Many of us are unfamiliar with the existing nontraditional health care practices. We may have heard about a certain health care practice that continues to cure some of the illnesses today. Some people still hold on to faith that these health care practices are more effective than the popular way of treatment. Some of the nontraditional treatments are acupuncture, folk remedies, and naturopathic medicine. My family is concocting nontraditional medicines for years that are uncommon to households today.
Typical households may always be equipped by a medicine cabinet or a first-aid kit. Our house is full of herbs and leaves that are concocted in our kitchen whenever a family member got sick. I grew up in a house that is nurtured with love and family solidarity. Our family members are quite close with each other, even with our relatives and extended families. My grandmother is a good cook and the taste of her prepared meals always lingered in the back of my mind but another characteristic of my grandmother is her ability to cure sickness by just boiling few leaves and herbs.
My grandmother believes in the power of herbal medicines, she thinks that these type of treatment is more effective than the common treatments and render less or no adverse effects. When I was suffering from cough and cold, she treated me with oregano. The cool menthol seemed to relieve my obstructed nasal pathways. When I was suffering from a sore throat and lose my voice. She created a kind of drink made from ginger that maybe unpleasant to taste but definitely effective. Herbal Medicine An herb is a plant that is commonly used because of its flavor, scent and medicinal properties.
Many herbal medicines are taken as dietary supplements to improve a person’s health. There are hundreds of herbs that are claimed to have clinical and health benefits. Many of these herbs are processed and are available in the market is various forms such as tablets, capsules, teas, etc. but there are still some herbal medicine that may cause threat is people’s health. Some may cause health problems and some may not interact well with other drugs (“Herbal Medicine”, 2009). Herbal medicines are kind of medicines that come from plants (Bupa’s Health Information Team, 2007).
Herbal medicines are widely used in many countries during the early years and some people still used this type of treatment in curing some illnesses. Many of herbal treatments have gone clinical testing and proved that some plants actually contain elements and compounds that are essential in curing some illnesses. There are also other treatments that used plants to reinforce the remedy. These are aromatheraphy, homeopathy, Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. The last two types are treatments for the mind and body together with the herbal medicine, yoga, meditation or diet (Bupa’s Health Information Team, 2007).
Herbal medicines are not fully effective this is because of the variety components and compounds that compose a plant. The conventional medicine is treated in a laboratory and the certain element or compound that is needed to cure a particular illness can be isolated and produced in a large scale. Some of the herbalists believe that the dozens of components go well in harmony within the plant, thus, it should be separated. The different components of plants determine its effectivity (Bupa’s Health Information Team, 2007).