Taken from the Peoria Journal Star on June 19th 2009 IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Alternative Medicine Can Work
This is my first-ever letter to the editor, but I could not pass up the opportunity to rebut the articles on alternative medicine in the Journal Star on June 7-8. I feel passionately about this.
First, I am not anti-medicine. I thank God for modern medicines and the help they bring to the world. But things have definitely gotten out of hand. The large pharmaceutical companies have been given too much power. Drugs can be helpful, but come on –a drug for the side effect of this drug…Where does it all stop? Doesn’t it become a bit toxic? And where does building up the immune system come into play?
The Associated Press reporter writes: “Ten years ago, Congress created a new federal agency to study supplement and unconventional therapies. But more than $2.5 billion of tax-financed research has not found any cures or major treatment advances…If anything, evidence has mounted that many of these pills and therapies lack value.” Well, I beg to differ.
There have been cures for many decades, And how about the countless dollars that have been spent on cancer research, yet we still don’t have a cure in 2009 when we put a man on the moon in 1969?
So enter in “alternative medicine.” God did not create pharmaceutical companies, but He did create the Earth in all its splendor. He gave us a bountiful supply of green plants and herbs not only for their beauty, but for food and medicinal purposes, for oxygen and for antioxidants, those staples for life.
Just as there are good drugs and not-so-good drugs, individuals are also subject to natural, effective supplements as well as those not living up to their claims. You must become, in many cases, your own doctor and researcher. If not, seek out a professional who is educated in the field of homeopathic medicine, naturopathy, chiropractic or other forms of natural healing. Are there kooks out there? Of course, just as there are kooks in the medical field.
What can the president do for our health care system? Push for a law that causes insurance companies to help pay for natural remedies prescribed by professionals, not paying just for drugs. And let the hundreds of cancer cures be made known and no longer be hidden from the public.
Donna Fletcher
Stage 4 Lung Cancer Survivor
Germantown Hills, IL