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Why
Natural Care?
by
Dr. Mark Pitstick
Natural healing approaches are often very
effective, safe, simple and inexpensive. That’s why
it’s always wise to consider natural health care over
orthodox medical care—drugs and surgery—whenever
possible.
I am well aware of the importance of
orthodox medical care. I worked in hospitals for six
years and have numerous family and friends in the
medical field. That approach is very important for
emergency or crisis care, for example, a broken
bone, ruptured appendix, severe trauma, or serious
illness. Many very intelligent and committed care
givers provide medical and surgical treatments. I
wouldn’t want to practice natural health care without
that backup system.
For example, a neighbor nearly had his
arm cut off. Even though it was dangling by just a few
nerves and blood vessels, medical specialists helped him
regain full use of his arm. My brother’s father-in-law
had a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm fifteen years
ago. Thanks to emergency treatment, he lived to see his
grandchildren mature and to enjoy two great
grandchildren. My dad developed lung cancer twelve
years ago. Half of one lung was removed and he lived
vitally to eighty years of age. All this is very
impressive.
However, drug and surgical treatments
have little to offer for many common ailments.
Andrew Weil, M.D., author of
Spontaneous Healing and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health
recognizes the importance of acute medical treatment
for emergency situations, but states: “Although
allopaths (orthodox medical doctors) give lip service to
the concept of preventive medicine, for practical
purposes they are unable to prevent most of the diseases
that disable and kill people today.”
There are several serious downsides to
orthodox medical treatment besides the fact that it
often doesn’t help. Medication and surgery often
interfere with normal body functioning, have serious
potential side effects, are expensive, turn off
important bodily signals, and divert addressing the
underlying causes of disease.
Here’s an example of the last point.
Thirty-four year old David consulted me for his
headaches and neck pain. During the history, I found he
had been on blood pressure medication for two years.
His medical doctor put him on those drugs after just one
high blood pressure reading. David was moderately
overweight, didn’t exercise, smoked cigarettes, ate a
poor diet, and was very stressed after a recent
divorce. His doctor did not ask about any of these
details, but just put him on medication. That’s a
classic example of misusing prescription medication and
not addressing the underlying causes of the problem.
Says Deepak Chopra, M.D.: “About 80
percent of all the drugs that we use in western medicine
are `optional’ or of marginal benefit, which means that
if we didn’t use them, it wouldn’t make a bit of
difference to the person except save money and prevent
side effects… When we use drugs as indiscriminately as
we do currently, we see some problems.”
Major problems.
In fact, orthodox approaches can make a person much
worse or dead due to side-effects, errors and
complications. I’ve seen all this many times firsthand
and numerous medical studies document the severity of
this issue.
In the worst case scenario, orthodox
medical treatment for common ailments can cause death.
That fact has been well documented and makes a
convincing case for natural healing approaches whenever
possible. A Yale-New Haven Hospital Study in the 1980’s
estimated that 100,000 Americans die annually from
prescription drug reactions. In the 1990’s, a USA
Today article put this figure at 180,000 deaths,
while Ralph Nader’s estimate was 300,000.
Most recently, the prestigious New
England Journal of Medicine reported that over
750,000 Americans now die each year from prescription
drug reactions, hospital borne infections, complications
from unnecessary surgeries, and outright mistakes.
These figures are discussed by Mark Hyman, M.D., in
The Five Forces of Wellness.
These shocking numbers clearly signal a
need for natural, conservative, and noninvasive health
care whenever possible.
To be fair, the medical-pharmacological
industry is not solely at fault. Orthodox medicine
merely provides what many people want. Many people
prefer quick fixes versus changing their
lifestyles. They don’t sufficiently inform themselves
about how to get and stay healthy. People often don’t
do what it takes to enjoy high levels of health and
prevent problems. They wait until they’re in a crisis
and then expect doctors to bail them out. Choosing this
option, which really is disease care—not health
care—can have disastrous consequences.
Now you understand why it’s so important
to use natural healing methods whenever possible.
Are you ready to be more like this couple? If so, read Dr. Mark Pitstick’s book
Radiant Wellness and learn how natural health care approaches can improve your life!
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