Naturopathic Treatments

There is an abundance of hype on the social media regarding the virtues and benefits of sundry plants as curatives for some ailment or other.

In many cases considerable money has been spent and a great deal of time in laboratories has been sweated over trying to prove the veracity of these claims.

This money and time has been spent on reputable scientists doing serious work on the subject in hand. No doubt these scientists are just as eager as everyone else to find that ‘miracle cure’.

It seems that, on ‘Facebook’ and other social media sources, the critical evaluation is carried out by unqualified sources through the use of the ‘cut and paste’ method. These people are basing their knowledge largely on the fact that ‘Big Pharma’ is conning them. It is their hatred for this phantom pharmaceutical giant that is driving their need for something that will cure more effectively and much more cheaply.

There is also no doubt that there are cures among the world’s vegetation for some things.

Those of a religious bent will tell you that God has said that there is an existing cure growing somewhere for every ailment that there is.

Of course, we do not know if we have sent the cure into extinction by wilfully hacking down the forests. That cure may now be a thing of the past.

We do know, for example, that curcumin, derived from turmeric, is widely reported as a therapeutic and an excellent preventative for sundry diseases. Extensive research over the last fifty years has shown promising results for many diseases but nothing has been scientifically proven.

Although thoroughly studied in laboratory and clinical studies, curcumin has no confirmed medical uses, and has proved frustrating to scientists because it is unstable, it is not readily bioavailable, and unlikely to produce useful leads for drug development.

The US government has supported $150 million in research into curcumin through the National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health and no support has been found for curcumin as a medical treatment even though millions of people claim to get great nefit from taking it in its many forms.

Its use is still popular in ayurvedic medicine and those who seek naturopathic treatments regularly take capsules.

The hype: Cannabis oil is often heralded as a treatment to destroy or shrink cancerous tumors, as well as a cure for diabetes, ulcers, arthritis, migraines, insomnia, infections, and many other diseases. Also called marijuana oil or hemp oil, it’s extracted from marijuana plants, often with higher proportion of a compound known as CBD (cannabidiol), which has less of a psychoactive effect than the more-famous THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) compound that gets marijuana users high.

Cannabis oil is available in several forms with different potencies. It can be infused into cooking oil that users squirt under the tongue or mix into food. Its vapors can also be inhaled. By US federal law, cannabis products are illegal, though several US states have enacted laws to legalize their medical use.  

The evidence: While commercially available cannabis compounds are FDA-approved to reduce cancer treatment–related side effects such as nausea and vomiting and to improve appetite, no clinical trials have shown that cannabis products can treat cancer.

Claims that cannabis oil cures cancer are anecdotal and largely unsupportable, based on scant research done in mice and in labs. Side effects can include memory and attention loss. Perhaps most important, there is evidence that cannabis compounds may inhibit enzymes that patients need to metabolize other anticancer drugs, thereby increasing their toxicity or reducing their effectiveness.   

The verdict: “So far, there are no human studies that show cannabis oil can be used as cancer treatment,” Dr. Yeung says, “Patients who are using it — or any form of marijuana — should let their doctors know so they can advise you properly.”

Soursop, Jack Fruit, Nutmeg and many other plants have all been espoused for the treatment of various medical complaints.

So far there is one thing that we can all agree on, that chemotherapy and radiotherapy do not work. These are expensive treatments designed to make the hospital treasurer happy and not the patient.

Advice? Try anything that gives you ease. Drink high pH ionised water and eat vegetables.

There has been no scientific evidence that it works but thousands of testimonials are, somehow, more comforting than someone on ‘Facebook’ telling me that eating honey flavoured yoghurt cures bee stings.