Welcome to the 199th edition of the Carnival of Healing. The carnival is a weekly round-up of blogs across the Internet featuring information about healing, self empowerment, and spirituality.

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Despite this, I still have this idea that natural is better than artificial, but of course a claim like this has a lot to do with the definition of “better”. In terms of lifespan? Happiness? Disease? These are all different fields in which to independently analyze the natural vs. “chemical” dualism.

At the end, instead of debating which side is better, I wonder if we might see the benefits of both.

Also, the book titled “In Defense of Food” is a great read for anyone interested in the history and present state of food in the West, and pays specific attention to the effects of “chemicals” in our daily diet.

But I think we can clearly draw a line between natural & artificial. Cant we? So in that angle, I would like to really know, if we synthesize all the chemicals which is there in a naturally grown banana and if we artificially create a banana, will it be as good as the naturally grown banana and also without any other side effects? I mean, will it be just the same as the naturally grown banana?

There are several issues with your argument against conventional pharmacotherapeutics that I must briefly shed light on. First, the morbidity/mortality that you attribute to acetaminophen (Tylenol) is largely related to toxic-dose ingestion. This can occur with “natural” compounds as well, and it surely does. Take, for instance, hepatotoxicity (liver-damage) associated with kava. Also, you can find a table that lists supplements, toxic doses, and symptoms of toxicity/side-effects here.

I wonder what the regulatory agencies would do if a supplement were to kill 450 people a year?

Second, given the minimal regulation of supplements, your question cannot be addressed. If quality data has not been collected, then you are arguing a moot point. The FDA specifically says,

…manufacturers do not need to register themselves nor their dietary supplement products with FDA before producing or selling them. Currently, there are no FDA regulations that are specific to dietary supplements that establish a minimum standard of practice for manufacturing dietary supplements.

Lastly, congratulations on giving natural birth to your child “in a pool,” but I wouldn’t advertise that alternative to everyone. After you see a just as single neonatal resuscitation by a qualified neonatologist or massive maternal hemorrhage hemostatis (bleeding control) by an obstetrician, perhaps you’d think twice about water births.

Thanks for your input!

Sincerely,
Shaheen

[http://altmedangel.com/asthma.htm]

Consider taking melatonin for insomnia instead of Ambien which includes side effects of “sleep driving” yeah, that’s not dangerous! You just have to be an intelligent consumer and do your own research

While it’s possible that the other ingredients can have a synergistic effect with the active chemical, it really depends on the herb/drug you are talking about. Many times the active ingredient is purified out to get rid of unwanted side effects.

Aspirin is a good example of this (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin), which was specifically designed to be a less irritating variant of salicylic acid, the active ingredient in willow bark.

Cite, please.

In this way ‘natural’ is much better. To put it less simplistically ‘natural’ is to do with complexity and the reductionism of the chemical approach can lead to bad health outcomes.