Why is it so many people don't believe in natural supplements?

Question

I have had a lot of very good experiences with natural supplements. Ex: I use to have problems with digestion and I bought a product called NuZymes, which are certain combo of enzymes and I never had a problem again. I had a problem with circulation and I took something called natokinase and it worked. There are other experiences but I'll stop there. Why don't people believe in natural supplements?

Answer 1

People tend to support what they know and what they 're told to believe.

Not enough people are willing to try something new and experiment on themselves. Fear of the unknown,stubborness and a traditional outlook are often responsible for a non-adventurous attitude.

Not enough people are independent enough to be willing to take a risk,however small!

Answer 2

Becuase they have not been proven to work. Thats great if you find that they work. But in a study on the general population, compared to a placebo, many (not all) have no effect.

If you went to a doctor and he was like "give this a go. I have no idea what effect it will have on your body, where it acts, any nutrient/drug interactions or if it will work. Oh and it may have some side effects". Wouldn't you walk out and get another doctor? I would. I like to know what I am taking will have an effect beyond a placebo.

As for nutrient supplements, you can get everything you need from food. Its so much better just to eat well.

Sometimes we find a natural supplement/ alternative medicine does work. In which case, thats is fantastic and is a good thing for medical science. But generally when people talk about natural supplements they refer to those that have not  been proven to be effective and are not part of regular medicine.

It all comes down to proof.

Answer 3

I guess there are so many different types out there on the market that it becomes confusing and expensive to try all the ones that some of us might need.  Also, doctors caution alot of patients not to take them especially if they are on prescription medication.  I am still learning which ones I really need.  Based on the books I have read, I should be taking just about every one of them.  I am glad they worked for you!  Keep sharing that with people who have the same ailments that you did.  Great testimony!

Answer 4

Many of the products on store shelves have so little herb or other product in them that they really can't work.  I urge everyone to buy from a source that you trust or get a recommendation from someone you know who  has had good results.  www.herbalhealeracademy.com

or  www.herbdoc.com

Both of these I trust and get very good products from.

Potent formulas can be found at herbdoc.

At herbal healer I found Beta Glucans with maitake mushroom which has strenghtened my immune system.  I have not had a cold or bronchitis for the 2 years I have been taking it and have had almost no bladder infections.  Both of these ailments were big problems for me before.

Answer 5

1)  Because humans like to believe in "the magical cure".  Something as simple as a plant or a vitamin or an oil couldn't possibly help me, could it?  I mean plants grow in the ground...they touch the dirt!  They're not clean.  They weren't made in laboratories.

2)  Because they know nothing about natural healing and natural supplements, and for whatever the reasons--fear, ignorance, laziness, not wanting to take responsibility for their own health and well-being, wanting "expert" care, inability to think critically, wanting "Big Daddy" to do it all for them, and make "it" go away--they're not inclined to want to learn how to take responsibility for themselves and their health, either.

3)  I think it also relates to the "Maserati Factor".  We all want that top of the line sports car.  We also all want to believe that we're all getting the "top of the line" medical care.  How can plants and oils and rare earths possibly be "top of the line".  They're too simple, and too earth-based for most consumers, and let's be very honest, much of medicine is a consumer or a market issue, especially where pharmaceuticals are concerned.

The funny thing tho' is that lately, each time I interact w/ an allopath, they've either recommended a natural supplement to me (most recently Vitamin E and fish oil and garlic...I think something's changing here...) or had lots of questions and a big discussion w/ me about the supplements I indicate I'm taking on their intake forms.  Whatever the reasons, these dialogues can only be seen as good.  We're all thinking and communicating here, and yeah, when I have to, I look at what allopaths offer as potentially lifesaving at times.  Even a sacrament.  It's a symphony, a collaboration, not a war.  And may the most effective, least invasive, least toxic methods win.  It's all about what works best, and is safest for people.

PS Regarding circulation:  Herbs work EXTREMELY well. I have very serious Post-embolitic Thrombophlebitis in my left leg.  All the venous valves are blown.  Circucaps by Sanhelios (Butchers' Broom + rosemary & thyme concentrate) works INCREDIBLY well, and always makes the condition better, ie no more swelling, no more throbbing pain in my legs.  Pycnogenol and horse chestnut help, too.

I mean, doesn't it make sense that as biological organisms, carbon based lifeforms, that we would best be healed and rebalanced by things from the same natural world?  How is something toxic like petrochemicals and irradiation going to effect a cure in a biological organism???

"Let food be your medicine."  --Hippocrates (yeah, the same guy who authored the Hippocratic Oath, the one all new doctors take upon graduating from Medical School...)

