Why Herbs are Better Than Medications

Herbs have been used for thousands of years for healing. Drugs or medications are a new thing. Less than 150 years ago, in the late 1800s, the most popular medical treatment by medical doctors was bleeding or bloodletting. George Washington had a very sore throat. The top medical doctors bled a few pints of blood from him and he died.

More recently the most popular drug or medication ever was Vioxx. It was great for pain. It was taken off the market since it killed too many people. The reason that I say "too many" is that a certain amount is okay. For example the common aspirin kills about 1,000 Americans a year. This is an acceptable number. The number of people dying from herbs every year is zero.

If you read the label on medications, they will say not to use them if you have a problem with your liver. This is because all medications are bad for the liver. People know that to be healthier, they need to get enough exercise and eat a good diet. Some say that there is so much conflicting information that it is hard to figure out what is a good diet.

It is very simple. In fact in the paleo diet, you are not supposed to eat any foods that did not exist over 10,000 years ago. To be healthy, just eat unprocessed foods that were created by God or nature. Processed foods that were created by man are unhealthy for you. The people that sell it, want you to eat lots of food and be very fat so you will eat more food so they can make more money.

What are herbs? They are just plant foods that have certain health benefits. Some may say they are not scientific like drugs. Johns Hopkins Medical School has a group of doctors that found that the phytochemical in broccoli sprouts called sulforaphane is great at fighting cancer. So they bred broccoli sprouts to have more sulforaphane in them and patented them. They are sold in supermarkets under the name of Brocco sprouts. A phytochemical is a substance in plant foods that are like a plant medicine.

There are thousands of them and over 900 of them have been identified. The most famous ones are resveratrol in grapes, lycopene in tomatoes and watermelon and curcumin in turmeric. They say that curcumin is the most anti-inflammatory substance that there is. Resveratrol is great for anti-aging and lycopene prevents cancer and heart problems.

Also the USDA (United State Department of Agriculture) had Dr. James Duke with a PhD in botany work for them for decades. He created a database of plant foods, phyotchemicals in them and the medical conditions that they help with. This database is so extensive that when people find it, it is very confusing to them. You can search for conditions, herbs or phytochemcals. It is called: Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. Here is the link to it: http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/ The ARS in it stands for Agricultural Research Service. The GRIN stands for Germplasm Resources Information Network.

Herbs cannot be patented unless you create a different type. So the profit on it is very limited. But drugs or medications that are patented can have a 10,000 percent mark-up. For example how much does it cost to have sex? If you use Viagra, then it costs $30 since each Viagra pill costs $30. This is why you see so much advertising for medications-- the profit potential. The drug companies spend more money advertising these medications to doctors then they do advertising them to people. Why? Because it is the doctor that prescribes them to you.

Doctors make money on sick people not on healthy people. The exceptions are vaccines and sunscreen that are both billion dollar industries. So I am talking about medical doctors (MDs). There are also naturopathic doctors (NDs) that do not use drugs so you can go to them. Then there are exceptional doctors like Joel Fuhrman M.D. He heals with fasting and a change in diet. He says that the foods that can prevent and heal disease are G-BOMBS. It stands for greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds/nuts. The most popular herb in the world is green tea and you can drink it all day. In most of South America the most popular drink is made with a herb called yerba mate. They make it into a tea. Both of the above are extremely healthy for you. I drink both of these teas.