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Quotes about Western Medicine from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Whereas western medicine alone has afforded them no relief, I spend much of my time explaining to my patients how hormones can be used safely, and I spend too much time helping them make sense of the myriad of confusing and often terrifying headlines about hormones, menopause, and disease. That's why I wrote this book. Medical studies are usually looking for that one cure-all pill for the masses, and doctors too often practice McMedicine, an all-for-one and one-pill-for-all approach." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.)

"To give accurate diagnoses and effective cures, a doctor must first know the patient's basic constitution, or body type—the relative proportions of the underlying doshas. In western medicine, constitutional typing has received occasional attention. The concept of typologically discrete differences in human psychophysiology was introduced to western medicine by Sheldon in the last century. More recently, Friedman and Rosenman developed the concept of the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern." - Hari Sharma, Freedom from Disease: How to Control Free Radicals, a Major Cause of Aging and Disease (Get the book.)

"Around the year 400 bce, Hippocrates, the Greek doctor generally accepted as the father of western medicine, gave his patients cleansing herbs to help their bodies heal and was an advocate of fasting for improved health. Galen, another highly influential Greek physician, born 129 ce, believed cleansing was crucial to keeping the body in balance and good health. Ayurvedic medicine, a traditional healing system that has developed over thousands of years, utilizes detoxification methods to treat many chronic conditions and to prevent illness." - Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps (Get the book.)

"Many of the chronic diseases, which presently are so baffling to the allopathic disease philosophy of conventional western medicine, are now being found to be related to autoimmune processes. "In addition," Dr. Stoll says, "some of these peptides have been found to be identical to certain brain hormones (endorphins) that are associated with panic attacks, depression, manic depression, schizophrenia and other conditions. In these cases—with more certain to be discovered—there is no need for the immune system to be involved; the effect is direct." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.) "Robert Atkins, there is some common ground between conventional western medicine and more holistic approaches such as orthomolecular psychiatry, Both recognize that if a certain neurotransmitter is in short supply, certain syndromes will result. Dr. Atkins explained, "A classic example is that the serotonin-deficient person will often be an obsessive-cornpulsive. These are the people who can't get out of the house because they've got to make sure the light switches are off or the gas jet isn't on—the people who have to wash their hands 20 times a day, and whose desks have to be perfectly neat." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"Besides lessening the need for control and conquest that defines western medicine, an ecological perspective can place greater emphasis on prevention and public-health interventions and less on wasteful interventions at the end of life. It can also attune us to the resources our culture offers to assuage the death and dying process, namely, assisted-living facilities and hospice care. My dad has Alzheimer's -> My dad has what people used to call "Alzheimer's" We know that no one ever "has" Alzheimer's, and that the label carries a severe social stigma." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.) "When patients see the inadequacies of western medicine up close—a misdiagnosis, a drug with negative side effects, botched surgery, even a dismissive doctor—many find the experience disillusioning. Nonconventional approaches offer people the promise of personalized care, unhurried service, freedom from prescription drug side effects, and the potential for feeling not just physically better but also spiritually recharged." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.) "All healing traditions including western medicine depend at least in part on the power of the placebo, which is an inert, biologically inactive substance used in drug trials to measure the incremental benefit of an active drug. The healing potential of placebos is evident, remarkable even in people with dementia who may not remember they are taking a pill. Many drugs have a tremendously difficult time showing that they have significant benefit over placebos, demanding that we give the placebo effect more clinical and scientific attention." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"Energy vortices that are not physical matter are free to move and are available to be accessed and directed for our use. western medicine has yet to incorporate this concept into its understanding and practice. In a healthy state, life force circulates freely throughout the body. Chinese medicine places a great focus on opening up energy pathways, or meridians, so the body is better able to return to health. In an unhealthy body, our natural energy can be lowered by stress, a buildup of toxins, and illness." - Ron Garner, Conscious Health: A Complete Guide to Wellness Through Natural Means (Get the book.)

"That was my first step in realizing that in some cases it is possible to heal ourselves without resorting to the drastic measures western medicine tells us we need. At critical times, we may indeed need and should avail ourselves of western medicine because it can save our lives, yet—as I was learning—alternative medicine and our own belief systems can make a big difference. Awareness Alone Is Not Enough After the surgery to remove the tumor, I started to care for my body in a more natural way. Yet I still kept getting hit over the head with one wake-up call after another." - Margaret Ruby, The DNA of Healing: A Five-Step Process for Total Wellness and Abundance (Get the book.)

