It never ceases to amaze me how today’s standard healthcare system – funded in no small part by pharmaceutical giants – has managed to turn prescription drug dispensement into what is currently known as “primary care.”
You see it everywhere, and I’ve already written about it in a prior blog post. Again, I’m no conspiracy theorist and I honestly do NOT believe that such corporations are inherently evil.
Prescription drugs have their place in modern medicine, and we all owe a tip of the cap to scientific advancement in the world of human health, for reasons that I don’t believe I need to enumerate for you.
That said, these enormous drug manufacturers hold such power in the world of modern medicine that they HAVE managed to convert the healthcare system into pill dispensaries.
This is not even arguable. All you need to do is go to virtually any standard doctor’s waiting room and look for the well-dressed person carrying the large, pull-along, wheeled briefcase. (Hint: There is likely more than one…). In all likelihood, these are pharmaceutical reps pimping the latest symptom-suppressing, poppable products…
Let’s take a step back, though, and consider what used to be the norm.
First, let’s think about the most nutritionally dense natural foods, from a human perspective. Humans generally absorb the most nutrients (on a per-gram basis) from organ meats and spices. Why is this the case? Logically, of course, it’s because that’s what our digestive tracts were meant to absorb!
It is therefore no wonder that foods, herbs, and spices have been effectively used as medicine for thousands of years. By and large, historical healers saw at least some modicum of improvement in their patients when they used natural products that were well absorbed by the body.
Next, let’s look at another form of ancient medicine: acupuncture. I can see some of you already rolling your eyes, but please humor me for just a few more sentences… Acupuncture has been a medical practice for over 3,000 years, and continues to be effective today, despite being incorrectly mystified and synopsized as hocus-pocus by the modern establishment – who, incidentally, have a lot to lose if people start leaning more towards natural approaches to health.
The scientific explanations of how acupuncture works is beyond the scope of this blog, but if you want an accurate, modern, unbiased description without all the woo-woo, you can dig deeper here.
The bottom line is: It does work. And while at first I was quite skeptical about it (I am, after all, a scientist by nature) I’m now a testament to it. Acupuncture utilizes no drugs, and therefore has no side effects.
If I haven’t lost you with acupuncture already, then you’re certainly open-minded enough to take a closer look at homeopathy.
If you’re about to click the X at the top right corner of your screen, I implore you to at least finish this paragraph… Homeopathy has been in use for hundreds of years and is still a very large component of the medical system in India.
What is homeopathy, you ask? If you choose to look it up in the interwebs, you could spend weeks trudging through the literature, finding many different opinions ranging from outright quackery to zealous legitimacy and all points in between.
My job in this blog is to boil it down to something simple and inarguable, which I will do with the following sentence: Homeopathy is hormesis.
What is hormesis? Hormesis is a beneficial result from a temporary stressor. There are many examples of hormesis, but perhaps none better than vaccination.
Most of us were vaccinated against smallpox as children. Basically, doctors injected us with a very dilute concentration of a dead smallpox virus (the temporary stressor) and voila! We’re now essentially immune to it (the beneficial result).
This is because our bodies generated permanent antibodies specifically geared towards killing the smallpox virus, so we don’t have to worry about contracting the illness anymore.
That is hormesis, and homeopathy works along the very same principle. A homeopathic practitioner works closely with a client to narrow down the root cause of their health complaint(s), then recommends a very diluted form of a natural stressor to induce an antibody response geared specifically towards attacking that root cause. There are no drugs, and thus no side effects.
There are many other entirely natural approaches to medicine – too many to list here – and most of them are legitimately worthy of your consideration with respect to living a healthy, happy, longer-lasting life without fear of compounding side effects. Natural approaches, however, are not where the big money is to be made.
Thus, prescription pharmaceutical drugs continually hog the spotlight in today’s well-advertised and dollar-driven healthcare system, leading most of the general populous to believe that there is simply no other alternative.
At McClellan Natural Health, Wellness & Nutrition, it is our sole purpose to change that mindset.
I underlined the word “alternative” above because, while writing this blog – in fact, while writing that particular sentence – I finally realized the answer to a question that’s been bugging me for many years now. That question was:
Why, after many thousands of years of natural health on this planet, do people label natural health modalities “alternative”? Shouldn’t natural health be the PRIMARY consideration, before taking the risk of drugs?
I had planned to end this entry with that question before I so rudely answered it ahead of time. So, instead, I’ll close by saying that we can all benefit by asking the above question prior to – or perhaps during – future visits to our usual pill dispensary.
Chances are good that your health complaints can be addressed through simple, natural, changes in diet/lifestyle, plus supplementation with natural remedies.
Bret McClellan
Certified Primal Health Coach
McClellan Natural Health, Wellness & Nutrition
