Herbs and drugs - be informed to make safe decisions

Herbs and drugs - be informed to make safe decisions

w. Which sources are to believe when it comes to herbs and prescription medication? The advertisers? Planted the articles in magazines from manufacturers? Something your neighbor told you? A message on television that was actually written by interest groups? The latest results of a attention to an awkward new research that was paid for by the same interests? In other words, how can you separate facts from fictions to make decisions that are in the best interest of your own health and well -being?

A basic understanding of herbs and prescription drugs can help you make decisions that support your better health.

herbs & pharmaceuticals

1. The difference between herbs and prescription herbs is that herbs are naturally made of vegetable active ingredients, while prescription active ingredients are chemical active ingredients that are made in the laboratory (with a few exceptions).

2. You each have a different story. There have always been herbs. They have always been used as a medicine - to prevent and treat diseases, to support recovery, to adapt to stress, to eliminate toxins, for pain relief, to support the digestion, to eliminate congestion, to improve the mood, to reduce nausea and vomit, to reduce infections, to reduce inflammation, to reduce, stimulate cramps, Colon cleaning, build health and vitality and much more. It is true traditional medicine. The use of herbs for the treatment of such physical health problems is called phytotherapy. Prescription drugs have been around since about 1890.

3. Herbs have effects. Most of herbs are used to support the body to do what it was developed for. Medicines have both effects and side effects. They are used to reduce or eliminate symptoms. This is achieved by stimulating, suppressing or replacing a body function. Since medication disturb or replace or replace processes that own the living body, they wear strong toxicities. In other words, you are directed against biological process.

4. The same medicine is used for everyone who has the same symptom. The assumption is that treatment is the same with the same symptom. For example, high cholesterol levels are treated with statins. While herbs can also be used for symptom control, the use of herbs has a different goal. It is based on the assumption that this symptom, which seems to be the same in a number of people, is the way the body deals with a problem that the body does not compare the symptom (high cholesterol), does not solve it. And that the suppression of the symptoms makes it worse. The problem (the inflammation, which leads to high cholesterol) is still present, but the oppressive agent hinders the body in its experiments to remedy the cause. And it is recognized that the symptom (in this example of high cholesterol) is due to inflammation that can have clear causes for each individual. This is the reason why several people with high cholesterol levels can take different herbs to improve their condition.

The relationship between herbs and drugs

The vast majority of the world population - especially in emerging countries - are still dependent on medicinal plants and vegetable medicines for basic care. The World Health Organization estimates that well over 75% of the world's population is currently using herbs in this way. Of course, this means that there are any number of traditions and systems used to use herbs. There are currently four main traditions: Ayurveda, Unani / Tibb, traditional Chinese medicine and western herbal medicine.

The other 25% of the world population are largely dependent on modern drugs. These patented medicines used today are actually based on vegetable drugs and many still come from herbs. In short, herbs are an important source for drugs and the development of synthetic drugs. For example:

· Heart medicine Digitalis comes from Foxglove,

· The antispasmodic atropine is obtained from the deadly nightshade.

· The first antibiotic comes from the penicillin mold.

· Pain medium comes from the bed poppy,

· Muscle relaxants from Valarian,

· Aspirin comes from White Willow Bark.

According to the World Resources Institute, forest peoples originally discovered the medical use of three quarters of the currently widespread vegetable medicines. In the northwestern Amazon area alone, the indigenous people use at least 1,300 plant species.

modern pharmaceutical companies still have their agents who search the rainforest and live with the local healers. Since natural herbs cannot be patented, it is their goal to learn the skills of herbal medicine and to implement synthetic medication in the laboratory in a patentable - and therefore highly profitable.

Despite this dependence on herbs, the marketing branch of the pharmaceutical industry constantly publishes the public inaccurate information about herbs. They finance studies to create negative effects and then raise the alarm by publishing stories in the media that herbs are dangerous.

You also work in politics to take herbs from the market. A documented negative reaction is often sufficient to promote contact with well -placed political representatives (who have often received campaign donations through the pharmaceutical company). The official then puts a rider on an invoice to prevent the herb's legal use. If this succeeds, the market for the patented medicine from the herb remains wide open, which can then be marketed without competition.

This is particularly obvious when a herb is an effective means, but competes with a pharmaceutical product. This was the case when the herb Kava Kava, an effective relaxation and sleeping pills, was taken from the market because it is an effective alternative to Ambia (®), the sleep aid advertised at the time. (Kava has been back on the market since then).

The need for a phytotherapeutic approach at this point in history is underlined by some alarming statistics. You reveal this in relation to correctly prescribed drug:

In the USA, doctors wrote 4.2 billion recipes in 2011 - just more than one more than one month for every man, every woman and child.

· 100,000 people die every year from undesirable drug effects;

· Another 200,000 per year are seriously injured by side effects.

· More than 4,000 people are brought into hospitals due to unwanted drug effects.

· Correctly prescribed medicinal products are the fourth most common cause of death in the USA;