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NUTRITION AND AGEING

Vitamin E

FOOD ALLERGY AND INTOLERANCE

Riboflavin

Minerals

Low Carb Diet Meals

Health Giving Organic Food

Bad food choices

Food temptations

Diabetes

What is a healthy diet

SHOULD KIDS EAT A LOW FAT DIET

Vitalzym by World Nutrition (Extra Strength Systemic Enzyme Supplement)

Diet during Pregnancy

Importance of Vitamins for Human Health

Health and Nutrition Guide

When European physicians landed in the Americas during the colonization period, they were overwhelmed by the thousands of inexpensive remedies available and an army of indigenous healers. Instead of studying the existing system's benefits and building on it, however, they chose to abolish it, establishing a professional health care system as a distinct entity isolated from communities.

Nevertheless, certain herbal extracts (e.g., digitalis, belladonna alkaloids, quinine, ephedrine, capsicum) that have been known for thousands of years are still being used effectively in today's professional medical practices. The inadequacy, poor accessibility, and expense of health care in modern societies seem to be the most important factors in creating a huge herbal drug industry, which is now worth billions. However, the most common users of these drugs are educated Caucasians with an annual income of over $35,000.

Because native people used only the actual plants or certain parts of plants, their toxic effects were minimized. Now, through processing, concentrating, and synthesizing the active ingredients of those same plants, the healing, as well as toxic, properties of the plants are heightened.

Coca leaves were used for a variety of ailments for centuries without any of the deadly effects observed currently. The cocaine snorted by addicts today is highly concentrated and much more potent than the coca leaves. It abruptly increases blood pressure to extreme levels that lead to stroke, the main cause of death in cocaine intoxication. Many herbal drugs can have serious toxic effects when used in high concentrations. Some of them are hallucinogens (e.g., jimsonweed), sedatives (e.g., kava kava, valerian), and stimulants (e.g., ginseng). Some herbal teas (e.g., bush tea) are toxic to the liver.

Research into the benefits of herbal drugs has increased as a result of their popularity. One recent study of echinacea, one of the most commonly advertised herbal drugs, did not find it to boost the immune system at all, as is claimed. Other studies have found gingko and St. John's wort to ameliorate depression and palmetto products to benefit benign prosthetic hyperplasia.

Despite a lack of information on the long-term effects of herbal drugs, research studies are important in this era of aggressive marketing and advertising, which even includes prescription medicine. Public distrust and increased scrutiny of the advertising industry has increased in the last few years as a result of aggressively marketed drugs being withdrawn from the market after serious complications were discovered.

What we have discussed under herbal drugs also applies to the so-called "ergogenic" aids to boost energy and build muscle mass. Taking drugs to enhance performance and pleasure is as old as history. However, the use of high doses of ergogenic aids and herbal drugs has reached such levels that it can only be considered drug abuse. For example, the overuse of anabolic steroids and growth hormone has serious and usually irreversible effects. Our addiction to such drugs should not be surprising in a society in which tobacco and liquor are lavishly, relentlessly, and very successfully advertised. The media and especially the entertainment industry, including professional sports, encourage the use of such drugs by behaving as if our only virtues are fun, pleasure, physical appearance, and performance.