5000 Year-Old Medical Secret Unearthed

Friday, 7 August 2009

When you get sick
you go to the doctor. And the doctor will
of course
prescribe medicines. You will go and buy medicines. You take them
and hopefully
you get well.

This is how the health profession goes on nowadays – a cycle of diagnosis and prescription.

If anyone were to give you herbs for medicine
you would probably say that that person was a quack.

But nowadays
studies are being conducted to see if there are really is any merit to what is called natural medicine.

Natural medicine is the use of natural methods
herbal medicines
and traditional practices to heal ailments. Every culture has a form of natural medicine. In ancient cultures
village medicine men served as the doctors of the community
passing on medical knowledge to the apprentices that followed them.

Many categories of the healing methods fall under natural medicine. Among these are traditional medicine
complementary medicine
and alternative medicine.

Usually
natural medicine refers to medical practices that were in place before the advent of modern medicine.

This includes herbal medicine
or phytotherapy
which is prevalent in Chinese
Ayurvedic(or Indian)
and Greek medicine.

Upon the advent of modern medicine
many professionals discarded the use of herbs in favor of man-made medicine. The fact that these treatments are based on the healing properties of some herbs was forgotten.

For example
opium
digitalis
quinine
and aspirin all have their roots in traditional medicine.

Natural medicine can be considered as a lost art. This does not mean that it has lost efficacy over time. In some cases
natural therapy is actually better than modern medicine. This leads some doctors to seriously consider and study the possible uses of natural medicine

Before we continue
it is important to stress that not all the natural remedies are legitimate. It would help to only try those remedies which have been thoroughly studied and are relatively risk free.

Take herbal medicine for example. There are many well-documented and studied herbal remedies available. However
only those that deal with minor ailments such as cough
colds
fever
skin rashes
and its ilk are likely to be recommended by health professionals. These remedies are sometimes superior to synthetic medicine. This is because herbal medicines are less likely to cause negative side effects.

Currently there are numerous organizations that study the effects and advocacy of natural medicine – among which is herbal medicine. Some governments and health agencies openly advocate the use of natural methods since they are inexpensive and relatively risk-free.

As their studies compile
more herbs and treatments are added to the list of accepted medicines. However
many herbs and treatments have been proven to be bogus medicine. This represents a challenge for both the user and the agencies because they have to ascertain that the treatments they either use or advocate are legitimate.

There exist today many alternative medical treatments that fall under natural medicine. However
not all of them have been proven to be effective. You could mention homeopathy
aromatherapy
acupuncture
and other alternative medical treatments. It would pay to consult the experts as to the legitimacy of these treatments.

Natural medicine should also be thought of as an accompanying medicine. Right now
the current collective medical thought suggests that natural medicine be used only to supplement accepted modern medical practices. In that case of minor ailments your expert we actually advise you to take natural therapies instead.

The practice of modern medicine revolves around diagnosing an illness and prescribing treatments for such. Natural medicine is helpful because it suggests that treatment be not necessarily given only when sick. Natural medicine strives to make each patient practice good health habits. These habits include good diet
healthy living
and the regular natural treatment.

It is this same line of thought that leads our parents to tell us to eat our vegetables. Yes
a healthy lifestyle and will do no harm to our well-being. And this is the foundation of natural medicine – may it be massage
herbal medicine
aromatherapy or others.

It is funny but true that science
in its quest for excellence
is studying the knowledge of sages past. This
surprisingly
leads us back to the remedies nature offers. The possibilities of finding remedies to everyday illnesses in natural medicine are encouraging. So staying tuned to studying these remedies is worthwhile until we can verify that these therapies are truly helpful to our health and our society.

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