The Power Of Herbs Versus Medication And When You Should Choose Herbs Over Medication
Herbs Were The First Medication
Did you know that up until 1951, herbs and herbal medicines made up most of the Physician's Desk Reference listing of medications?
Don't worry, most doctors don't know that either.
For the vast majority of human history, up until the last 50 years or so, herbal medicine was the only type of medicine. Even today, in nearly three-quarters of the world, herbs and herbal preparations are turned to before surgery and prescriptions. Even in places where you wouldn't think this would be true, Europe, China, Japan, and Australia… herbal medicines are trusted and used more often than prescriptions.
(And that's one of the reasons why their healthcare costs a heck of a lot less)
It was the very concerted and organized effort to ban herbal medicines, herbal practitioners, and natural medicine doctors, paving the way for near-monopolies formed of allopathic doctors and prescription manufacturers. In some of the original documentation, the reason for forming this alliance was to raise the price of medicine and services so doctors could live better lives than the people they treated.
Scary, huh?
How Herbs and Prescription Medications Work
This does not mean we're completely opposed to modern medicine and prescription medication. They have their place, as does herbal medicine. It's not a debate, herbs versus medication.
Let's take a look at how this works, and let's take a look at the results:
Herbal medicine systematically supports the existing healing processes in the body, detoxifies our system, and adds in what is missing. That means the body is already capable of healing itself and the herbs help it along.
On the other hand, prescription medication is exceptionally powerful and forces the body to do what it wants. It has little regard for how the body naturally wants to work. It has one goal, and it accomplishes that goal by force.
Let's take the example of Type 2 Diabetes. The first stage of medication forces your body's cells to take more sugar than what they want to do. This makes the numbers look good but does nothing to address the problem: consuming too many sugars and creating sugar poisoning for your cells. The second stage of diabetes is injectable insulin. Again, this doesn't solve the problem, it just makes your numbers look better. At some point, both of these systems break down.
Herbal medicine takes a different approach. Since the cause of type 2 diabetes is consuming too much sugar, herbal medicine will help in a couple of different ways. First, it will change your mouth's taste receptors, so the sugar does not taste as good. That means you just won't eat the sugary foods.
Herbal medicine can help your body flush out extra sugars out of your system and support the already existing pathways of connecting insulin to the sugars to move into your cells. Herbal medicine can help give you more energy to use more of the sugars in your system.
And herbal medicine can help repair the pancreas, so your body can naturally produce its own insulin.
The biggest difference between herbal medicine and prescription medicine is the time factor. Prescription medications will start working almost instantly. You will feel a change usually within hours.
Herbal medicines take time. While the nutritional and supporting effects take place immediately, your body has to heal before you start feeling the change.
When Should You Choose Medication Over Herbs
Like we said earlier, we don't completely reject the use of prescription medication, and you don't have to choose between herbs versus medication. It just needs to be used wisely.
In an emergency situation, you want the fast and powerful actions of a prescription. If someone's blood pressure is dangerously high, getting it down within minutes matters. And the same thing goes with pain medication – suffering does not need to happen.
And certain diseases require medication. Sometimes, the body just does not produce what it needs or over produces. Autoimmune issues, errant brain chemistry, and an underproduction of hormones benefit greatly from prescription medications.
Lifestyle diseases and ones that could be cured easily with a proper diet and exercise do not require prescription medications, except to help people start to get control. From there, a transition off the prescription medications should start as soon as possible, using diet and lifestyle combined with herbal medicine to fix the problem. Early stages of these lifestyle diseases may only need herbal medicine.
The Final Piece of The Herbs Over Medication Debate
Herbal medicine takes time and effort to achieve good results. It's combined with a good diet and lifestyle choices that help the body operate to its optimal level. It offers you the widest choice of options to bring your life under your control.
Unfortunately, you may have noticed many people prefer the easy pill-popping over putting in the work of using herbal medicines or lifestyle choices. It is easier and makes the doctor happy faster.
But, is it really solving the problem?
