tjs@cbdkc1.UUCP ( Tom Stanions) (05/16/85)
I see the medical types are stirred up. Please tell the other readers how
many hours of nutrition are required for a medical degree.
For the benefit of those that think that modern drugs are natural simply
because they are derived from natural sources that is not so. Anything can
probably be broken down into its basic minerals and then reformed into any
substance desired. The combination as provided by nature is what is
natural. The Oxford Amer. Dictionary describes digitalis as "a drug prepared
from dried foxglove leaves, used as a heart stimulant". This was done as
the result of the old wives in England (look up the origin of "Old Wives
Tales"). What the old wives gave was a tea made from the unmolested plant
as a "cure" for dropsy. However after doctors lowered themselves to ask
these women how they could cure something they could not they molested the
plant and created the dangerous drugs digitalis and I believe digoxin and
digitoxin. If you drank to much of the tea you got sick and vomited, if
you take to much of the drugs you die. Isn't nature wonderful.
It is unnatural to alter the combination as prescribed by nature. I noted
recently on the net that some medical group discovered after scientific
testing that garlic was good for you (something naturalpaths have known for
centuries). However we were cautioned that it would take about two years
before a usable drug could be make from garlic. I guess it is considered
unprofessional for a doctor to prescribe "two cloves of garlic a day".
Note that nature does provide a method of preserving plants whole and
intact. That is air and sun drying. That is how nature preserves seeds
from one season to the next, and one of the ways it provides food for
animals in the winter. A naturally dried and crumbled plant section (leaf,
root, stem, etc) put into a capsule so far seems to be an acceptable way to
maintain a natural "food".
As for the rash of comments about how dangerous vitamins can be note the
following. No naturalpath I know of has ever recommended megadoses of the
fat soluble vitamins A D & E. Excess doses of the other vitamins are
usually sloffed off. However, remember that these vitamins are usually
taken in a molested form, even the natural vitamins. In nature you don't
pick 1000 mg vitamin C tablets off of vines. If you weight adjust the
amount of vitamin C produced by a dog to that of an average man the amount
is about 25000 mg per day. If you take the amount of vitamin C in a
natural fruit and nut oriented diet for a person the amount is about 15000
mg. (what is the FDA minimum amount, 60 mg per day!). That means that if
you wanted to take 50000 mg of vitamin C per day in a purely natural form
you would no doubt blow up like a balloon and vomit out any excess, if you
did succeed in holding it in you could count on getting a grand case of
diarrhea. Unless of course your body required that amount for some reason.
{allegra|ihnp4}!cbdkc1!tjs