Pasadena Magazine is the bi-monthly magazine of Pasadena and its surrounding areas – the diverse, historically rich and culturally vibrant region that includes Glendale, the Eastside of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley all the way to Claremont.
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When West Meets East A look into the re-emerging fi eld of natural medicine STORY BY // DEVIN STONE, DNM, HHP, AMP ∫ WELCOME TO THE PHARMACEUTICAL ERA. IN TODAY'S WORLD WE ARE OVERWHELMED WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AND WITH LITTLE TO NO CLUE ON HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT THEM. WHEN WE ARE SICK WE GO TO OUR DOCTOR TO GET A "MIRACLE PILL" DESIGNED TO RID OUR BODIES OF OUR DISEASE. HOWEVER, WITH THESE MIRACLE PILLS WE ARE "LUCKY" ENOUGH TO GET A LONG LAUNDRY LIST OF side effects, dangerous interactions, which can sometimes result in making our illness worse. Are these "pills" still sounding miracu- lous to you? Of course, I do believe there are times western medicine is the only effi cacious solu- tion. There are times where pharmaceuticals and surgery are the only option to effectively treat a patient. However I also believe there are alternatives to the overuse of western prescrip- tion medications designed to treat symptoms and not the actual disease. Western medicine's default treatment for all manner of ailments is to prescribe a drug that masks or alleviates a symptom. For instance, if we feel nauseous we take a pill to trick our brains into no longer feeling that way. However, we often do not treat or fi nd out the true cause of the nausea. Besides not treating the true cause of the disease or ailment, the medications we take often have many side ef- fects. We've all heard the lengthy recitation of uncomfortable or even fatal side effects at the end of the ubiquitous drug commercials found on TV. In many cases there is an alternative to this "Hobson's choice" however. This is why many patients today are now looking back to ancient treatments with natural remedies to address their disease. Natural medicine has been around thousands of years dating back to the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Greeks among others. Natural medicine utilizes agents from nature to replenish the body with what it is missing with the ultimate goal of restoring balance. The idea is not to treat the symptom but to look into the root of the disease and restore the body's normal function. Natural medicine utilizes herbs, vitamins, meditation and other organically occurring practices to restore bodily function. Often times when we have a disease or our bodies are not functioning normally it is because we are missing something to heal and rejuvenate. Natural medicine provides many solutions to healing the human body and virtually without any side effects. We can compare a western approach and a natural approach to the same disease and see how this unravels. In the circumstance of high cholesterol western physicians will prescribe a statin drug. This drug works to lower LDL or bad cholesterol levels. However, this drug also depletes a very important enzyme called CoQ10 that is vital in heart health. Now we can compare this treatment plan to that of nat- ural medicine. In natural medicine, we would fi rst look at the cause of the high cholesterol. May it be diet or lack of exercise, this would be the fi rst place to address the problem. From here, herbs such as garlic can be used to help naturally balance cholesterol levels without the side effects common to statins. Over the years, more and more people are turning to natural remedies and the idea of holistic health to treat what ails them. These natural remedies are not the cure all answer and at times western medicine intervention may be the only way; but, armed with the knowledge of the existence of these alternative healthful alternatives, people can now begin to make more informed choices about their care that does not necessarily require western style intervention. IT'S NATURES WAY. Mother nature returns as the go-to source of relief from a host of ailments. SEPTEMBER 2017 135 B O D Y, M I N D A N D S P I R I T HEALTH & WELLNESS