Prompt #7: Contemplating Controversy- Diajah Williams

Controversy is in everything around us, including ourselves. In the medical field, controversy is prominent and there is a never ending list of hundreds of debates that have been around  forever.

The purpose of medicine is undoubtedly to prevent, treat and  cure of us sickness and disease. We get that. But the issue comes down to the safest and most effective way to do so. One of the newer debates in medicine is modern medicine versus herbal (all natural) medicine. The controversy comes from weighing the "pros and cons" of each side; on which side do the pros outweigh the cons best? To come to a consensus, investigation of both sides of the spectrum is vital.

HerbalMedicine

To start, about 50% of today's medicine and over-the-counter prescriptions are derived either directly or indirectly from plants. New medications don't simply get made in the lab. Researchers trawl through wildernesses, waterways, wetlands and some other common environment they can discover, searching for samples of new plants and other natural products to test against samples of viruses and bacteria that are issues is modern day medicine. 

But so what, right?

Well the argument is that natural/ plant-based medicine is really the basis, or the backbone of modern medical practices anyways. Therefore, sending it through the lab and altering its properties takes away from the actual goodness of a natural substance, making it more effective, maybe, but also much more dangerous than its natural state.

Not only is herbal medicine arguably the backbone of modern medicine but it comes with several advantages. A few are as follows:

• Less side affects: Most natural prescriptions are very much endured by the patient, with side affects than pharmaceutical medications.
• Effective with chronic disease: natural drugs have a tendency to be more powerful for long-standing health problems that don't react well will modern medicine
• Lower cost: Herbs cost a lot less than pharmaceutical drugs Research, testing, and showcasing add extensively to the expenses of modern medicine
• Greater Availability: Herbs are available without a prescription. You can grow some simple herbs, at home and in some parts of the world, they may be the only treatment available to the majority of people.

And where there are advantages, there are also disadvantages, these include the following:

• Lack of Regulation:  Herbal medicines offer little statutory protection, because many are not regulated by the FDA like drugs are. Toxicity is an issue with these medicines. 
• Patience Needed: Herbal medicines require steady use over a longer amount of time than most professionally prescribed medications. They have not been worked on in a lab for adequacy, and, because of this purity, it requires some serious time to actually work.
• Adverse Interaction with Prescription Drugs: Because of the lack of regulation, there is no way to tell (without research or a doctors word) how herbal medicine will interact with regular medicines people take on a daily basis. The thought that this medicine is "herbal"often lands people in the hospital for failing to understand the dangers of mixing medicine, natural or not.

Herbal medicines tend to "fix" more than one problem at a time. For example, if you have a cold, you might turn to garlic, a natural cold suppressor. While you are taking this garlic for only a cold, you are also unknowingly reducing your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. This holds true for several other herbal medicines as well. Also, numerous herbs contain an assortment of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. it's much better to get your Recommended Daily Vales from a natural source than from a supplement.

                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     ModernMedicine

Modern medicine is the most advanced and utilized medicine in the world. It is effective and works much faster than almost all herbal remedies. The reason it is so strong and effective is that they are isolated systems programed to solve a specific problem. Side effects may occur but they are always worth the good the medicine does. 

Advances in medicine are responsible for avoiding disability and death caused by disease, lowered overall treatment costs, and has lowered death rates for, stroke, heart disease, cancer, and several other deadly diseases.

Since 1970, the death rate from heart disease has dropped almost 60% and deaths from stroke dropped 70%.  Deaths due to cancer have dropped 16% since 1990 and the death rate from HIV/AIDS has dropped over 75% from its highest point in 1995.  Furthermore, the average life span of Americans went up from from 69.7 years in 1960 to about 80 years in 2007.

Furthermore, the 5-year survival rates for cancer increased by 26% since 1984. And while HIV/AIDS was the 8th leading cause of death in the US in 1996, today, it’s not even ranked in the top 15, all thanks to modern medicine.

Modern Medicine also has other advantages that include but are not limited to the following: 

• Trauma treatment: Modern medicine practices are best matched for dealing with traumatic conditions such as car accidents and heart attacks.  
•  Eliminates symptoms: Through the elimination of uncomfortable symptoms, patients can resume their normal lives almost immediately after treatment.
• Advanced medical devices: Whenever there is something internally wrong, these modern devices let us know. Without them, several infections, diseases and deaths due to ignorance would occur.
• Accessibility: Patients can go online and post their key symptoms and then get some treatment suggestions based on what they posted.  

Some disadvantages of modern medicine include:

• Side effects: drugs have side effects that can seemingly unbearable, causing them to take even more medicine.
• Focus on symptoms: Sometimes, it is only necessary to treat the symptoms for the individual to feel normal. The underlying problem may not be treated.
• Standardized: Medicines are typically "one size fits all." While this usually works out, there are always people who fall outside of that norm.
• Expenses: Getting access to modern medicine is rather easy for places that offer healthcare but for those who can't get it, modern medicine is far too expensive.

Doctors have access to highly accurate diagnostic equipment nowadays and they are trained to recognise and diagnose disease, keeping the world we live in safe and healthy.

Given both sides of the spectrum, what do you think? Pro-Herbal or Pro-Modern? 

Leech. “11 Proven Health Benefits of Garlic (No. 1 is My Favorite).” Authority Nutrition. Authority Nutrition, Nov. 2015. Web. 28 Jan. 2016. <http://authoritynutrition.com/11-proven-health-benefits-of-garlic/>.

Sullivan, Thomas. “Modern Medicine vs. Alternative Medicine: Different Levels of Evidence.” Policy and Medicine. Policy and Medicine, 16 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. <http://www.policymed.com/2011/08/modern-medicine-vs-alternative-medicine-different-levels-of-evidence.html>.

Veeresham, Ciddi. “Natural Products Derived from Plants as a Source of Drugs.” Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology & Research 3.4 (2012): 200–201. PMC. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.