Going back to natural diet

RECENTLY, fellow journalist Giovannie Va-ay advised me to do as he had done. He broke the good news that his high blood sugar had gone down to “normal” without taking medicine.  He did it by eating two boiled eggs and vegetable salad for breakfast.

“Just try if it would work for you, too,” he said.

Indeed, it’s not just to save money that some people do not always follow the doctor’s prescription. I say so from personal experience.

There was a time when a doctor asked me to take an anti-cholesterol drug after an x-ray had revealed an “atherosclerotic aorta.” Because the branded “statin drug” was very expensive and I was already spending much for anti-hypertension “maintenance,” I just bought a partial number of tablets.

However, within three days of religiously taking the drug as prescribed, I could no longer put on my polo shirt without wincing due to excruciating muscle pain.

I instinctively turned to Internet blogs to research “statin” – a medical term for an anti-cholesterol formula. It shocked me to read that other users of the drug had reported the same side effect: unbearable muscular pain. There was not a single favorable testimonial.

My research led me to a bookstore where I bought a book on fruits and vegetables as the better alternatives to anti-cholesterol drugs in restoring cardio-vascular health. Such restoration, however, necessitates lesser consumption of red meat but more of fish.

No less than the acknowledged Greek father of medicine, Hippocrates (460-337 BC), taught, “Let your food be your medicine.”

Today, we all know that vegetables and fruits strengthen the body’s built-in immune system, giving it the capacity to fight disease-causing bacteria and virus. The lowly and cheap malunggay has already been proven effective in boosting the immune system.

There were no “fast foods” and preserved “junks” during Hippocrates’ time. No doubt the main foodstuffs then consisted mostly of fresh plants and fresh fish. That he lived to be an octogenarian proves that he successfully practiced what he had preached.

Hippocrates as a physician prescribed natural remedies to prevent and treat diseases. His approach was both therapeutic and experimental, since there were no sophisticated laboratories yet to help him diagnose patients and evaluate outcome of treatment. He would wait and see. Whenever a patient recovered, he would further observe him to validate nutritional therapy, herbal medicine and other natural remedies.

Hippocrates might have heard about herbal practitioners who had preceded him. Despite the primitive means of transportation and communication in his time, herbal medicine as practiced in China for centuries had already gained global patronage. Today, such previously doubtful Chinese practices as acupuncture, acupressure and reflexology have gained a niche in modern medicine.

Shed of hypocrisy, conventional medicine ought to be integrated with alternative medicine because they really do not oppose each other. On the contrary, they complement each other like parallel railroad tracks. Indeed, modern medicine has evolved from this time-honored co-existence.

Natural medicines are no cure-all but are not detrimental unless laced with chemicals. They offer hope to desperate patients, including those whom hospitals have given up.

The universal interest in going back to nature is no doubt behind the popularity of herbal shampoos, soaps and cosmetics. No wonder the manufacturers of soft drinks now imprint “vitamin-enriched” on their products.

The Philippine government, unfortunately, appears lukewarm in implementing a law that could have exploited the abundance of medicinal plants in the countryside. It’s the Traditional Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) of 1998, which is supposed to encourage drug companies to use native herbs as active components of their products.

Unfortunately, little is being done to shift the patronage of patients from artificial to natural.

But, in fairness, thanks to Pascual Laboratories for formulating a cheaper cough syrup out of our native lagundi leaves.