Reply #44: I don't doubt that medications work [View All]

it's just that most of the chemicals used in medications are "phytochemicals," i.e. they are plant-based chemicals and are available at much lower cost, often with fewer side effects, from the plants themselves.

One main difference is in the actual contents -- plants contain dozens of phytochemicals, whereas pharmaceuticals only extract a single one of the phytochemicals (usually the one found in greatest quantity in the plant) and ignore the rest.

Another difference is cost. Going to the plants themselves is much cheaper.

Another difference is dependency. Many medicinal plants are also culinary. They free you from the pharma industry, which is why the industry fights so hard to shut down natural health care.

Doses are lower in the plants, and the *may* take longer for effects to be seen (depends on what you are treating). But the long-term result is better health. Often the different phytochemicals work synergystically to increase the effects, or some of the chemicals may work to offset potential side effects.

Example: you can pay some # of dollars for capsaicin-cream, or you can use cayenne pepper and get the synergystic effects of half a dozen or so different types of capsaicin plus other phytochemicals in hot pepper. I did the latter when I successfully treated shingles 2 years ago with poultices and infusions made of anti-herpes plants (mints, sage, oregano, lemon balm) and cayenne pepper on the poultices. Worked like a charm: the mints to help my system fight the virus and the pepper provided amazing pain relief.