"Conventional western medicine treats disease conditions or symptoms. It does not treat the basic causes of disease, the reasons why health begins to degenerate in the first place. The "chasing the disease" approach simply doesn't work in the long run because it can't! If you don't address the cause of a problem, it will just surface again later. It may arise in a different form, or it may come back in the same form but be much more serious." - Ron Garner, Conscious Health: A Complete Guide to Wellness Through Natural Means (Get the book.)

"Liver congestion, stagnant liver qi, is a syndrome well recognized in Chinese medicine, and it explains many symptoms commonly seen in women but often unexplained by western medicine. According to Chinese medicine, breast and thyroid disease are a problem with the liver. PMS symptoms are due to a stagnant, poor-moving liver qi. Other cultures recognize this as well. In fact, the dictionary defines "liverish" as being irritable or disagreeable." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.) "I used acupuncture and herbs, as well as traditional western medicine, to treat whatever ailments walked through the door. The local Hawaiian kahunas, or healers, were similar to the Chinese—always considering the emotional and spiritual beliefs of their patients, using deep massage and herbs to bring people into balance. This experience drove me to want more traditional training in Chinese medicine, not just the rote map of acupuncture points that Western doctors had given me." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.) "The Chinese were not speaking of the kidney organ as understood by western medicine, they were actually referring to the small adrenal glands lying atop the kidneys. These powerful life-sustaining, hormone-rich glands are our main source of vitality—producing Cortisol, aldosterone, pregnenolone, DHEA, and adrenaline. These are all energizing hormones that could in fact enhance our sex drive and fertility, exactly as the Chinese promised. It all fit perfectly. Hormones could be used as tonics to strengthen us. But women can't take hormones anymore, right? Isn't that what the studies show?" - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.)

"He is considered to be the father and patron saint of western medicine. 2nd century AD The Greek philosopher Galen serves as a Roman war surgeon. Like Hippocrates, he also believes in a balancing of the humors (body fluids), but he adds complex potions to purge bad humors and he blisters and bleeds patients to effect his cures. Galen's ideas become the dominant force in western medicine until 1900. Many linger today. He is considered the father of heroic medicine. 1096-1291 The Crusades—Heroic medicine is introduced to all Europe by the end of the 13th century." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"The herbs in Zyflamend offer many benefits and are full spectrum and not processed or overloaded with one marker chemical like in some less-natural preparations. As western medicine slowly awakens to the fact that plants are effective anti-inflammatory agents, more research and clinical studies into specific herbal combinations are sure to follow." - Freedom Press, Natural Cancer Cures: The Definitive Guide to Using Dietary Supplements to Fight and Prevent Cancer (Get the book.)

"This differs greatly from traditional western medicine. Homeopathy is more time consuming. However, if used correctly, it heals people at a very deep level. Such symptoms as a person's emotional state and physical symptoms are considered important in homeopathy. This stimulates one's unique healing mechanism. Symptoms that are important are often those that are considered strange, rare and peculiar. A person who has a sore foot, cannot walk on it and is exceedingly irritable may receive a dose of Bryonia Alba." - Heather Caruso, Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health (Get the book.)

"Effect of Epimedium Sagittatum on Quality of Life and Cellular Immunity in Patients of Hemodialysis Maintenance," Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi (Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and western medicine), Vol. 15, No. 4 (April 1995); 202-204. Cai, D., et al. "Clinical and Experimental Research of Epimedium Brevicornum in Relieving Neuroendocrino-Immunological Effect Inhibited By Exogenous Glucocorticoid," Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi (Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and western medicine), Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan. 1998); 4-7. Chen, X., et. al. " - James Occhiogrosso, N. D., Your Prostate, Your Libido, Your Life (Get the book.)

"By ignoring the totality of the human experience—the moral, psychosocial, ethical, cultural, spiritual dimensions of life and the environmental and lifestyle factors that contribute to health and disease—and attempting to reduce us to our genes, or to a single therapeutic target (amyloid, the cholinergic forebrain, and so on), western medicine is failing to address the complexities of human beings living in communities. Alzheimer's disease cannot be reduced to a purely molecular substrate—the story of brain aging is not so simple." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"BODY, HEAL THYSELF Natural medicine—in fact, all traditional systems of healing from traditional Chinese medicine to shamanism to herbalism—subscribe to a basic philosophy that seems to be curiously absent in conventional western medicine, and it's this: The body has an almost wondrous ability to heal itself. My friend, naturopathic physician Sonja Petterson, N.M.D., points out that in sanatoriums they used to put people on fasts, hose them down, and make them walk around in the cold clean air." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"In fact, in almost every system of medicine, except western medicine, you find herbs and plants to support the liver. But in western medicine, for some odd reason, there is really no mention of plants that support the liver; rather, we have been incorrectly taught in America that only prescription drugs can help the liver, when in fact the truth is that those drugs are directly harming the liver." - Mike Adams, Natural Health Solutions (Get the book.)

