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Is a Natural Remedy Better than Conventional Drugs?

Tess Thompson

Natural remedies include homeopathy, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and any other therapy listed under Alternative or Complementary Therapies in USA. 

There is a vast difference between alternative therapies and conventional (allopathic) medicine. An unbiased evaluation will probably lead you to believe that the comparison is futile because there is no meeting point for the two treatments.

The basic difference between the two is the approach. Conventional medicine is based on specific organs and attacks symptoms aggressively. Each organ is considered as a separate entity and a very low emphasis is laid on the correlation between organs, the effects one organ has on another and the body as a whole. Alternative remedies are more inclined to evaluate each individual in a holistic manner, irrespective of the specific symptom that is being manifested. Alternate and natural remedies also try and build immunity in the treatment process. The therapies target better overall health rather than focusing on symptoms.

An allopathic doctor is likely to prescribe a single medicine for each symptom. The physician is likely to keep adding drugs to your prescription list as the symptoms and side effects keep increasing.  On the other hand, a homeopath is likely to study all the symptoms in totality and change the medication to prescribe a single remedy from the repertory available.

Conventional medicine comprises of drugs that inhibit the body’s inherent capabilities of self healing. They tend to suppress the immune system. This is covered up under the general caution of side effects. Natural and herbal remedies focus on boosting the immune system in order to avoid future occurrences of the same symptoms.

But, the scales are fairly tilted in favor of allopathic medicine in terms of scientific proof, research, number of practicing physicians and financials. The main reason behind the unevenness is the fact that conventional medicine is backed by the multi-billion pharmaceutical industry, which has a vested interest in relegating natural remedies to the background. Treatments used in conventional medicine are a result of extensive medical research that is funded by the industry or the government. Nature’s remedies, on the other hand, are based on empirical data and a keen observation of nature and the manner in which it heals. Most of the earlier researches that were done in the area of alternate medicine have been observational in nature. A fair number of these observations have been documented even though the observations may not have been in the strictly controlled environments that conventional research uses. The dominance of conventional medicine with the backing of the pharmaceutical lobby keeps natural remedies and alternative medicine from reaching the heights of popularity that it deserves.

Admittedly, there are fields like surgery and trauma in which conventional therapies score over alternative therapies. In emergencies, also, the first choice however needs to be conventional medicine since allopathic treatments can provide immediate relief.

In recent times, a marked changed has been observed and it is now fairly common for allopathic doctors to prescribe herbal remedies in place of drugs that have serious side effects on long term use.

Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that what the world needs today is an integrated approach that evaluates what remedy is best for a specific condition.