"Natural Medicine"
This is a catch all term used by a wide variety of therapists and even pharmaceutical big business.
My definition of “natural medicine” is the use and application of therapeutic interventions that do not involve synthetic or artificial substances.
Folk remedies, that is, medication grown in the garden or gathered from wild areas, that have become known over many generations, are natural medicines. The use of organically grown dried or powdered herbs is a branch of natural medicine but chemically altered substances, even when derived from a natural plant, are not natural medicine. Aspirin, which is a chemical synthesized to mimic willow bark, is not a natural remedy.
Different areas have their own ancient folk remedies and although the authorities try to suppress their use, on the basis that they are untested, the truth is they have been tested over hundreds of years of practical use. The use of Comfrey leaves to ease the pain of a bruise is widely known. Is the comfrey cream ointment, supplied by health food shops in nice jars, also natural medicine? As long as no chemical preservatives have been added, it is. The problem with the urbanization of the population, in just about every nation; is that the knowledge of folk medicine and the ability to recognize plants, the ability to distinguish comfrey from a dock, is lost. Dock leaves are rubbed on a nettle rash to relieve the sting of the nettle. It is quite common for nettles and dock to grow relatively close to each other. Whether this is down to natures love of balance or some human factor from 400 years ago I have no idea.
Most believers in the virtues of natural medicine also agree that our food is, or should be, also our medicinal treatment. For example, garlic and root ginger are known as the great cleansers of the blood, and spinach is well known as a provider of iron, which the blood needs. It is not practical to think we can overturn the growth of mass-produced and convenience food, the ready meals, but everyone who eats these needs to be aware of what they are eating, the processing reduces the “value” of vitamins in the food and they have preservatives of some sort or other, in order to have a shelf life. These preservatives are tested to ensure they are not individually toxic, but it is impossible to test every combination of ingested material. The preservatives are not tested by a person of your age, size and certainly not tested by a person who takes the medicine you do or the diet you follow. An old saying but still true that one person's meat is another's poison.
Each of us is an individual, that is the amazing thing about humans, billions of us all basically the same but all different from each other. Your metabolism and body chemistry is not the same as mine, due to the differing foods we eat, the differing amounts of alcohol consumed, the differing remedies and even the differing amounts of sunlight we are exposed to. So while the food processing industry does test the additives they use and proclaim them safe, they can never test on all possibilities. There is also the total intake quantity to be considered. A person who eats only factory processed food all their life is going to eat a huge amount of preservative. Some of these are processed by the liver and kidneys and flushed from our bodies but some are not.
Natural medicine includes body work therapies such as massage, aromatherapy, magnetic therapy, and Shiatsu. Under the definition of natural medicine, these have to be practiced by a therapist and not one of the gadgets labeled shiatsu massage etc. The interplay of energy between therapist and receiver is an important part of the therapeutic process, a machine can not provide this.
Natural medicine has its limitations, if you break your leg, it needs setting and probably artificial support while the body mends itself. This is one of the basics of all natural medicine, the therapy or medication is to aid the body in self-repair. It is a desire to use, support and add to, the self-healing within everybody. This was the way all health care was from the start of the human race until about 400 years ago (the 400 years is a guess at when interventionism for profit first got started).
We may not all be able to eat genuinely organic nutritious food all the time, but all of us can move towards this.
About the Creator
Peter Rose
Collections of "my" vocal essays with additions, are available as printed books ASIN 197680615 and 1980878536 also some fictional works and some e books available at Amazon;-
amazon.com/author/healthandfunpeterrose
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