Natural remedies very often preferable to drugs for pain relief
08/23/2005
Vast budgets and aggressive selling methods by pharmaceutical companies create the impression that drugs are the only answer to pain or anything else that bothers us whether it is physical or psychological.
They have even resorted to a "what if" approach to encourage us to take a drug in case we should suffer from some affliction at a later date. The story comes to mind of the man always holding three marbles in his hand and when asked 'why?' replied "it keeps the elephants away." "But there are no elephants in Los Angeles" said his friend. "You see it works!" said the man.
Side effects are sometimes more frightening than the discomfort we may be experiencing and to hear the lists of them quoted in a TV advert, is enough to urge anyone to resort to natural remedies. Particularly analgesics, better known as painkillers, have terrifying potential side effects and many of them are addictive. It is therefore common sense to search for natural pain relief as a much better alternative.
For centuries, the indigenous people of Africa and South America have successfully used extracts of tree bark and distillations of plant leaves to create a whole spectrum of medicines to relieve their ailments with no detrimental side effects. The Oriental Cultures have been masters of drugless healing for thousands of years.
The intention here is not to minimize the brilliant medical advances over the past 75 years that have resulted in the saving and extending of countless lives, but, we as a society need to be able to differentiate between when drugs are the right solution and when a natural remedy could be chosen to solve the problem and bypass the negative side effects.