Let natural medicine bloom

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BY HERBERT VEGO
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January 14, 2018
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THE big drug companies would stop at nothing to maximize their profit to the point of discrediting natural and herbal alternatives. For many months already, we have been subliminally influenced by radio testimonials endorsing a vitamin brand, as if vitamin D were not available from exposure to the morning sun.

Many columns ago, this writer criticized actor Vic Sotto for endorsing on TV a branded mucolytic as the faster-acting cough medicine than lagundi. The ad also showed a woman sweeping lagundi leaves into a dustpan.

Obviously, the manufacturer of that mucolytic wants us to absorb a subliminal message: that lagundi leaf is not as good as claimed by a manufacturer of capsulized and bottled herbal medicines.

It is unfortunate that even doctors tend to peddle the same message. There was a time when a cardiologist prescribed an anti-cholesterol “statin” drug to me after an x-ray showed that my aorta was “atherosclerotic.” I followed his advice but after only a few days of taking the drug, I complained of excruciating muscle pains.

It was then that I became interested in reading about natural alternatives. I bought the book Stop Inflammation Now by American physician Dr. Richard Fleming. In that book, he recommended fruits and vegetables as alternatives to anti-cholesterol drugs. Go slow, he also advised, on fatty read meat. I followed the advice. Today, my cholesterol count is normal.

If we only care to look back, we would discover that book author was merely echoing the Greek father of medicine, Hippocrates (460-357 BC), who first said, “Let your food be your medicine.”

He knew by then that vegetables and fruits strengthen the body’s built-in immune system, giving it the capacity to fight diseases. That he lived to be an octogenarian proves that he successfully practiced what he preached

Incidentally, the lowly and cheap malunggay has already been proven to be one of the richest boosters of the immune system.

Hippocrates might have heard about herbal practitioners who had preceded him. Despite the primitive means of transportation and communications during his time, herbal medicine as practiced in China for centuries – along with acupuncture and reflexology –had already gained global patronage.

Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, former secretary of the Department of Health, believes that alternative medicine and conventional medicine are integrative in the sense that they do not oppose but complement each other like parallel tracks on a railroad. In fact, modern medicine has evolved from this time-honored medical principle.

Natural medicines are no cure-all but are not detrimental unless laced with chemicals. They offer hope to desperate patients who have checked in and out of the hospitals.

There was a time when representatives of a Japanese drug company came to Manila looking for suppliers of rosas sa baybayon because they would like to turn it into tablets and capsules to be sold in Japan.

In the book Living Longer and Healthier, Dr. Allan Magaziner wrote that 50% of the United States’ population are “hooked” to alternative health care programs with the end view of adding years to life and life to years.

Fortunately, there’s also a growing trend of Filipinos going back to nature, what with herbal shampoos, herbal soaps, herbal cosmetics and “vitamin-enriched” drinks now capturing the fancy of health buffs.

The government, unfortunately, appears lukewarm in properly implementing the Traditional Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) of 1998 that is supposed to encourage drug companies to use cheap native herbs as active components of their products.

But of course, the Big Pharma would not stay big that way. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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