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The Persecuted Healers: Advocating for Natural Alternatives in a Mainstream Medical World

The mainstream medical establishment often marginalizes and ridicules a parallel world of practitioners in the intricate healthcare matrix. These are the holistic healers, natural alternative specialists, and proponents of ancient remedies who steadfastly believe in the power of herbs and natural healing modalities. Despite their sincere dedication to their craft and the countless success stories they’ve amassed, they find themselves in a constant battle against skepticism, harassment, and even legal repercussions.

At the heart of their philosophy lies a deep reverence for nature’s healing potential. For centuries, humans have turned to plants and natural remedies to alleviate ailments and restore balance to the body. Yet, in today’s world dominated by pharmaceutical giants and high-tech medical interventions, these age-old practices are often dismissed as outdated or dangerous.

Holistic practitioners endure not only ridicule but also harassment by regulatory bodies such as the FDA. The institutions designed to protect public health often seem more concerned with preserving the financial interests of the conglomerates than exploring alternative approaches. Fines and legal threats loom over these healers who dare to step outside the bounds of conventional medicine.

But why do they choose this path despite the risks? For many, it’s a calling born out of a profound belief in the body’s innate ability to heal itself when given the right tools and environment. They reject the notion of simply managing symptoms and instead seek to address the root cause of illness, viewing each patient as a unique individual with their own physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

They argue that while effective in some cases, traditional medical interventions often come with a host of side effects and risks. Surgical procedures, pharmaceutical drugs, and invasive treatments may offer temporary relief but fail to address the underlying imbalances perpetuating illness. In contrast, natural remedies work harmoniously with the body, nourishing it from within and promoting long-term health and vitality.

Why can’t these two worlds of healthcare coexist harmoniously? This question underscores the inherent conflict between tradition and innovation, between profit-driven medicine and holistic healing. In an ideal scenario, both approaches would work in synergy, with practitioners collaborating to provide patients with a wide range of options custom-tailored to their needs, leading to more effective and personalized healthcare.

However, the reality is starkly different. The medical establishment holds significant sway and influence, not just over public opinion but also over government policies and regulations. In this landscape, natural healers find themselves on the fringes, their voices drowned out by the cacophony of pharmaceutical advertising and institutionalized doubt.

Despite the uphill battle they face, holistic healers stand firm. Their unwavering dedication to healing, fueled by the countless lives they’ve touched and transformed, drives them forward in the face of adversity.

They persist in advocating for a more inclusive and integrative approach to healthcare that respects the wisdom of ancient traditions while embracing the potential of modern science.

In the end, the persecution of natural healers speaks to a more significant issue of power and control in the realm of healthcare. Until we can transcend the limitations of dogma and embrace a more holistic understanding of wellness, these healers will continue to fight for their right to practice their craft and offer healing alternatives to those in need. After all, in a world where illness knows no bounds, shouldn’t healing be equally boundless?

 

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Pharmaceuticals vs Herbal Remedies

The third-largest cause of death in the USA is medicine and medical practitioners, in the shadow of heart disease and cancer, and if the truth were known, the medical and pharmaceutical sciences and the practitioners thereof would be revealed as the number one cause of death.

Not all pharmaceuticals are good for you. In fact, many are killing unwitting Americans while medical doctors and staff collude with and assist the industry to extract as much capital as possible from your estate (or subsidized medical resources) before your pulse finally stops.

Many legally prescribed medications have a dark side and are far more dangerous than the pharmaceutical companies would like you to know. Some of these could include benzodiazepines (Klonopin, Valium, Xanax). Then there are the anticoagulants (Heparin, Warfarin, Xarelto).

Other potentially dangerous prescription medications include antidepressants (Cymbalta, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Zoloft), and patented anti-hypertensives (Cardura, Hytrin, Minipress). Clozapine is an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia, not to forget Semi-Synthetic Opioids (OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin) which are generally used to treat moderate to severe pain.

