The NBC National News, quoted the Washington Post
in March of 2000, about the concerns that the FDA had over the mixing
of supplements and conventional medications. There were concerns that
millions of people are taking supplements (considered herbs,
homeopathic, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and some diet
products) and having reactions when they mix these things with common
and prescribed medications.
I have studied this phenomenon for over 20 years
and do know for a fact that with conventional medications, these
reactions are quite common. The AMA is calling for the FDA to reverse
their ruling on supplements implemented in 1997.
But is this really the best approach?
Many Universities across the nation have closed
their Ethno -botany and Botany labs, disallowing many with the gift in
this field to aid in the search for new cures, and to determine which
plants will have adverse reactions when combined with other chemicals
A good example is the treatment of Gout.
Medications that are prescribed by traditional
medicine are normally Allopurinal or Zyloprim and Colchicine (which, by
the way, is a homeopathic remedy from the bulb of the Autumn Crocus)
which decreases the reaction that causes uric acid in the blood.
Allopurinal and Colchicine can be enhanced by a specialized diet and
the elimination of some supplements that can cause an elevation of
certain enzymes in the diet. Both of these drugs can also cause serious
side effects and toxicity when taken in high doses and/or for a
prolonged period of time.
The deficiency of certain nutrients can provoke an
attack of gout, people who take antibiotics can increase the risk of an
attack and a persons diet can certainly influence not only the severity
of an attack, but the frequency of attacks.
There are other reactions that need to be taken
into account also, and that is that Allopurinal and Colchicine has a
negative effect on the liver after 6 months of use, which will make it
harder for those drugs to work effectively. If you also add some
supplementation, even a regular multi-vitamin into the system when the
liver is already struggling to keep up with the demands of the system,
this can cause an adverse reaction to the liver, in part because the
liver has to work harder to absorb the micro-nutrients given in the
multi-vitamin.
The balance between conventional medicine and
alternative medicine is a delicate one. Right now, both schools of
thought refuse to work together, and the general public is who suffers.
For some who suffered from allergies when Seldane
was prescribed, this was a very concerning issue. When taking Seldane,
patients were not told that taking the medication along with certain
micro-nutrients could prove to be fatal, and was in a few cases across
the United States.
In 1993, the New England Journal of medicine
published an article in which researchers estimated that as many as 60
million people had participated in alternative medical care. A
follow-up study to that one, which appeared in a 1998 issue of JAMA,
estimated that the number of visits to alternative practitioners had
increased more than 47 percent between 1990 and 1997 and that
expenditures in 1997 for alternative medicine services exceeded 21
billion dollars.
In our small town we had a family practitioner
that took care of the community needs. He was a wonderful man that
always gave of his time, energy and knowledge freely. A week after he
was diagnosed with Gastric Carcinoma, he called me for advice. I asked
him why he would call me and ask me for help. He told me that he had
watched the patients that he had diagnosed with this same disease die
slow, painful and miserable death, even while they were on conventional
medications. He said he knew that the traditional medications and
protocols didn't work, he had diagnosed cancers, informed the patients,
watched them slowly die and he wanted something else. I treated him for
9 months; the cancer did not advance in that time, it didn't go away
either, but it didn't advance. I asked him to do both treatments
together, traditional and integrative, but he refused. He had a friend
that was a Oncologist and this friend finally convinced him to try some
clinical trials at a couple of Universities. In order to do that, the
family doctor had to come off all other protocols that he had been
taking. They waited a few weeks for the nutrients to leave his body,
then started him on a protocol called PP6 and Thalidomide. A few days
after the first treatment, he told his closest friend, "I've killed
myself." Within a few weeks, he was totally incapacitated. He passed
away some 5 months later, in severe pain and agony.
It's not always conventional medicine at
fault....A cancer patient in N-stage was being treated by both
conventional physician and naturopathic physician. Because the patient
had been put on Prednisone he had become edemic. The Naturopath told
the patient to come off the drug immediately, and then left town on a
business trip. I got a call a few days later, the patients breathing
was labored and he had fluid in his lungs. The massage therapist that
called explained what had happened. I told her to call the man's
medical physician immediately, the reduction of Prednisone can not be
halted that quickly without the patient undergoing repercussions . The
patient paid the ultimate price for the bridge between alternative and
conventional medicine. There is so much that can be integrated into
both schools of thought and treatment. These stories are why the public
is turning to other methods for treatment, most do a combination,
which, as the previous story illustrates, can be detrimental to health,
unless the health care giver has a knowledge of both fields and an
understanding of the chemical reactions that can occur.
It is always best to be responsible for your own
health and treatment. No health care professional should be given total
and complete control over another man's life. The need for knowledge is
a necessity when deciding to integrate different methods of treatment
for the health care provider involved, it could mean the difference
between the life and death of a patient. The future of Integrated
Medicine lies in the publics demand for the combination of traditional,
alternative medicine, Bio-technology and Nano-technology. This
integration will be needed in order to give patients the best of all
fields of study.
D.S. Epperson is the top Formulary for Home Blend
Gourmet, (www.sugarblend.com)
a Fuctional Foods Company based in the U.S., and South Pacific Health,
the Corporate Base for 9 different Company's associated with Human
Health, Enviromental, Agricultural, Veterinarian, Nutraceutical,
Topical, Functional Food, Skincare, Sports and Fitness and Botanical
Extractions. Her work spans a period of 20 years as a Nutritional
Biochemist in protocols for acute and chronic conditions. She has
writen reference books on herbs and manufacturing medicines from
botanicals, and formulates functional foods for the benefit of those
suffering from disease. More information can be found at: http://www.sugarblend.com. |
