Is the "natural" way better? Why or why not?

As far as medication goes, using natural remedies is fine for small physical and mental problems. But when it comes to major issues, people should see a doctor.

Sometimes the natural way (omg thank you so much for defining it within the question) is better because it is cheaper, or because it allows your body to “practice” doing that particular task, be it fighting a bacteria or getting from point A to point B. It may also be better if the non-natural way might be dangerous (e.g. has detrimental side effects).

In general, though, if there is a man-made way to do something, it was probably made (and produced, and sustained in an open market) because it does something better than the natural way.

For my personal feelings toward this issue, if two things are exactly the same in every way, except that one is natural and the other isn’t, I don’t give two hoots about which one is better. If they have other differences, they should be weighed on their own accord, and not based on whether they came about from the “natural-ness” of it.

I highly doubt it’s advantageous in anyway for a vast majority of circumstance.

The “natural way” is to reproduce at age 16, and die by the late 30s due to some non-understood disease. Something tells me most people don’t advocate that.

If you have two things that have the same quality but one is natural and one is not, why not go with the natural one? When it comes to medicine, I use it when I need it , but tend to go with the more natural route if it is minor, like a cold or soar throat, or a headache. But I tend to trust doctors and if they suggest pills or chemo I would probably go with it. I also don’t get sick very easily so that may be a factor.

Modern medicine should never be disregarded. It is because of modern medicine that people can survive a multitude of diseases and injuries and live longer lives than ever before. Modern medicine cured my clubfoot when I was a baby and I know the joy of walking and running, something I will be grateful for until the day I die.

One thing I disagree with in modern medicine is the focus on easing the symptoms without trying to repair the underlying causes. For example, I do believe that people can have chemical imbalances that cause depression and the like. However, I don’t think most doctors/psychiatrists make a serious effort at discovering if a patient really has a chemical imbalance or not. It is, unfortunately, much easier to treat the symptoms than discover the cause. If mental health practitioners pursued other avenues of treatment first, they would find that a much smaller percentage of their patients have a true chemical imbalance that must be corrected by introducing external medicine.

Similar things can be said for the obesity epidemic in the US. We now have many new ways to treat diabetes and heart-related diseases caused by obesity, and even procedures like lap-band and gastric bypass surgeries to make people lose weight. These treat the results and symptoms of obesity, but not the causes. The reality is that most people do not understand how to properly take care of their bodies in terms of physical activity and nutrition. If people knew how to take of their bodies and followed through, new methods of treating obesity and obesity-related illnesses would not be as necessary as they are now.

I understand that this is not an easy task. I partially blame capitalism. It’s easier and more profitable to make foods that are refined and have little nutritional value. Much of our entertainment relies on us sitting a lot to enjoy it. The commitment to the auto-industry has created cities and towns so spread out that cars are necessary to get around. The pharmaceutical industry makes billions a year on treatments that don’t cure but ease symptoms, guaranteeing repeat customers and profits for years to come. All of these factors and more contribute to people not exercising and not eating well. For things to change, a significant effort has to be made from the top down.

To cite another personal experience: I was diagnosed with Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease. I was put on a pill and told I would have to take it everyday for the rest of my life. This was unacceptable to me (my wild imagination conjured scenarios of what would happen to me if I was ever stuck on a tropical island without my pills). After a few years of taking a proton-pump inhibitor, I decided to quit. I altered my diet, cutting out certain kinds of food, and started exercising. Eating better and dropping some weight made all of my symptoms disappear. If a doctor had made an effort to make me do those things instead of prescribing medication, I could have avoided three years of being unhealthy and nearly 1,000 pills.

A side of effect of my continuing efforts at eating healthier and exercising more is how great I feel. I can’t remember the last time I had a flu and my colds are no more than a runny nose that I get over in a couple of days (while people around me suffer for weeks at a time). I also have so much energy that coffee is a rare treat and not a necessity for waking up in the morning. Our bodies are built for dealing with these things but we need to give them a chance to do this by keeping them running efficiently.

To sum up, my position is that modern medicine is extremely valuable and necessary, in things like vaccines, surgeries and treatments for genetic illnesses. However, modern medical techniques that only ease symptoms and ignore causes should not be used until natural options have been exhausted.

If someone has a compound fracture of his leg there is the natural way of healing used milennia ago. You try to align the bones, pack the wound with the correct herbs and leaves, immobilize the leg with splints and let nature take it’s course. The person will have to be immobile for a month due to the pain and prevent further injury. Some people will survive and of those who survive some will have good use of their leg.

OR

The compound fracture can be cleaned and set under sterile conditions in an operating room. The person can receive antibiotics to stave of infection and pain killers so his body can rest and recuperate. The leg can be enclosed in a lightweight porous cast so the person can use the leg and encourage blood flow to the area of the injury. Almost everyone will have 90–100% use of their legs after 6 weeks.

Sorry-I choose #2

Even if it is something as simple as a headache and the choice is chew on willow bark or take a Tylenol, hand me the caplet.

