Revisiting natural medicine

By Herbert Vego

FORGOTTEN number of years ago, this writer – who is now 75 — criticized an actor for appearing on a TV ad endorsing a branded mucolytic while showing a woman sweeping lagundi leaves into a dustpan.

“Obviously,” I wrote, “the manufacturer of that mucolytic wants us to absorb a subliminal message that lagundi leaf is not as good as claimed by a manufacturer of capsulized and bottled herbal medicines.”

The ad, fortunately, has not stopped the patronage of lagundi syrup, tablet and capsule. Known by its scientific name vitex negundo, it has been approved by our Food and Drug Authority (FDA) as herbal medicine for cough.

There are now several brands of pharmaceutical lagundi (vitex negundo) in the Philippines. Among them are Ascof, Plemex, RiteMed, Lagundex, and Astrol.

Some drug companies, however, would stop at nothing to discredit natural and herbal alternatives.

On the other side are drug manufacturers who produce radio and TV testimonials extolling food supplements, such as vitamin D, as medicine.

That is somehow exaggerated. While vitamin D is essential to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy, it may also be “self-manufactured” at no cost through exposure to sunlight.

Following a doctor’s prescription may not be good all the time, as in that time when a cardiologist prescribed to me an anti-cholesterol “statin” drug. Alas, after only two days of taking the drug, I suffered from excruciating muscle pains.

It was then that I became interested in reading about natural alternatives. I bought the book Stop Inflammation Now by American physician Dr. Richard Fleming. In that book, he recommended fruits and vegetables as alternatives to anti-cholesterol drugs. Go slow, he also advised, on fatty read meat. I followed his advice. Today, my cholesterol count is normal.

If we only care to look back, we would discover that the book author was merely echoing the Greek father of medicine, Hippocrates (460-357 BC), who first said, “Let your food be your medicine.”

He knew by then that vegetables and fruits strengthen the body’s built-in immune system, giving it the capacity to fight diseases. That he lived to be a centenarian proves that he successfully practiced what he preached.

Hippocrates might have heard about herbal practitioners who had preceded him. Despite the primitive means of transportation and communications during his time, herbal medicine as practiced in China for centuries – along with acupuncture and reflexology –had already flourished.

Incidentally, the lowly and cheap malunggay (moringa oleifera) has already earned a reputation as a booster of the immune system. Unfortunately, the FDA has not yet approved it as a treatment for any specific diseases.

Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, former secretary of the Department of Health, believes that alternative medicine and conventional medicine are integrative in the sense that they do not oppose but complement each other like parallel tracks on a railroad. In fact, modern medicine has evolved from this time-honored medical principle.

Natural medicines are no cure-all. But they offer hope to desperate “terminal” patients.

There was a time when representatives of a Japanese drug company came to Manila looking for suppliers of rosas sa baybayon because they would like to turn it into tablets and capsules to be sold in Japan as an adjunct treatment for cancer.

In the book Liv11ing Longer and Healthier, Dr. Allan Magaziner wrote that 50% of the United States’ population are “hooked” to alternative health care programs with the end view of adding years to life and life to years.

Fortunately, there’s also a growing trend of Filipinos going back to nature through herbal shampoos, herbal soaps, herbal cosmetics and “vitamin-enriched” drinks now capturing the fancy of health buffs.

The government, unfortunately, appears slow and selective in implementing the Traditional Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) of 1998 that is supposed to encourage drug companies to use cheap native herbs as active components of their products.

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‘RAZON NOW THE RICHEST FILIPINO’ – FORBES

MORE Power chairman Enrique “Ricky” Razon Jr. has overtaken real estate titan Manny Villar as the Philippines’ richest man, according to Forbes Asia.

The financial researcher announced that “Razon now boasts an estimated net worth of $11.9 billion, edging out Villar’s $11 billion, as trading in shares of Villar’s Golden MV Holdings remains suspended.”

That explains why Iloilo City counts on Razon to modernize the operation of MORE Power – being our power-distribution utility – in order to help local business enterprises and multinational industries grow faster.