Ayurveda, indigenous herbals, acupuncture, Chinese herbal, naturopathy, pioneer home remedies, ...
I take exception (some) to the label of alternative. Western medicine, in my view, has an egocentric view of 'we're right' and 'sure go ahead try that quacky stuff at your own risk'. I find it not very open minded at all. My doctor basically ignores me if I suggest I've seen a naturopath.
I agree...its not "alternative" but in many cases "complimentary"....sometimes so successful that drug therapy is no longer necessary. I guess that is why the doctors and drug companies want them ridiculed. No money in curing people...is there?
My GP almost has a stroke if I tell him that I have had more success with naturopathy and homeopathy than with "orthodox" medicine....and with no side effects. I visit the chiropractor regularly too.....he has the opinion that it is all quackery. That has never been my experience. Consequently I don't go to the doctor very often....I don't need to.
True story....I was getting very severe reflux at night and the doc gave me Nexium, but the side effects were awful. Then I happened upon an article in a health magazine that linked reflux with coffee in the morning on an empty stomach. I would never have linked the two if I had not read that article. So I decided to forgo my morning coffee and drank tea instead....no more reflux! And it was that simple. Not everything is solved with a pill.
The other day I was researching on the benefits of garlic, and discovered a scientific study that showed a decrease in blood pressure between 3 and 10 points on the top number (I forget the name) over 3 months of regular use of a daily supplement. This is comparable to the effect of Atenolol, the most commonly prescribed blood pressure med. (that I'm on). That's just one simple example of dozens.
I have been taking garlic oil capsules for decades and avoiding a lot of the cold's and flus that others around me were getting routinely every year. Coupled with large doses of Vitamin C and echinacea, zinc and other immune system boosters, I was distressed to learn a few months ago that garlic oil is now almost unprocurable. Apparently people got the message about how it boosts immunity and bought up all the supplies. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were told to stop manufacturing it. It could well help with preventing Covid....but they have vaccinations to give everyone.....costing billions of dollars that all goes to the massively wealthy drug companies.
I am not against all vaccinations, but not trusting of one that has been rushed and poorly tested, long term.
So what's the reason for the big ignore? Is it the lobbying from pharmaceuticals, or some other factors?
Follow the money trail.....big pharma has no interest in preventing illness....just treating it with artificial drugs that your body will likely reject. That is what "side effects" are. IMO the Hippocratic oath is broken the minute they do harm to a patient. Synthetic drugs can cause way more harm than they fix. And I have first hand experience with that. They are not designed to kill you outright, but to mask symptoms so that people think that they are getting better. But "better" never comes....it turns into a lifetime dependence on those drugs and a succession of regular customers for the drug companies and the doctors who are encouraged to prescribe them.
What about you? What alternatives have you uses successfully, and for what purpose?
Why do you think western medicine is so closed off to alternatives? Especially if they've been proven to work?
Other thoughts? (Huge topic I know.)
And a topic that needs discussion because the myths created by orthodox practitioners was created by the drug company funded medical schools that train them. Anything that didn't involve their drugs was quackery. I know which is quackery, but people put such great store in the drugs on offer that they will take themselves to the brink of death before they twig to the fact that their drugs are often making them sicker than the illness that they are supposed to be treating.
What are we hearing about cannabis now? A drug with so many properties for healing and treating a wide variety of ailments, but demonized for decades because it would interfere with the sale of synthetic drugs that the human body was never meant to ingest. Natural is best and properly prescribed, causes no harm.
We need to register the practitioners so that the charlatans can be identified and the herbal medicines can be regulated for efficacy and purity. We need to see the cannabis pharmacies in all places, just like they have in California....but will we ever see them? Probably not.
Its a powerful lobby.