Many Prefer Herbal And Natural Medicine Over Drugs
With most of today's modern drugs including warning labels listing potential side effects, many people prefer to use herbal and natural medicine in their health regimen. Botanicals have been used since the earliest days of medical practices and many of today's drugs are the result of studying the effects that many of the herbal and natural medicine compounds had on certain diseases. However, thousands of years ago they had to rely on logic as well as trial and error to develop compounds that provided relief of certain symptoms.
Many of the medicine developed even 100 years ago was made from different plants, devised from formulas concocted over centuries of primitive research. Some of the ingredients in the early herbal and natural medicine were rare and only available for a short growing cycle in remote areas of the world. When modern medicine could not find the right ingredients, they turned to science to develop a chemical substitute that held the same properties of the natural botanical.
The result was a synthetic formula that, while supplying similar healing properties to the original, could cause a negative reaction in some individuals. Using the synthetic version of herbal and natural medicine became increasingly popular and today's drug companies continue to research the history of herbal and natural medicine to find chemical equivalents to make drugs better without causing reactions in some patients.
Weighing Action Against Reaction Of Prescription Drugs
While many of today synthetic medicines produce known negative side effects in certain individuals, doctors and patients have to determine if the benefit received from the drug is higher than the side effect. It is this occasional problem that has many people looking for herbal and natural medicine for their medical help.
Most products containing only natural ingredients are believed to be safe and have no side effects, there have been some reactions between herbal and natural medicine and prescription synthetic drugs. Before adding herbal and natural medicine to a person's drug intake, they should also verify with the doctor or pharmacist that there is no potential for a fatal interaction.
The use of herbal and natural medicine compounds is a form of what many consider alternative medicine, but considering that most of the botanical compounds used today are the result of centuries of use and development, it may be more accurate to claim that using herbal and natural medicine is simply going back to the roots of medicine.