In every culture, people have found that certain foods, herbs and treatments improve their health overall or reduce specific unwanted symptoms. Every culture brings as much knowledge as possible to reduce the ailments in its community, even if some persist despite the best available remedies.
When we see people touting a miracle food or beverage for wellness or to replace medications for something like a cold — think the recently viral “Amish amoxicillin” — it’s tempting to try the “natural” remedy and take advantage of the centuries and millennia of received wisdom about naturopathic or alternative medicine. However, there are also significant benefits to the scientific clinical trial process that allows synthetic drugs to be systematically tested and used to treat illnesses that natural medicine cannot consistently cure.
So, how do you choose between these two sources of healing when experiencing an injury or illness? Let’s explore what doctors have to say and how to navigate the available treatments you encounter.
What is natural medicine?
Natural or alternative medicine can refer to a broad range of foods, herbs and treatments.
Dr. Francisco Contreras, chief oncologist at Oasis of Hope, explains, “A ‘natural’ therapy is understood as one that administers only elements found in nature such as foods, food extracts and from nonedible plants. This was the only therapy available to humans for millennia, and we survived. Drug-based therapy, on the other hand, is what we now call conventional therapy. A combination of the two is called complementary or integrative therapy and is becoming more and more popular.”