A lot of times this debate occurs when it is around mental conditions because of the very outdated idea that they are not real diseases. Some people will survive by “bucking themselves up” just like the natural cure of the broken leg. It may be more painful and protracted than necessary. Others won’t be cured successfully or even survive at all. I certainly don’t think it’s up to me to tell others whether they should just get a good diet and exercise to get rid of their depression just because I that’s what keeps me happy and healthy. And next time I have a headache, don’t give me an axe and point out a willow tree.

When it comes to things such as pest control I do prefer to use the smallest gun that will work, such as sticky traps or pyrethrins instead of organochlorines, organophosphates, or carbamates.

However, most medical advances are indeed just that: advances. They are improvements on what went before. As @galileogirl indicates, taking an aspirin sure beats finding a willow tree.

OTOH, the hardest advice for patients to take is generally to exercise and lose weight, so doctors sometimes resort to the “easy way” by giving medications. I must admit, that my doctors have all told me that weight loss and exercise will reduce or at times eliminate my symptoms from various problems, but they have given me the medications that will help while I work on improving my health.

I think just because people do not want to use medications that alter the brain such as medications for depression does not mean they disregard ALL medication, and dislike all modernized medication.
I personally feel it’s best for my body not to ingest medications unless I absolutely need to. For instance, I would not take an antibiotic unless the doctor tested for me infection…if I just have the symptoms and he does not want to bother with tests…I would not take them. Because I feel that excessive use of antibiotics is not healthy. I want them to work when I really need them to!
I think when it comes to mental illness medications, you need to tread lightly. Putting off seeking help is never a good idea. You can go to therapy without receiving medication, and I think we’re lucky that we have the knowledge on mental illness that we have so we can do proper therapy.
I just like doing the natural approach with certain things, like allergies for instance. I try all I can before I have to take medications unless it’s a sinus infection because I just want to see if I can get whatever is bothering me out of my system, and find the trigger. But, I do find Benedryl and Singulair to be a godsend…so I do turn to them when I need to.

I was sort of having this argument the other day, but it was about vaccines. I am a mother that delays vaccines, but I know a lot who do not vaccinate at all…a lot of them actually believe that vaccines were invented with bad intentions. Now, I find this ridiculous and stupid. I would never deny what a wonderful invention they are, and when people deny modern medicine…well, then I find myself wondering why they use a lot of products that are modern and if it came down to their child acquiring a disease, they would be in the hospital trying to fix them, right? I just find it all hypocritical.

Medication isn’t necessarily the only treatment for all psychological disorders.
Some people respond well to therapy alone.
Generally I think it’s better for human health to limit the amount of pharmaceuticals we put in our bodies.

@IBERnineD: If you have two things that have the same quality but one is natural and one is not, why not go with the natural one?

I pose to you this question: Why not go with the non-natural one? You didn’t actually list any reasons for your choice.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic And some people need to be able to focus before they can get any good from therapy. It is strictly a dr/patient decision. Friends and family should butt out unless the medication is producing dangerous side effects. Lots of us know people who suffered and/or died trying to do it themselves.

@galileogirl Medication is helpful in many cases, I agree.

The only benefit I can see to something that’s “natural” is that this usually means that it has stood the test of time. Nature is an extremely complicated balancing act and it’s taken billions of years to get to this particular equilibrium. I am reminded of the Biosphere experiments in which scientists tried to replicate nature in a closed system. It didn’t really work.

So I can see how a complex natural system can be better than a complex artificial system. A lot of the kinks have been worked out. But those kinks getting worked out usually happened by things dying off. And when it comes to medicine, I think we’d prefer not to use this guess-and-check method that has served nature so well. So we bring in the scientific method, and find ways to improve on nature. And I absolutely support these improvements, as long as they really are done scientifically—which means they are tested against all available controls and have to prove that they actually work. As long as synthetic improvements meet that criterion, I’m all for them.

Health and medicine are not culture-free, and there is no way to examine them except through the lens of culture. To posit that Western biomedicine is infallibly superior to folk medicine or other cultures of medicine is to abandon cultural relativism and to begin to traverse the deadly desert of ethnocentrism.

@barumonkey haha that first sentence was left over from the answer I edited. I misunderstood the question and I was talking about fruit! :)

As Covert Bailey said, “Syphilys is natural.”

Sometimes natural is better, sometimes it is not. You gotta keep your options open.

I tink it depends on the specific situation. I do believe in the bodies ability to heal, but sometimes we cannot wait. For instance, a child has the flu, the body might send the fever up to 106 and cause brain damage in an attempt to kill of the infection, possible killing the patient. You could go the natural route by using cool water and compresses to bring down the fever and then there are types of tree bark that I believe reduve fever (I think that is the original aspirin) but I would give my child advil to get him through th enight in case I missed him burning up. Look at allergies to bee stings. If your throat is closing up you want that Epi-pen.

Here is the thing I do believe that drugs have side effects. Since we have spoken about psych drugs, many people when they start certain SSRI’s have to also take a benzo because they get anxious. Use an antibiotic you might need an anti-yeast drug afterwards. The best thing is to try to stay healthy in first place if possible.

