noted that most of the
core concepts behind natural health are of European origin.
In the old age the only health care that was available to the common
man was self care. While medical science existed in a very
rudimentary state, it was by no means as prolific as it is today. Most
of the “doctors” in that era were referred to as “folk healers” (people
who heal other people) and their medical qualification was nothing
more than a short apprenticeship under some sort of superior.
At the time of the Revolutionary War, practicing the art of
medicinal healing was looked upon as a diversion, something to
dabble in when you had time to spare. It was supposed to be
something that an individual did when not doing a regular job. Folk
remedies were handed down from one generation to the next. Men
and women who had learned these remedies simply applied them to
everyday life like their predecessors. In this way, matters like
childbirth, injuries, and illness were taken care of.
Geographical distance and biological diversity naturally made these
folk remedies different in different places. So, while the roots of such
healing can be traced to Europe, once they had been adapted to the
Americas, they were not so readily recognizable.
In 1830, Frances Wright and other reformers and activists started
the Popular Health Movement. This was a period when advances in
medical science were forcing contemporary doctors to think in
terms that would have been sacrilegious to their elders. Frustrated
by these new developments, proponents of the Popular Health
Movement sought to enforce the usage of older methods into the
practice of modern medical professionals. While some good has
resulted (in the long run and with the help of understanding
provided by modern research), it has to be admitted that the
Popular Health Movement also caused some medical blunders.
Some natural health concepts that arose as a result of the Popular
Health Movement are: Hydrotherapy, Herbalism, Eclectic
Medicine, and Natural Hygiene.
Thomsonianism is one of the earliest approaches to modern
western herbalism and it was founded by Samuel Thompson
around the year 1820.
The Association of Eclectic Physicians, an organization of herbals
doctors, was found in Wooster Beech.
At its very height, eclecticism was practiced by over twenty
thousand qualified doctors in the United States. By 1939, medical
schools were being largely influenced by philanthropists, and when
these schools failed to support eclecticism, it slowly died out.
Hydrotherapy was another branch of natural health and it
concerned itself with the application of water to the human body.
Though using only water as means of staying healthy might sound a
bit silly, for that time period it was a good thing. Hydrotherapy
advocates were very vocal about the importance of personal habits
such as diet, dress, clean water, fresh air, exercise, sunshine, and
herbs. Personal hygiene as it is followed today was not always such
an important issue. Hydrotherapy was conveying a very important
message. Origins of hydrotherapy can be traced back to Europe in
the Roman era when spas and hot mineral springs were a common
way for people to cleanse their bodies.
The European system of hydrotherapy was first introduced to the
United States in 1844 by the founder of Natural Hygiene, Dr. Joel
Shew. Dr. Shew later on enhanced hydrotherapy by focusing on its
other aspects like fresh air, lots of sunshine, a good diet plan, and
an exercise routine. In 1853 he established the college of Hygieo
Therapy.
The American Natural Hygiene Society was founded in
1948. Eventually, hydrotherapy had to give way to allopathy. This
was largely brought about by the fact that the people supporting
allopathy viewed hydrotherapy as a science of quacks because
hydrotherapy was so closely associated with the female social
activists of that era.
The core belief of natural health therapy is that all issues related to
health, sickness, and healing can be overcome through simple
means like prevention and a change in individual lifestyle. Natural
health follows the oldest rule of medicine: prevention is better than
cure. In view of this, natural health therapies are supposed to be
totally in control of the individual and not the doctor or healer.
The “natural” in the term natural health literally refers to the
physical world in which we live, or nature. This is but another way
of saying that according to natural health therapy all disease and
illness is nothing more than a natural reaction to some other
natural action. It is important to remember that natural health does
not have anything to do with faith or psychic healing which are
supernatural concepts and hence,
By definition, not part of nature. This difference is also the biggest
distinguishing factor between natural health therapies of European
origin and Eastern alternative medicinal theories that often rely on
belief systems such as spirituality, karma, ancestral forces, personal
auras, or energy flows. None of these can be perceived by our
normal senses and hence the Europe-born natural health theories
do not subscribe to them.
Going even further, natural health does not concern itself with the
origin of life, any religious beliefs, extra-dimensional worlds, magic,
and new age mysticism.
All natural health says is that all health and sickness can be affected
by simple natural therapies.
At its most basic level it can be said that natural health therapy
refers to only one thing: biological factors of health, especially as
they apply to everyday life in western society. In its early history,
the natural health movement did show considerable interest in
hydrotherapy and the relaxation it offered through the usage of
spas, steam baths, and other water cures. The more modern
additions to natural health that concern themselves with the bodymind
connection and how that relates to stress and tension are
influenced by eastern alternative medical theories.
Having said that, what natural health therapy finally implies is that
the human body has complete capacity to heal itself from most
forms of sickness (of course, a broken bone cannot be fixed by
altering your lifestyle, it needs to be put in a cast), mostly through
prevention. So as far as natural health thinking goes, all healing is
basically self-healing and this is considered to be a basic property of
all things alive.
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