How Natural Medicine Can Help You by Wan Ibrahim Yusoff

When you get sick, you go to the doctor. And theeffects.
doctor will, of course, prescribe medicines. You will goCurrently there are numerous organizations that
and buy medicines. You take them, and hopefully,study the effects and advocacy of natural medicine,
you get well.among which is herbal medicine. Some governments
This is how the health profession goes on nowadays,and health agencies openly advocate the use of
a cycle of diagnosis and prescription. If anyone werenatural methods since they are inexpensive and
to give you herbs for medicine, you would probablyrelatively risk-free.
say that that person was a quack. But nowadays,As their studies compile, more herbs and treatments
studies are being conducted to see if there are reallyare added to the list of accepted medicines.
is any merit to what is called natural medicine.However, many herbs and treatments have been
Natural medicine is the use of natural methods, herbalproven to be bogus medicine. This represents a
medicines, and traditional practices to heal ailments.challenge for both the user and the agencies because
Every culture has a form of natural medicine. Inthey have to ascertain that the treatments they
ancient cultures, village medicine men served as theeither use or advocate are legitimate.
doctors of the community, passing on medicalThere exist today many alternative medical
knowledge to the apprentices that followed them.treatments that fall under natural medicine. However,
Many categories of the healing methods fall undernot all of them have been proven to be effective.
natural medicine. Among these are traditionalYou could mention homeopathy, aromatherapy,
medicine, complementary medicine, and alternativeacupuncture, and other alternative medical
medicine. Usually, natural medicine refers to medicaltreatments. It would pay to consult the experts as
practices that were in place before the advent ofto the legitimacy of these treatments.
modern medicine. This includes herbal medicine, orNatural medicine should also be thought of as an
phytotherapy, which is prevalent in Chinese,accompanying medicine. Right now, the current
Ayurvedic (or Indian), and Greek medicine.collective medical thought suggests that natural
Upon the advent of modern medicine, manymedicine be used only to supplement accepted
professionals discarded the use of herbs in favor ofmodern medical practices. In that case of minor
man-made medicine. The fact that these treatmentsailments your expert we actually advise you to take
are based on the healing properties of some herbsnatural therapies instead.
was forgotten. For example, opium, digitalis, quinine,The practice of modern medicine revolves around
and aspirin all have their roots in traditional medicine.diagnosing an illness and prescribing treatments for
Natural medicine can be considered as a lost art. Thissuch. Natural medicine is helpful because it suggests
does not mean that it has lost efficacy over time. Inthat treatment be not necessarily given only when
some cases, natural therapy is actually better thansick. Natural medicine strives to make each patient
modern medicine. This leads some doctors topractice good health habits. These habits include good
seriously consider and study the possible uses ofdiet, healthy living, and the regular natural treatment.
natural medicine.It is this same line of thought that leads our parents
Before we continue, it is important to stress that notto tell us to eat our vegetables. Yes, a healthy
all the natural remedies are legitimate. It would helplifestyle and will do no harm to our well-being. And
to only use those remedies which have beenthis is the foundation of natural medicine, may it be
thoroughly studied, relatively risk free, and registeredmassage, herbal medicine, aromatherapy or others.
with the proper authority.It is funny but true that science, in its quest for
Take herbal medicine for example. There are manyexcellence, is studying the knowledge of sages past.
well-documented and studied herbal remediesThis, surprisingly, leads us back to the remedies
available. However, only those that deal with minornature offers. The possibilities of finding remedies to
ailments such as cough, colds, fever, skin rashes, andeveryday illnesses in natural medicine are encouraging.
its ilk are likely to be recommended by healthSo staying tuned to studying these remedies is
professionals. These remedies are sometimesworthwhile until we can verify that these therapies
superior to synthetic medicine. This is because herbalare truly helpful to our health and our society.
medicines are less likely to cause negative side