Do you take prescription medicine from "big pharma," or do you tend to trust supplements, herbs, and alternative medicine more?

Here we go.

I take and prescribe medications that have proven efficacy. Do you know what they call alternative medicine that has been proven to work? Medicine.

I have no choice but to trust Western medicine. I am a big fan of living past the age of 5.

I’m glad you asked =)
I recently cured my gastritis through what I’ll call “natural nutrient medicine.” I ingested nothing but watermelon, aloe vera, and coconut water for 24 hours. Following that, I ate a vegan diet. More recently, I’m juicing vegetables and fruits. Not only did doing this cure the gastritis, but I’m getting healthier. My doctor wanted to put me on two different pills for 60 days. After researching how poorly the medication worked, I decided to cure the gastritis naturally, and it worked in less than two weeks. I plan to continue this mostly vegan lifestyle.
I said all that to say that I personally rely on natural medicine more than Western medicine. If a person sick because of natural causes, then natural medicine is best; of course, if someone breaks a leg or something, they should utilize Western medicine.

I’m very skeptical of alternative medicine, and I’m a big fan of clinical trials. But then I’ve never really needed much more than antibiotics or ibuprofen.

@Facade: How do you define “natural causes”? Is my immune system attacking my pancreas for no apparent reason natural? Because it would have been “natural” for me to die in childhood. I was supposed to have been weeded out by “natural” selection.

Both.

I sure don’t trust alternative medicine. “Big pharma” may have its shortcomings, but it sure has its act together more than the “alternative” crowd when it comes to making sure their treatments actually help. And aren’t harmful or dangerous, for that matter.

My aunt got into an accident where her skull actually cracked open. A friend of my mother’s had a motorcyclist drive over her freaking head. Thanks to mainstream medicine, they’re both still alive and surprisingly well. My money is on the people who can work miracles of that calibre.

But if I really have no alternatives left, I might try some credible-sounding and confirmedly harmless varieties that haven’t been disproved yet. Like Chinese herbs, sure.

I use both. For minor ailments, I may lean towards something homeopathic to solve those simple aches, pains and annoyances. For my COPD, there is nothing that will help me like Spiriva. And for blood pressure, I’ve yet to find anything that can touch my Lisinopril for keeping me at an even level.

I use both. Personally, I would rather not have to put any harmful substances into my body. Some of the medication I take comes with unpleasant side effects, which cannot be good for the body from my point of view. That said, it has lifted me out of a dark place and is giving me more freedom. I would hope to find a natural alternative down the line but who knows if I will.

@Rarebear GA and well phrased.

Also, be aware that many supplements are actually produced and distributed by “big pharma.”

The only exception to only taking FDA approved medicines might be “off label” uses for drugs in the US that have been demonstrated to be both safe and effective in studies abroad, but not yet received FDA approval. And this would likely be only under certain circumstances.

@gorillapaws I can’t take credit for the line. It’s from the beat poem “Storm” by Tim Minchin (check out my profile and click on the youtube link.)

Both. Well, actually all my vitamins and minerals I take are all large companies, they aren’t some small manufacturer of a specific herb or from the chinese herb store. So, maybe my answer is all my medication and supplements are big pharma?

@JLeslie You got that right. The supplement industry is a multibillion dollar industry, just like so called “big pharma”. The big difference is that it’s using unregulated, unproven chemicals.

Considering that the “natural” state of my body is to attack one of its own organs until it bleeds and scars over and bleeds again, I don’t hold any misconceptions about what the word “natural” means. Natural != good. Unnatural != bad.

I prefer the stuff that has been tested. And I don’t care if it’s natural or unnatural.

@Rarebear I seriously question whether my vitamin D supplement actually has any D in it, or at least anywhere near the amount it says. I take a prescription, which effectively raises my D levels, but I added OTC D3 for even more, and it doesn’t seem to do much of anything.