"It is an alternative to western medicine and is strongly linked to religious beliefs and practices of indigenous cultures. Medicinal plant lore or herbal medicine is a major component of Traditional Medicine. In Latin American countries, herbal medicine is deeply rooted, practiced extensively by indigenous groups, and frequently used by a broad cross-section of the larger society. Often it is an economically inevitable alternative to expensive western medicine." - Rainer W. Bussmann and Douglas Sharon, Plants of Longevity, The Medicinal Flora of Vilcabamba (Get the book.)

"And I am sure that as western medicine learns more about these techniques—and has the opportunity to test them further—still others will come into use. But in order to be adopted more widely, any treatment has to be shown to work—just as was done with acupuncture—by careful clinical trials looking at actual health outcomes. Alternative Medicine There's a difference, then, between complementary medical techniques that can work alongside allopathic medicine even though they come from other traditions, and alternative medicine that turns its back on the traditional approach outright." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"One consensus favors drugs as the cure, the other favors food," he explains; western medicine, for the most part, has chosen drugs. As he sees it, we got it wrong. I agree. However, over the last couple of decades there has been some movement in the West toward recognizing the importance of nutrition to health. That is a development to be welcomed. And I much admire all the pioneers who have dared to stand up to the establishment. Their work has nourished my own, and although we may disagree on some fine points, for the most part we represent different paths up the same mountain." - Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (Get the book.)

"Added his wife: "Terry's victory is over the patronizing attitude of western medicine. Doctors scoffed at qigong, said we could put Terry in a corner and throw chicken blood on him if he thinks it's helping. Now they're all impressed with Terry's progress. But I've stopped caring what they think."53 The fact that China emerged in the second half of the 1990s as an intriguing new reference point for Americans in search of unsullied ancient Asian mind-body practices is rife with irony. To understand why, we need to appreciate some of the background history." - Anne Harrington, The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine (Get the book.) "For many of them, trained originally in western medicine, the traditional methods had seemed just as strange as they would feel to most Americans, but they had been persuaded to take them seriously because they had tested them, in and out of the clinic, and seen what they could do. Reston continued: Prof." - Anne Harrington, The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine (Get the book.)

"There is nothing like western medicine, especially as practiced in the A Sordid History The American Medical Association (AMA) has an especially shameful history when it comes to accepting or embracing anything or anyone that is not in the "union." In the early part of the century it lobbied brutally against homeopaths. Its sister organization, the American Psychiatric Association, fought tirelessly against psychologists (we're talking Ph.D.'s here), arguing that they were not equipped to perform psychoanalysis because they were not M.D.'s." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"Peter's research over the past twenty-five years has expanded our understanding of how the body has two interdependent aspects: the biochemical (which is the basis of most modern western medicine) and the bio-energetic (which has been the province of alternative and complementary medicine). The body and its physiology are stimulated by fields of energy, called Energetic Drivers in NES, that arise from the organs as a fetus develops." - Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey, Decoding the Human Body-Field: The New Science of Information as Medicine (Get the book.)

"But good as it is with acute conditions, western medicine is very bad at what are called chronic conditions. And it is woefully, pathetically incompetent when it comes to prevention. Chronic conditions are what might be called ongoing states of unwellness that are not emergencies, but last for months, years, or lifetimes. They can progress into acute emergencies, but are, for the most part, the sicknesses and conditions we live with, in varying degrees of severity." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"One respected researcher, Dr James Wright, PhD, has practised traditional western medicine for over 35 years. He is recognised for his acceptance and recommendation of hypnotherapy, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, spinal manipulation, vitamin and mineral therapy and other 'fringe' modalities. Dr Wright writes: 'My evaluation indicates that ingesting small negative ions can provide significant health benefits'. Air purifiers Fan-forced air purifiers usually contain three-way activated carbon (charcoal) filters to purify the atmosphere." - Dr Ron Roberts, Asthma Controlled Naturally: Techniques That Work (Get the book.)

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