"Here's to your health!" We've heard this many times, and of course we all hope to stay well. But when we do get sick, there's a tendency to reach for the "quick fix" - what's going to make us feel better fast? What will take away our child's pain? .
Unfortunately, millions of people find out each year that the hasty remedy is not always the best. It's pretty well known now that antibiotic treatments can be over-used due to their easy accessibility. They have their place, but improper dosage, stopping medication as soon as we feel better, and hasty prescriptions for ailments that could be otherwise treated, has resulted in the growth of new bacteria that is resistant to most medicines known to man! .
Not only that, but you may cure one thing only to be left with lingering side effects from the medicine in some other area of your body. This is quite common with anti-inflammatory drugs as well as antibiotics. .
The dilemma is - do we go all the way back to grandma's salves and potions or the herbs of the jungles? .
I admit; I was a person who would run to the doctor for the littlest thing. To get out of that habit, I started letting myself get too sick before going, just to prove I wasn't a hypochondriac! Either way, I was also very skeptical about natural remedies, thinking that the salespeople and customers in these "herbal" shops were all hippie-garbed folks, sitting around chanting mantras, and this was not my style. If not that, then they would all be pale, bone-thin caricatures of their former selves as a result of not partaking from all the food groups! .
But one day, after suffering through six months of acute bronchitis with two allergy prescriptions and three antibiotics that didn't work, I was on the verge of driving myself to a hospital. .
"Do yourself a favor first", my manager at work said to me, "Go to this health food store. It's right near where you live." She slipped me a card.