I believe in both alternative and “traditional” medicine. I prefer using certain home remedies for certain things, but, if I am hit by a bus I want to be taken to a trauma center stat, not have a Tibetian Prayer bowl ringing session to mend my broken bones. lol
I have had great success with accupuncture, certain chinese herbs and other herbal remedies.
I think there is room for both dependent on circumstance.

I do agree with @bookish1 as I too have a rare blood type the RH factor and O negative. If not for the Rhogam shot in my early pregnancy I most likely would have never been able to have a child as my bloods antibodies would have attacked and killed the fetus. I would have been a sad and sick woman back on the prairie. :-(

P.S. Don’t forget…LAUGHTER is the best medicine! :-D

I’ll take whatever works. Unfortunately, while I have huge problems with “big pharma”, and especially with the psychotropic drugs they make and how the drugs work, I’ve found very little of the stuff found in the vitamin aisle of Whole Foods to work that wasn’t already prescribed to me by my doctor (like fish oil). So if I’m gonna spend money, I might as well spend it on something that works, at least a little, even if it has huge side effects.

Tim Minchin put it thus, “You know what they call alternative medicine that’s been proved to work?
Medicine.” It’s hard to argue with the results of double blind testing and easy to be sold a load of snake oil if you don’t test.

In order to live at all, I have to take 2 different Rx meds (for thyroid and kidney disease). In order to live a life worth living, I have to take 2 more (anti-anxiety/depression and pain killers for Fibro). To correct some things that are out of whack, I take one more Rx (cholesterol) and one supplement (OTC vitamin D, though I’ve been on prescription D in the past.) Two of those pills, I take twice a day (pain killer and D.)

There is no alternative medicine that would do what these drugs do for me.

I am generally healthy so I rarely take medicine, alternative or otherwise. The extent of my western medicine intake tends to be limited to birthcontrol and an occasional painkiller for cramps. I haven’t had a cold for years so that’s pretty much it. I take vitamins erratically but that’s as alternative as I go.

I’m glad I don’t need to take much of anything. I’m all for western medicine, but I don’t mistake it for a magic wand either. It’s always better not to need it in the first place.

@Rarebear & @JLeslie boy howdy! I have a lot of impotent rage about the lack of accountability with supplement manufacturers.

@bookish1
@Coloma
Oh, that too, good point. I was born too early and if my mom hadn’t been in hospital at the time, neither she nor I would have survived my birth.

Now, um, don’t get me wrong. I feel a bit queasy about forcing people to imply they personally want me dead in order to disagree with me.
Perspective says people die all the time, so don’t give my hypothetical death more weight than theirs just because I’m the room. And dying before you’re even properly alive is probably one of the least terrible ways anyway. I know I’m loved now, but let’s be honest – nobody really misses an unborn could-have-been-a-person. Most people are never even conceived. If things had gone south that day, the death of my mother would have been the real tragedy.
The point is that mainstream modern medicine helps people survive things, and that’s incredibly awesome.

I trust controlled studies. There must be an active pharmaceutical ingredient that does have an effect. Some supplements, herbs, and alternative medicine do work, but many are not.

@Rarebear Thanks for all the wonderful resources. Bookmarked.

When I was traveling in asia a few years ago a friend and I wandered into a herbal/apothocary shop and the proprietor took one look at both of us and very accurately diagnosed our troubles. My allergy issues and my friends anemia due to a condition that prevents her absorbing enough iron. Gave my friend a glass of duck blood and she drank it!
Gah!

I was VERY impressed though with this medicine mans astute observations.
They were 100% right on!

@Coloma – Most of traditional Chinese medicine is nonsense and some even responsible for threatening the survival of wild animals such as the tiger. There are plenty of domesticated ducks though, so no problem here.

OP kindly asks that we return to the topic.

Okay, back to topic. I suggest that you subscribe to the podcast Quackcast, winner of the People’s Choice Award for best health podcast. It’s all about SCAM therapy such as supplements, herbs, accupuncture, reiki, etc.

Another great resource on the subject is Trick or Treatment which takes an unbiased look at SCAM therapies and evaluates them on their merits.

Oh, I like Simon Singh. Another resource is Tim Farley’s What’s The Harm website.