Wednesday, October 02, 2019

Herbal Medicine vs. Chemical Drug; Which One’s Better?

By
 IFP Editorial Staff

The use of herbal products and its tremendous effects on human health has been proven. Today, these products which are produced based on modern pharmaceutical knowledge and traditional medicine have a very big effect.
On the other hand, many people favour the use of such products because of the rapid efficacy of drugs and chemical supplements. Now the question is which treatment is better? Treatment with chemicals or herbals?
Statistics show that today 80% of people in the world use drugs or herbal products directly or indirectly to improve their health. In 2015 alone, people spent $93 billion on herbal remedies, which shows a three-fold increase from 2010.
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Here are some features of the chemical and herbal products and the advantages and disadvantages of these two groups:
* Chemical Medicines & Side Effects
Chemical drugs have side effects and health hazards that can be even more dangerous than the disease itself. In the United States, it is reported that every year about 1.5 million people are hospitalised due to the side effects of chemical medications. However, because of their natural base, herbal remedies do not have many of the side effects of chemical products. For example, herbal antidepressant products, unlike chemical antidepressant products, do not have harmful effects such as daytime sleepiness.
* Getting Resistant to Chemical Medicines
One of the disadvantages of long-term or incorrect use of chemical drugs is that the body becomes resistant to some of these drugs. As a result, physicians prescribe new and more powerful medications to treat and relieve the disease, which in turn reduces the effectiveness of the medicines and damages the body.
* Effect of Herbal Remedies
Treatment of simple and chronic diseases: These products have good effects in treating diseases such as colds, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders and the like and can cure diseases of this kind very quickly. Also, chronic diseases such as infectious skin diseases, osteoarthritis, etc. can be treated with herbal remedies. One of the most important benefits of herbal medicines and supplements over chemicals is prevention of diseases and health disorders. However, it’s important to know that the herbal remedies usually need a long time to work. The herbal medicine called Melitropic which is used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease is a good example of this.

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