People need healing, not fixing, and natural medicine is the answer. Rather than using drugs and major surgery, naturopathy solves diseases with methods such as acupuncture, massage, herbs, and other techniques that are forms of non-invasive healing.
Diet, exercise, sleep habits, stress, work and relationships are major factors that receive focus when one visits a naturopathic doctor. Attaining the patient's optimal health while encouraging the body to heal itself is the true priority of natural medicine.
Today's hospitals
Hospitals run by allopathic medicine are merely fixing their patients, holding their bodies together until the next coming appointment. With the strong scent of cleaning supplies and fluctuating emotions of an American hospital, everything is white. Pristine. Spotless. Artificial.
There is the constant beeping of machines, allowing the stillness to be knowledgeable about the conditions of the patients; these patients beings the ones who follow their pills with swigs of water, the liquid's coolness washing down the chemicals into a permanent part of the body.
Prescriptions
Health is important to nearly everyone, and there is always a drug advertisement for the solution to a problem that is more common than is known. For the purpose of giving Americans relief, scientists create pills, but they may be hurting more than helping. The unnatural chemicals within the doses affect the human body in ways not fully considered when taken because, at the moment, the mind's focus is subjected solely to the heightened pain.
Addiction
When prescription drugs are not used carefully, addiction can occur. An example of this is when opiums in pills cause the release of artificial endorphins, triggering a positive feeling in the brain. If the drugs are taken often enough, the brain slowly stops producing natural endorphins, and the artificial ones fill the void. This causes the user to have an increasingly greater need for them over time as the artificial endorphins become their main source of happiness.1
The side effects
In addition to addiction being one of the 70 side effects the average drug has, another danger is death.2 People believe prescription drugs to be the erasers of pain, and they do indeed provide temporary relief, but is it worth it? Is it worth the closeted fact that over 100,000 deaths occur annually from known side effects of prescription drugs?3
The medical field receives a profusion of attention in this country, with its growing financial numbers and the frequent visits to hospitals and pharmacies, but information such as this seems to be unknown.
Trending
Natural medicine is a field that is ancient to the world but new to the United States. People in states such as California, Colorado and Washington are comparatively accepting of this practice and use it regularly, whereas in other states people believe it to be a form of pseudoscience. There are people practicing natural medicine in every state, but they tend to not receive as much business.
The solution? Education
In order to prevent any future physical damage, the education about lesser known health practices is key. Being a complex subject that has multiple subunits, the value of naturopathy can be overlooked. Hoping to change people's views, naturopathic doctors want to show them how they can benefit from natural medicine. In order to become a healthier country, America needs naturopathy, and education will pave the road that will connect the people in need of a difference.
Article sources
1What makes prescription drugs so addictive? (n.d.). In Michael's House
2Lists of prescription meds' side effects keep growing: study (2011, May 26). In U.S. News.
3Perdomo, D. (2010, June 24). 100,000 Americans die each year from prescription drugs, while pharma companie get rich. In Alternet.