Natural Medicine: As Effective (and Less Harmful) Than Pharmaceutical Drugs
The study confirmed that natural products can actually substitute chemicals during medical treatments.
It is generally considered that while it is healthier in the long-term, natural medicine tends to be less effective than drugs. A new study, however, suggests that the effectiveness of herbs, fruits and vegetables (and their extracts) is as high as drugs, but they tend to be less strong. So learning how to get the right dosage is key. The synergic combination of natural products can also replace –matching in effectiveness– the chemical products.
In a research that analysed over 1,600 scientific studies, a team lead by Chen Yu Zong of the Singapore University found that natural products can be as effective fighting off diseases as drugs, just as long as they’re combined to increase their potency –especially by activating their bio-availability–. Among the natural products that have been proven to match or surpass pharmaceutical products are cranberries, garlic and turmeric to prevent infections; soursop to fight cancer and apples for heart diseases. About this, Doctor Kate Robinson said:
Organic medicinal ingredients align extremely well with the body on molecular levels through various systems, so natural concentration would be lower than drugs designed for acute responses which are very foreign to the body. Consuming organic medicinal ingredients would be equal if not superior in the long-term since the alignment would allow the body to heal naturally without the risk of damage to other body systems and organs, unlike pharmaceuticals.
The results of the study are a call to the medical community to accept, regulate, study and include natural products in order to move towards a science of traditional remedies free of the toxicity and chronicity that characterise many allopathic drugs. Currently there is a whole informal medicine of supplements through which millions of people self-medicate, often with positive results but mainly with disappointing ones. Yet this study shows that it is important to know the mechanisms that operate through natural remedies and their interactions in order to find a dose and a correct combination, thus finally integrating a new form of integral medicine.
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