Natural Herbal Remedy

The phrase ‘natural herbal remedy’ has become a very trendy and sought after label in health products today. It seems like everyone is looking for the all natural herbal remedy for everything, which to me is a little disconcerting. So many of these natural herbal remedies are untested, unproven, and very possibly unsafe. Because the FDA restrictions are so much lighter on things marketed as ‘herbs’ as opposed to ‘drugs’, a lot of natural herbal remedy products out there could be dangerous.

I’ve never subscribed to the belief that a natural herbal remedy is always better than one designed by a person, and I certainly don’t subscribe to the idea that natural herbal remedies are always safe. I’m not a doctor, but I do have a degree in biology, which is just enough to know at least one thing with certainty; natural does not equal good.

There is no better chemist than Mother Nature. As hard as we have tried in our quest to design destructive and harmful chemicals to kill each other with, the most deadly toxins and poisons known to man to date are 100 percent natural, coming from herbs. You could say that these toxins are natural herbal remedies for living, which is often times exactly what they are.

As self defense mechanism, nearly all plants have some amount of toxins in them ‘designed’ by nature to kill or otherwise deter animals that want to eat them. The toxins in what we call edible plants just happen to be ineffective against us, or have been artificially selected against over the years to the point where they are all but gone today. Forests and jungles don’t have the need for sprays and insecticides because ‘natural’ plants and herbs have their own poisons!

The point of this little rant is just to warn against the label ‘natural herbal remedy’ but not to discourage you to ever take anything herbal or natural ever again. Just as the most harmful substance we know are natural, some of the most helpful ones are natural as well. Just be careful when looking for a natural herbal remedy and stick to things that have had some testing done on them.

Also, don’t discount a drug just because it isn’t ‘natural’ or come from an herb. Afterall, people are 100 percent natural, and so are our intellects, and therefore anything we design is ‘natural’ as well!