Thanks to lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies, we now know that they are so committed to profiting greatly off an insignificant public that they will falsify and create medical studies and pay doctors to put their name(s) on the studies to get them published, in many cases with the full knowledge that their new drug(s) have potentially deadly side effects.

A many as 10 percent of all published reports regarding new drugs are written by the drug manufacturers who pay doctor(s) to use their names on the reports, when the doctors named had little or nothing to do with the study.

More than 60% of all academic studies are financed by the drug manufacturers, who have been known to alter the data prior to submitting the results.

The most prominent example of the insatiable greed of Big Pharma is Merck’s Vioxx debacle, where they were likely responsible for the deaths of 500,000 Americans over the age of 65, but gladly paid 4.85 billion dollars for killing 3,468 seniors, after enjoying a 5-year run of selling the aspirin replacement that caused heart attacks and strokes.

Having to pay a negotiable percentage of the revenue from the lethal painkiller seems like a small price to pay, an acceptable cost of doing business in the pharmaceutical industry where you take the good with the bad and still come out on top.

Other “legal” drugs that suffered a fate similar to Vioxx include Risperdal, Seroquel, Zyprexa, and Hormone Replacement Therapy, among others, which makes you wonder about the other medications that we see promoted on TV and in the media with the laundry list of side effects that may include death in some people (a possible side effect of manufacturing patented prescription medications).

If that’s not enough, there are other prescription medications, like the statin family available under the names of atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol XL), lovastatin (Altoprev), pitavastatin (Livalo), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor, Ezallor) and simvastatin (Zocor, FloLipid), which tout efficacy in the lowering of cholesterol and preventing heart attacks, but the side effects can cause crippling muscle pain, type 2 diabetes, memory loss, confusion, or rhabdomyolysis leading to liver damage, kidney failure and death. Stop taking the statins, and the side effects fade away.

Before the advent of all this medical profiteering, we tended to our needs using natural substances from Mother Earth. These primitive methods of healing were all placed here with us, to help alleviate pain and heal us, her inhabitants, from every ailment.

They are so effective that Big Pharma models their patented medications after them, like aspirin. Aspirin was fashioned after a pain-relieving compound found in the bark of a willow tree.

Granted, natural remedies have also seen their share of darkness as “snake oil salesmen” used to promise the miraculous healing capabilities of herbal substances for money.

Nonetheless, there are some herbal remedies which have eared their right to compete with the most high-tech patented pharmaceuticals. One such herb is the most prescribed medication in Germany, Ginkgo Biloba for its supremacy in improving memory and other cognitive functions, in the USA, Ginkgo is not as well respected among the medical community. In Germany, medical students are obligated to study herbal alternatives, if even only rudimentarily (not so in the United States).

A few other herbal remedies have been proven to be as effective or even better than their patented prescription imitators, and they have survived and been proven in clinical trials to be the real deal. Besides Ginkgo, the top “proven” herbal supplements are:

  1. Black Cohosh – Helps with the effects of menopause
  2. Chestnut – (horse chestnut) Improves poor blood circulation in legs (varicose veins)
  3. Devil’s Claw – Anti-inflammatory and helps with joint pain
  4. Garlic – Reduces cholesterol and lowers blood pressure
  5. Hawthorne – Helps some heart conditions
  6. Saw Palmetto – Helps with men’s enlarged prostate, better urination
  7. St. John’s Wort – For mild or moderate depression

And there are many other noteworthy natural herbal remedies worth their weight in complementary alternative medicine (CAM) with fewer side-effects than pharmaceuticals, but without the clout of clinical trials to back them up.

The ongoing battle between Big Pharma and Mother Nature continues. And no one here is failing to admire the medical community for all the good they do in the world, but this dark side of pharmaceutical companies is causing the faith of patients to waver.

The smart thing to do is to practice due diligence in all medical interventions and take responsibility for your own care. You decide what is best for you.

Do not be the next casualty of being an uninformed patient.

Consider having two doctors, a medical doctor, and a holistic professional, consulting with both before committing to any prescribed medication, do some research on your own, then make your own educated decision.

Your life may depend on it.

David M Masters