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REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST
Article by herbalist
Dave
Hawkins, MH, CNC
With the New Year fast
approaching, I thought some reflections on the past might
be a topic for an article. Since having been involved in
the natural health field for over 28 years, I realized my
perspective may offer some insights as to where we have
been and where we hope to go in the area of natural
medicine.
Due to my involvement in the
herbal and natural foods world, my training as an herbalist
has led me to a perspective that I assume many of you
share. I realized this might not be the
case, especially when I am constantly reminded that most
Americans are not aware of many of the principles of
natural healing. Of course, there is more awareness and
openness now than ever before; however, I do realize as I
lecture throughout the area that many folks still do not
know how to have a healthy lifestyle.
Much of the marketing of
quasi natural food is only an attempt to sway the consumer
to buy products that are only marginally healthy such as
low fat, low cholesterol or low sugar. As I state in many
of my lectures, marketing is marketing and reality is
reality.
Let me take a step back for
a moment. When I began to study natural medicine, it was
not a popular topic. Many of my teachers had been either
ostracized or arrested for practicing what they where
taught, because it did not fit into a particular paradigm
of thinking at the time. Their type of thinking is now
called a synergistic paradigm. Meaning that we are a
combination of constantly changing forces in relation to
our environment, associations, experiences, and our food;
and that disease as well as health have specific pathways
that need to be addressed.
I can remember when herbs
and natural foods were considered alternative.
Alternative to what?
Conventional medicine with
reductionist thinking based on the idea that science
knows it all and any other methods that do not follow along
are useless and dangerous. Conventional medicine tries to
predict outcomes when it is impossible to do so. In a
recent article in The Townsend Letter
For Doctors And Patients an
article by a pharmacist revealed an interesting fact,
"Essentially our present day (allopathic) drug therapy is
only sixty years young."
“Early in the last century,
a little known fact is that the name "quack" was a
derogatory term applied to allopathic physicians who
continued to use and prescribe mercury indiscriminately.
They were called "quecksilberists"
from the German word quicksilver (mercury), which became
shortened and Americanized to "quacks". Remember these were
conventional physicians of the time.
Isn’t it ironic that the
term has been applied to many "alternative” practitioners
by conventional physicians of today? This brings me back to
the positive changes I have been seeing over the last few
years. The term “alternative” was widely used for a number
of years, and then it became “complimentary,” and now it is
considered “integrative medicine.”
This is a major shift in
thinking due to consumer awareness that I feel has
partially been created by the natural products and herbal
industry. One can remember when it began with the organic
food issues. Twenty-five years ago the organic food
industry was in its infancy; of course, infancy related to
the past century before the onset of the petrochemical
industry with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Traditional farming practices have been around for
thousands of years.
Now you can buy certified
organic foods in any major grocery store. Last year the
USDA introduced its organic food guidelines after being
mandated ten years earlier to do so. At least now we have a
national standard for organic. This came about due to
consumer demand for no chemicals and no GMO's (Genetically
Modified Foods). GMO's have been banned in many parts of
the world due to lack of substantial research that proves
them to be safe.
Another milestone for the
natural products industry was the passage in the early
1990's of the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act) that allowed for the use of third party
literature to be available to consumers regarding foods,
herbs and vitamins for prevention and treatment of disease.
This meant that a product could have on the label the
structure functions of the substance.
Again it is kind of funny
that up until this legislation, the pharmaceutical industry
fought to keep vitamins and herbs out of the hands of
consumers. Since they could not stop the demands of the
consumer, they decided to join the rank and file and
promote their new vitamins with herbs as if they have
always been supportive of this type of product.
Again I see hope for the
future. Earlier this year I was able to share a lecture
session in
Morgantown with a medical doctor named Gregg
Juckett, the director of a new
program in integrative medicine at the
WVU
Medical
School.
Doctor Juckett is well versed
in conventional medicine but teaches med students to be
aware of herbal and nutritional therapies.
Marshall
University
Med
School has also
created an integrative medicine program. This is fantastic
because this will help new physicians to have an open mind
when it comes to natural therapies that their patients
might be using along with conventional. My hope is that
over the next few years there will not be a distinction
between these different schools of thought.
Another sign of progression
is that insurance companies are beginning to cover
preventive therapies such as, acupuncture, massage, and
nutritional and herbal remedies.
We have come a long way in
twenty-five years, and I am excited about the directions we
are moving in with the beginning of the new millennium.
Isn’t it great to be able to have choices when it comes to
health care? I want to thank all the
readers of this column and all of you that have supported
me and the principles of Mother Earth for the past
twenty-five years.
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