Is It Nutritional or Medicinal?

Now you may be thinking that asking this question leaves out a whole group of natural options such as homeopathy, herbs, transdermal patches and even Cannabis.  You think there should be a separate category for these.  The truth is everything that we include as part of our daily routine falls into one of these two categories and you may be surprised to learn which one.

Each of us has developed a routine.  We eat the same things, do the same things, use the same things.  For many of us, that routine includes taking pills every morning.  Now aside from pharmaceutical drugs (notice the word drug) we also will take herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathics, Bach flower remedies, aromatherapy oils, Ayurvedic formulas, etc.  Now since I pointed out the word "drug" you automatically assume that pharmaceuticals are the only thing I have listed that act as a drug.  Not true.  Herbs, homeopathics, aromatherapy, any natural substance can act as a drug if you take enough of it, or over a long enough period of time.  It is in these instances that side effects are created. So whether we are taking something natural or a synthetic pharmaceutical, we may still be self-medicating.  The trick is the concentration.  Concentration is not just the concentration of a single dose, but also the concentrated effect within the body over time.  That is a big difference between juicing and eating the whole food.  In juicing you are removing the fiber, which is what slows the absorption process of that food, reducing its concentrated nature.  In other words, it is the way nature made it.  I have had more than one orange client, just because of the volume of carrot juice they consume.  It is so highly concentrated that their melanocytes and skin tissue are flooded with the carotene in carrots.  This is the side effect of that concentration.

The other problem with concentration or with over-dosing is allergy development and drug resistance. If you think about someone that complains to you all the time about their life. After a while you start to tune them out, not hear everything they are saying. Soon, you may try to avoid spending a lot of time with that person. After that even a short time with them seems to trigger exhaustion and you resist having to see them. That’s what I’m talking about.

So even something as healthy as a carrot can produce a side effect and go beyond the healthy effect if it is concentrated enough over time (tell me you haven’t seen an orange person).  So just as too much carrot juice can cause skin coloration changes, so can too much Colloidal silver.  Sometimes the toxicity aspect is due to added ingredients.  Even supposedly natural products contain synthetic ingredients that are not nutritional at all.  And many of the nutrients are added, not inherent.  Many of these are required by the FDA in order for a supplement to be approved to sell to the public.  This is why so many companies choose to instead say that “this formula has not been approved by the FDA”.  Some have herbs, many are simply stabilizers or colors, some have acidophilus or digestive enzymes, while most are in such high concentrations, we would never eat that much per day.  So is it food or is it medicine?

What we need to look at is that there is a distinct difference between finding a problem and providing therapy and treatment to resolve the problem and what we require to simply feed the body's normal, daily function.  Feeding is a daily need, while treatment is not.  This is the underlying philosophy of hundreds of years of health.  Feeding needs to be done no matter what, while therapy is done when needed for as long as needed, in other words sporadically.  Therapy is intended to create progress and change that heals and restores.  So even the most natural of substances like herbs, homeopathics and other remedies are therapeutic.  They have a therapeutic purpose and we even speak in terms of the therapeutic use of an herb.  This means we are saying it is used to bring back full function.

So why are people taking herbs for years?  Why flood your body over time with highly concentrated therapeutic substances in lieu of nutrition?  Why ignore the basic fact that nutrition is essential, treatment is limited.  In my practice, I always give nutrition: essential fatty acids, whole food raw powders, whole protein sources.  Herbs, homeopathics, fat-soluble remedies, cleansing formulas are all designed to be given therapeutically, in other words, when I find something that requires more than just nutrition to be resolved and for a limited period of time.

Here is my mantra - food is best.  When food isn't enough, then concentrated food is second and beyond that therapeutic concentrates are third.  In some instances, the imbalance has lasted so long with such far-reaching effects that only pharmaceutical drugs can reduce the symptoms.  However, at that point, you will never return fully to natural balance.  Pharmaceuticals do not resolve an issue, they simply override the imbalance and then you have to handle the side effects that occur.

But start early enough and your body will attempt to resolve any imbalance using food that you eat.  If you don't eat the right things, or the right amounts, then it will remain unresolved and then over time it will take food in a concentrated form to make up the difference and resolve it.  If it goes beyond that point unresolved, then you need therapy to resolve enough of the imbalance and its effects to reach a point where the concentrated food will be sufficient to finish the job.

So taking herbs every day, even if you are taking different herbs every day, will not take the place of food or nutrition.  Taking a drug every day does not take the place of what nutrition does for your body, and often will actually suck up your nutritional resources leaving your body with even less.   So think about food and nutrition first.  When you experience symptoms, turn first to whole food in pill or powder form and see if you can resolve your issue.  If that doesn't resolve, then it's time to seek the advice of a practitioner and look at herbs, homeopathics, aromatherapy and other remedial therapy.

It really is feeding every day and then therapy when you find an imbalance.