Answer 6

Latent fear of being labeled a "hippie", combined with a bizzare sense of trust in the cold, clinical, so-scientific-it-couldn't-be-wrong aspect of pharmaceutical companies.

I've taken fish oil, echinacea, and Activia yogurt (far from hippie-type stuff) for their various purposes and had great success. People DO believe in natural substances if it's part of their own culture (i.e. their family, something their grandparents did)...so folks who drink extra orange juice to get over a cold, eat a banana to get over a hangover, or drink tea with honey when they have a sore throat don't consider themselves hippies, even though you could qualify all of those as natural remedies.

The funny thing is, most prescription pharmaceuticals are derived from natural plant/animal products, anyhow. They're just chemically synthesized or refined.

Answer 7

We are being conditioned to a certain way of thinking. We are conditioned from an early age with many different belief's, including religion, some people are smart enough to think for themselves, and either change that religion, or become an atheist, I congrulate both, for using their reason/logic.

From an early age, we are taught that doctors know best, they are knowledgable intelligient people, who are doing their upmost to help you when you are sick or ill, they are always the first point of call when we are ill. And for the majority of doctors this is true, they are caring and are looking out for our best interest.

This includes the money in your wallet/purse, doctors really don't want you wasting that hard earned money on quack/chalatans whom they believe are all alternative medicine practionioners, unfortunetly we have our black-sheep in the AM community, and indeed chalatans do take advantage of the most vulnerable.

However, it is unjust to paint all of the AM Practionioners with the same brush. Doctors are taught at med school the 'Scientific Model' in a module called either 'Scientific Thinking' or 'Critical Thinking', here we are told that scientific medicine, or allopathy is the only way, and that in order for a therapy/claim/treatment method to enter mainstream medicine, it must conform to vigorous Randomised Clinical Control Trials, which is the sacred gold cow of conventional medicine. It is beautiful, it really is, and simple, if you make a claim/therapy you test with the RCT trials, the results are then published in a {preferable reputable} peer-reviewed journal, like 'Nature', Lancet, JAMA, to name a few.

And whola! its happy days from thereon, no conspiracies, hard-ache, or resentment is needed. And for anyone who refuses to provide the evidence or put their therpay/claim through a RCT, then they must be liers, chalatans and the therapy is labelled quackery. Doctors are quite rightly advised not to waste their time even looking into these claims/therapies, after all they're busy people, they [doctors] are advised to visit the Health Fraud Authority, that is QuackWatch, {where Dr. Stephen Barrett MD and associates do all the thinking and research for you, unfortunetly they have vested interests with pharmaceutical companies, and thus cannot be trusted to vouch justly, further they approach the therapy with an internal bias towards debunking, ridiculing and blacklisting the claim/therapy, resulting in an unfair defamation of the claimant/therapy. Doctors are the innocent 'front-men' not seeing what is going on behind the scenes, and thus like all 'front-men' or messengers get the resentment, blame and disgust of AM supporters. Doctors really are repeating what they learned at med school, and more recently Conventional Medical Journals, which they consider the truth, they are much a victim as you and I, the patient}

However, this is not the case, unfortunetly, their are many many hurdles which are un-surpassable by the claimant/AM Practionioner, for instance the cost of the RCT trial ranges in the $100millions of dollars, and some claim the FDA approval process costs $800m, according to Daniel Haley, author of the book 'Politics in Healing', an article written by him can been viewed here, where this statement is repeated:

http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/d...

Alternative medicine cannot pay this huge sum of money, in order to gain approval from the wealthy medical profession, only pharmaceutical companies/giants like Roch, GSK, MERCK, Lilly ect. can afford such a sum of money, due to profits from patented drugs.

Nutriceutical companies, are the underdogs, their herbs/supplements cannot be patented as it exists in nature and this would be absurd, further this also results in small profit margins, this is compounded by the competition in the free-market by numerous Nutriceutical companies and some pharmaceutical companies {producing Ascorbic acid/Vitamin C}.  This results in no RCT evidence to support the claims, thus no scientific evidence, and thus no approval and consequently the claim/therapy is rejection, ridiculed and blacklisted by the medical profession{AMA, NCI, NIH, FDA ect.}, QuackWatch and the media {TV, News, Radio, Internet articles ect.}.

The primary care family doctor/GP is always the first healthcare professional we see, and thus is routine, even for those who are Alternative Medicine Supporters, Humans are used to routine, it is a natural process, and so we tend to believe the doctors even though we should know better, especially those who have knowledge of the system in place.