For physical health issues I don’t really favor natural over unnatural, I favor getting to the root cause of a problem and not just treating symptoms.

When it comes to food, I don’t really think it’s an argument that natural and organic foods are better. There are certain things on earth that are meant to go into your body. These things, obviously, are things we eat. There are other things, like chemicals, preservatives, etc. that are NOT meant to go into your body. But nowaday, it’s so hard to find food without gross things in it, but it should still be kept to a minimum. I think it seems like common sense, right?

When it comes to medicine, I’ve never been sick and I’ve never needed a prescription for anything, except when I had an absessed tooth and needed to kill the infection before a root canal. I don’t have a problem with medicine in some cases, but a lot of the time people jump to the conclusion that “this pill will cure all my problems” when in reality you often become dependant on it and it in turn creates OTHER problems.

like pdworkin said, there is no such thing as natural medicine. At all. Medicine is something that people do, and lumping a bunch of different ideas under ‘natural’ doesn’t help much. The issues of drugs, operations, medical knowledge, alternative therapies, and the choice of using any treatment at all are pretty distinct issues.

Is using willow bark more ‘natural’ than getting the same drug in a pill, as a lot of people seem to think, or would the ‘natural’ route be avoiding the drug entirely? I’m not sure I care much—I’ll use the drug if it actually seems to help without having bad side-effects (as asprin certainly does), but not very many of our widely used drugs, and very few experimental ones, actually have actually been rigorously studied to statistical satisfaction. If someone is leery about taking a whole bunch of complicated drugs as medicine, then they are probably more justified in their approach than the person who blindly trusts in scientistic medicine.

As far as how much better things are now than they were for all those savages who either didn’t have or rejected modern medicine, that’s something that nobody understands. People often take a highly oversimplified view of health under agrarian civilisations (especially medieval Europe), and assume that the relatively poor health of the common people in those places means that all people in ‘the past’ were terribly unhealthy, and that the way of life was ‘to reproduce at age 16, and die by the late 30s due to some non-understood disease’. We don’t have perfect information, but that at least is almost certainly not true. In most hunter-gatherer societies, grandparents were/are an integral part of the family unit, and if you survived childhood your life expectancy wasn’t drastically shorter than ours (my guess is that people hear about a mean life expectancy counting infant and child mortality, and misinterpret that as meaning that once you hit 30 you were toast). And even the rate of child mortality may have been significantly lower in non-agrarian societies (though good numbers are hard to get). Life as a hunter-gatherer isn’t easy, but it’s hardly as if we’ve emerged from aeons of misery in human history (though it’s convenient on many levels for us to paint the past that way).

Anyway, anything we do to treat illness is a balance of benefit and drawback. Modern treatments have their benefits, which can sometimes be great, and their drawbacks: side effects, environmental impacts, hitting symptoms not causes, and not insignificantly for many people monetary cost. Other treatments have to be balanced in their own right. The more important thing that deciding ideologically ahead of time whether something is good or bad because it can be labelled ‘scientific/modern’ or ‘natural’ or ‘alternative’ or whathaveyou can really only hurt. Being a responsible patient with an open but critical mind can only help. There’s not much more too it.

I wonder how many of the “I won’t take pills” camp are young? As you get older somehow the body often needs a bit more outside help to function smoothly.

@Darwin Well, I’m pretty young..but like I said, if I need the pills I’ll take them. But, I use them as a last resort..as I would hope everyone did.

I am all in favor of using every remedy that is available. To the “natural” folk, does that mean they eat only grain, as it was originally grown, or do they eat bread made with the modern “unnatural” grain? How far back do they draw the line, and why there?

I’m convinced that people who insist on “natural” aren’t really interested in thinking it out, but are afraid of something.

Depends on what you mean by better, and what specific activity and options you’re talking about.

I think we as a people are becoming to addicted to pharmaceutical drugs. I also believe contrary to some other great answers there is natural medicine. If healing yourself with out pharmaceutical drugs works why feed into the machine. Each person’s way of healing and treating themselves should be a personal decision, modern nor nature remedies shouldn’t be forced.

I’m never ill because I eat only Manna from Heaven. It’s supernatural.

@ratboy heard that stuff causes anal leakage…..

bonus points for being overly graphic?

It’s natural for human beings to invent tools. When it comes to chemicals and drugs which is better?

My answer is: Those with a long history of human consumption and well-documented effects (including acceptable side effects). There are many naturally occurring chemicals with worse side effects compared to artificially designed chemicals.

So people should ask: How long is this drug / plant being used and what are the effects?

Though I don’t always go the “natural” route depending on cost or laziness/greediness I have found that in my life it is better with regards to foods/supplements/medicine. I have been to the point of “supersize me” with regards to fast food etc but now I eat mostly organic & mostly vegetarian (70% of my diet) I have noticed more energy, more alertness, weight loss, clearer skin, less often sick etc etc – so fir me the answer is yes natural is better