Alternative Herbal Medicine-Back to Your “Roots”

27. Feb, 2010 0 Comments

Alternative herbal medicine is not new. It’s only the “alternative” part that’s new. As a matter of fact I think we should all go back to our roots to get healthy. The success of alternative herbal medicine is only one of the pieces of evidence that reaching in to our past might be our best bet to a healthy life.

It has long been argued that general health and health problems such as cancer, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are not just born of newly developed bad habits but are genetic and historic as well.

I don’t just mean that we inherit the genetic composition of our parents, but that we are physically victims of evolution going back many generations. Doesn’t it make sense then that these realities should be factored into how we choose our lifestyle? From the food we eat to the fitness source of the exercise we choose.

In a way it’s pretty obvious that this must be true. I mean we really don’t use our appendix and the story I heard as a kid was that man has an appendix because in our caveman days we needed it to help in the digestion of the grit we used to eat when we ate off the ground. It also is clear that our immune systems used to have to fight off epidemics like malaria and cholera and since I was a kid we’ve been sucking down antibiotics like fruit juice.

One theory is that many of the auto-immune diseases that are getting all the press today are increasing because the human immune system has weakened as we’ve cleaned up our environment and drowned ourselves in artificial medicine.

Obesity is another obvious one too. Both of my grandfathers worked outside and I’m sure never once thought about “working out”. One of them worked for months at a time out at sea as a fisherman on a whaling boat. His fitness source was the sea, he never worried about his “abs”! And I don’t imagine the cavemen needed any extra “legwork” after a long day of getting chased by mastodons.

Look at how our “healthy diets” have changed as well. I don’t just mean artificial ingredients and trans fats either. Our agriculture based economy is the main reason our carbohydrate intake is as high as it is and eons ago we were a meat eating society. I guess the cavemen just didn’t know how to market that “Atkins Diet” to the masses 10,000 years ago.

You see all these medical wonder products out there that do things to supplement or channel our body’s production of adrenaline and cortisol as “weight loss” solutions. I’m thinking that survival of the fittest made sure our bodies produced enough adrenaline and cortisol. Watch “Braveheart” or “300″ a few times and you’ll get the picture. Back in the day, cortisol wasn’t an alternative herbal medicine or a supplement, it was a natural survival potion.

Many scientists and doctors would agree that our skin color and pigmentation has evolved from darker to lighter as we’ve gone inside over the years. This would explain why we don’t get enough vitamin D anymore – everyone lives and works indoors!. Lawrence of Arabia wasn’t rubbing “Bullfrog” on his exposed bits before he hopped on his horse, but I bet Peter O’Toole was during the filming.

So when you ask yourself why you “feel fat” sometimes, think about this simple logic. We need to spend more time outside, eat more protein and fewer carbs. We should also continue to research alternative herbal medicine and other natural ways to boost our immune systems and stay healthy. And if your dad or mom or grandfather or grandmother had health issues, then you can rest assured that you should be paying specific attention to those genetic triggers too.

I know – I have a tremendous grasp of the obvious….

Start with this stuff if you are so inclined. I use it and swear by it