What are Natural Remedies

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How do  I know that some remedy is Natural Remedy or simply  unnatural and synthetic chemicals in another form and packaging claiming it as natural remedies?

This question, "What are natural remedies?" has two facets and both need to be cleared.

The first aspect is to know what kinds of herbs, dietary and nutritional supplements, vitamins and minerals come under this category. And the second facet is that whether the supplements or substances that you are going to buy or use truly fits under this category. This article helps to shed some light upon first question.

You could know more about second question at series of articles about label information of dietary and nutritional supplements.

Natural Remedies:

Here, you must discern between two words - healing and remedies. Healing refers to herbs, cure and non-drug modalities like Yoga, Reiki, Pranic healing and others. The later term - remedy - refers to substances that are present in nature.

Seven different types of substances are put under this category even from a legal point of view.

1. Medicinal herbs and herbal extracts e.g. ashwagandha, bacopa
2. Fruits, vegetables and their standardized extracts e.g. Craneberry juice
3. Vitamins e.g. Vit. A, D, E, K, C, B complex
4. Minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron and boron
5. Amino acids and various proteins e.g. soy protein, whey protein
6. Fats e.g. Borage oil, Omega oil, Cod liver oil 
7. Chemicals, hormones or enzymes present naturally in body e.g. melatonin, human growth hormones, shark cartilage, glucosamine
8. Other substances like Alpha lipoic acid, acidophillus, DMAE and ionositol.

You know very well about the first 6 categories. The two not that much well known. Many Ayurveda doctors like me have sound reasons to raise few concerns about them that you will find soon.

Are all herbs, fruits and vegetables are natural remedies?

This is a simply a wrong notion that all herbs or plants or fruits and vegetables are nature derived and thus harmless. All of them grow in nature but many of them are harmful for human consumption. The proper harvest, cultivation and storage also comes to this scene.

Ayurvedic medicine makes use of many of toxic herbs like Nux vomica after processing them in specific ways to make them mild and less toxic. Even then, they are used in minute therapeutic dosages with other herbs.

Some herbs like Amla fruit are very mild and you can take upto 10 gm of its powder two or three times a day. Other herbs need to given in 1/8 or 1/16th of a gram or less.

The parts of a herb to be used for medicinal purpose is also significant. Leaves of some herbs are health giving and roots might contain harmful substances. The same applies to fruits and vegetables as well.

About Vitamins and Minerals:

The relevance of vitamins became prominent after discovery of deficiency syndromes like Beriberi by lack of Vit. B, scurvy by Vit. C.

My own personal experience with many people in Eastern countries is that they need to take some forms of vitamin supplements to compensate their needs of vitamins.

Most people in Western countries overdo of vitamins. They do need vitamins but not in the dosage that they are taking. Many people do take several supplements in a day and each of them for different vitamins and minerals.

The same is true about minerals. Mineral deficiency is not as common as Vitamin deficiency.

The truth is that body, especially digestive system, is designed in such a way as to provide various vitamins and minerals from the food.

My practical and balanced suggestion is to choose some multivitamin and multimineral tablet or capsule that could provide 50% of your daily requirement. You should strive to get the rest of 50% by diet. This approach will save you from any deficiency of vitamins and minerals and will motivate you to eat healthy food.

Amino Acids and Proteins Supplements:

With the advent of six food categories - proteins, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and water - the emphasis started for proteins and vitamins and some minerals. Then, calorie value is assigned to first three categories of food. The value of proteins as body building elements is recognized and they become superior to fats and carbohydrates in nutrition industry.

Gradually various sources of proteins emerged as natural remedies - milk shakes, protein shakes and several of 20 amino acids - came to the frontiers and we could see them natural food stores all over the world. They do occupy a large section. The popularity of fitness and body building industry grew this market even more.

Enzymes, Physiologically Identical Chemicals as Natural Remedies:

In the past few decades, many enzymatic preparations started to appear in digestive segment of Over the counter medical preparations. Fungal Diastase is one such enzyme that aids in digestion.

Some of the physiologically active substances, physiologically identical substances and physiologically mediators  are also present in natural remedies. Some examples are 5 HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), Acetylcholine (a neurotransmitter), GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid, a neurotransmitter ) and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Some of them are really very powerful biological chemicals.

Most of them are popular in Western countries especially USA as dietary supplements. In my consideration, many of them are still not supported as strongly as most herbs especially when we consider traditional use of herbs and modern herbal researches. However, I don't consider some of these dietary supplements as natural remedies even though they are biological. I will cover this topic in greater detail in another article.

Phytonutrients as The Front Runners of Natural Remedies:

Even though, herbs and botanicals had been in use for thousands of years for natural healing and cures purpose all over the world. The development of modern pharmaceutical industry and phytochemistry lead to newer revolutions.

For example, Lycopene was isolated from Tomatoes. Various antioxidants are taken out from herbs and fruits. Their importance started to grow rapidly over past few decades. This form of health supplements is easy to take and consume and is effective.

Further, standardizaton of herbal extract is ongoing all over the world. Newer and newer methods are emerging and it is also rapidly accelerating the growth of herbal industry.

The Journey from Natural Remedies to Natural Medicine:

All these different forms of natural remedies are still remedies. Many people especially some doctors consider them with some doubt and suspicion. They consider them useless and ineffective like placebo. This is simply biased opinion and is against scientific bent.

Now the next transition of Natural Remedies is toward Natural Medicine. It will definitely happen in coming years and decades after many tumultuous up and downs.

In many traditions, mainly Ayurveda and TCM, this work is more or less complete. These systems are regulated by respective governments of India and China and are considered as legal system of healthcare.

However, the danger in western world is more by Pharmaceutical Industry because there is and will be danger of conflicts of financial interest. However, I will cover this aspect in another article about natural remedies, healing and healthcare.

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