The subconscious mind learns by repeatition and not by logic, That is why you can convince someone to believe in something by repeating your argument again and again instead of using logic {Especially seen in the media propaganda for 9/11, when clearly logic shows us it was an inside job, [Loose Change Documentery] yet most of us have been programmed, and the ones that speak to the contorary from time to time doubt their belief, beautiful system}.

This is how our subconcious mind is programmed from childhood, repetitively seeing the Doctor { what do you see? when you think back to your childhood and the relationship with your doctor?...Maybe a kind, caring face leaning over to give a big red lollipop?, this creates an association in the subconcious mind, between kindness, unconditional love, and survival = doctor; according to Evolutionary Psychology the Human has two priorities throughout life, 1) Survival, 2) Replication}, this repeats throughout life, until you re-program your subconcious mind, with repitition, reading many many cases of medical suppression, propaganda and poor efficacy of the medical system when it comes to treating chronic degenerative diseases, cancer, HIV and mental illness.

Having said that, Conventional medicine is brilliant and unparallel when it comes to providing an accurate scientific diagnosis, and particularly in Emergency Medicine, I have nothing but complements for these aspects of conventional medicine, and the doctors practicing this; But when it comes to chronic degenerative diseases, Cancer, HIV, and mental illness, Alternative Medicine is superior; And dare I say it, can cure the uncurable [labelled by conventional medicine].

'FYI...regarding digestive enzymes.. Nuzyme...they are destroyed in the stomach by hydrochloric acid, so there is no way they can actually aid in digestion...so something else is clearly going on.)'

Such a statement could be forgiven if made by a layperson without any/little scientific knowledge, yet this statement was stated by someone who claims they are a doctor, an MD.

If this is the case, this is truly worrying.

Digestive enzyme supplements are usually 'enteric coated', this means they have a protective coating that passes and remain intact as it travels through the stomach acidity, and eventually burst and releases its contents in the duodenum or small intestine, depending on the strength of the enteric coating the contents can be engineered to be released at a certain point in the intestines.

Drugs such as aspirin, which have an irritant effect on the stomach, can be coated with a substance that will only dissolve in the small intestine.

Medical Doctors MD's, your colleagues, reccommend digestive enzyme supplementation for those suffering from lactose intolerance. In order to digest the lactose, and thus relieve the ailment.

I suggest this individual updates their [basic] medical knowledge, a simple definition of enteric coating will be a good start: -

http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?e...

I suggest even if you remain sceptical of the claims made, you should not support your ideologies/counter-arguments/opinions with false information, whether deliberate or innocent.

Hope this helps.

Answer 8

Because we are continually being brainwashed via the television, media, magazines, newspapers, radio that we need to pump ourselves full of prescription and over the counter medicines on a daily basis for the rest of our natural lives to achieve the nirvana & health & vitality we all so richly deserve ..... being manipulated into feeling  we need prescription drugs and when we use them our lives will be "perfect" and we'll all live "happily ever after" ..........  people need to start thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for their own health .....  the only people that live "happily ever after" are the people making squillions of mindless dollars peddling prescription meds..........money should be used and people should be loved .....  not the other way around.........;0)

peace 2 u

Answer 9

The same reason that people 600 years ago thought that the world was flat. - the fear of the unknown.

Answer 10

Because the doctor said it don't work

.. . ..

The only problem with that teaching is that all the durgs in the pharmacy come from Mother nature only now made by mankind

.. . ..

That is why all the drugs that the pharmacy gives out has a telephone book of side effects to them

.. . ..

Where herbal has maybe one if even that in side effects

.. . ..

And when the patient has no side effects of a medication that the doctor has prescribed to them

.. . ..

That patient will not come back with a new problem that the pills give them cured but caused another problem

YELL RIGHT

.. .. ..

Answer 11

Your use of the phrase "believe in" says a lot.

For myself, I don't "believe in" anything.  There is either good evidence that something works/exists, or the evidence is lacking.

Your personal story about some vague health improvements after taking some "supplements" is interesting, but it is only a testimonial or anecdote.  Those are considered the weakest forms of evidence.  

There are lots of possible explanations for a perceived benefit from a supplement.  I would want to know details of your ill defined "problem with digestion" and "problem with circulation" first of all.  Just the action of doing something (taking a supplement) rather than doing nothing alone can have a beneficial effect.  (FYI...regarding digestive enzymes.. Nuzyme...they are destroyed in the stomach by hydrochloric acid, so there is no way they can actually aid in digestion...so something else is clearly going on.)

Supplements are clearly beneficial if you have a deficiency in something.  There is no evidence that taking other kinds of "supplements" has any effect at all, inspite of your personal story.  Certain herbs and plants obviously have medicinal properties (Willow Bark, Foxglove)....but I don't think you are refering to those things.