The natural medicine enthusiants on here claim that natural is better and that modern medicine only treats symptoms of diseases. Is this true? what do you think?

"Natural" is quackery. "Alternative" medicine would not have repaired my tibia and fibula and have me walking again in two months. Homeopathy would not have suppressed the unbelievable pain of having a 200-pound guy fall on my leg and snap both my calf bones in half.

It's garbage and its practitioners should be put in jail because they do more harm than good.

It truly depends on what you are trying to treat. I am a big believer in science and medicine. however, I have been known to try to treat things naturally, with good diet, exercise, vitamins and lots of water daily. when I have a cold, I generally try to stay away from cold medicine, mostly because it makes me crazy. I use tea with honey and lemon, I have been known to use a shot of whiskey as a cough suppressant also. mostly, the "natural" stuff I try, is preventative, not to actually cure the illness. such as, cranberry juice, to keep healthy kidneys.
However, you have to know when natural is not the way to go. I definitely do not believe in trying to use natural or homeopathic remedies to treat cancer, severe injuries or other illnesses. I don't believe in trying to wait out an infection, it doesn't work. the infection may "dim" a bit, and appear to have gone away, but it WILL come back, usually twice as bad as before. those are cases when you need antibiotics, and hospitals, with modern medicine.

I like to use a nice blend of both, but if in doubt, I always go the route of modern medicine and science. Lets face it, there are certain things you need modern medicine for, and often regardless of using modern or natural, a lot of times, you cannot cure the disease, you can only treat the symptoms. a cold, is one of them, its viral, you cannot treat the actual cold, you treat the symptoms of it.

depends on the disease.
A cold can only be treated symptomatically, no matter who it is because there is no cure for a virus.
Don't see how natural medicine can cure accute appendicitis.

I think that anyone who says that doctors only treat symptoms have no idea what they're talking about. if that were true, then doctors would have no need to do diagnostic tests and imaging studies like x-rays and CT-scans. It's the doctor's job to get to the bottom of the patient's complaint and he will do what is necessary to do it.

If doctors only treated symptoms then they would just give Tylenol for a fever caused by pneumonia instead of treating the cause of pneumonia with antibiotics. of course, doctors also must give the patient comfort, thus he will prescribe pain medications and anti-fever medications etc. etc.

Natural doesn't necessarily mean better. many of our medicines do come from plants. the active ingredient is isolated, purified and tested. if it works, it is a new drug. if it isn't, then it's discarded.

No, modern medicine tries it's best to do away with disease.

Sadly there are just far more ways to mangle the human body than fix it.

I think that I have a bridge that you may be interested in buying.
Great condition, ideal location.

IT DEPENDS ON THE DRUG!
Every drug has a different mechanism of action. Some of them cure the disease, some of them relive symptoms because the disease is genetically based. Do you think there's currently a way with our level of medicine to repair each and every single strand of DNA in our bodies?

The biggest problem lies within what you just said. Treating the disease, not curing it. Natural things can have the same effects on so many people that laboratory made pharmaceuticals can do. Some are even stronger. Im a big fan of Valerian help you knock your happy *** to sleep. if you drink enough of it and stay away you start bumping into things and not caring.

You have to find out for yourself the answer to this question. … if you rely on the opinion of individuals (and who in many cases are 'professionals'), who have dug their heels in and decided to reject anything that their official leaders have not instructed them to trust or believe, .. you will wind up following the Sheeple to being deceived, .. as is sadly the case with so many aspects of modern life.

The bottom line is, .. the two forms of healing are both valuable and have much to offer. Working together they are more effective and more powerful than they are alone. ….. There is a growing trend in society today towards this integration. .. here in the states, it even has an 'official' designation, .. which is called; "Integrative Medicine". … It's the way of the future, .. in spite of what some closed minded individuals would prefer to believe.
… you can even show some of those people scientific research showing positive signs for the use of certain forms of natural healing, ….. and they simply go on asserting that all forms of natural healing are based on nothing but "anecdotal evidence" and "placebo effect".

Is natural healing "better"? … in some cases it is. .. in others it is not. … That is the bottom line. ………….. With respect to the issue of "treating symptoms", … I would suggest you make note of when a medication, .. or a natural remedy is applied for a specific malady. …. Pay attention to your personal experience and what you observe happening with the people around you in their treatment process with respect to their own illness. ….. Do they find themselves having to take a particular substance indefinitely or having repeat incidence of their malady over time and thus requiring repeated treatment? .. and do they wind up having to take additional prescribed substances in order to allay the side effects of the primary prescribed substance? ….. Or, .. do they experience the resolution of their malady and no longer need to take the prescribed substances. …..

You might also pay attention to the individuals long term results with respect to their health. … Does the original treated disease go away for good? .. or does it re-emerge down the road in some deeper or worse form than was originally presented and wind up being treated in essentially the same way, and thus perpetuating and increasing the underlying problem?

These are just some of the things for you to observe as you make your own determination as to what may be a "better" treatment approach. the more experience you acquire in terms of observation, .. the more you will be able to determine what is true.

Natural and "modern" medicine both have their pro's and con's.
Natural medicine has been used for thousands of years, and the human race has survived somehow. Also keep in mind that all "modern" medicines are made from chemicals that are originally derived from a plant source of some kind. as an example, USP grade progesterone cream for women is a chemical compound derived from wild yam root. you can also get wild yam root extract and use it in a cream form (absorbed through the skin) or pill form. Some would argue that the medicine form is more concentrated and more focused, as all the other compounds have been removed. Others would argue that the natural form is better, because all the other stuff in wild yam, that is removed in the USP grade stuff, is needed and used by the body, and is beneficial as well.
I still see a doctor when I get sick, I take my kids to the doctor, we get our immunizations, I still take some tylenol on occasion for a headache. but I also educate myself about natural ways to stay healthy, and natural remedies that have been used with success for thousands of years.
One downside of "modern" medicine, in my opinion, is that doctors often just take a stab in the dark, meaning, they don't really know what you've got, but they give you the medicine anyway, and if the symptoms don't go away, they try something else. the cure is sometimes worse than the disease.
Both have merit, you just have to educate yourself.

the definition of the word allopathy is the treatment of disease by creating effects opposite to the disease, in general, the practice of medicine. notice the definition makes no reference to the restoration of health. common sense dictates it is essential to correct the cause for a true, lasting resolution of the effects. it takes no genius to conclude that, when the cause is correctable, yet symptom suppression is all that is attempted, this approach could be equated with fraud. of course, if it is done in ignorance, as it typically is, perhaps it is excusable (not that the patient will be any better off). but what about willful ignorance? what if greed and blind conceit are what sustains this incompetence?

I have studied both branches of medicine i.e western medicine and traditional Indian Medicine in an academy.
Western Medicine is great for emergencies and operations and finding out the organic cause of disease.
Traditional Indian Medicine and Chinese Medicine rely on activating and empowering the inherent natural immunity in the body and thus are far more successful in preventing and treating all long term diseases.
They also stress a lot upon healthy diet, lifestyle and restoring the Vital life force of the body.