It is common knowledge that most prescription drugs have side-effects. Why? Because they are artificial, foreign substances that circulate in the blood. Why are they artificial? Because they are man-made; they are synthetic; they are manufactured chemicals that do not occur in nature.

The reality is that about half of the prescription drugs are just copies of naturally occurring herbal substances, which are also called phytochemicals (phyto = plants). Pharmaceutical companies cannot patent products found in nature, but enormous profits come primarily from patented drugs. So, in order to patent phytochemicals, the pharmaceutical scientists change the molecules enough to satisfy the Patent Examiners. This results in enormous profits, but produces new diseases, the side-effects.

The scientists change the phytochemical molecules by changing the electrical bonds between atoms, or by adding molecules or atoms such as carbon or nitrogen, or by changing the ways molecules are branched. The result is a new chemical which is approved by the Patent Examiner and which does have a beneficial effect to suppress symptoms, such as high blood pressure, but at the same time causes a new disease, the side-effect.

The results of taking a prescription drug are usually harmful to the patient in a long-term downward spiral as follows:

1. Prescription drugs usually do not cure the problem, but only suppress the symptoms. In the case of antibiotics, they may actually cure the illness, but they often bring their own side-effects such as development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and/or they kill the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and in the female reproductive tract, with resulting yeast infections or even Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Epstein-Barr disease) which will be addressed in a future Article (this is a common trigger of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).
   
2. Prescription drugs usually cause other diseases, called side-effects, because the body recognizes them as foreign chemicals and therefore cannot metabolize them properly. The result is a new sickness. But then this new sickness has to be treated with another drug, and that drug causes still another sickness. This is why people who begin taking one prescription drug often have to take a second one, and then a third one, and so on, while their health gets worse and worse. The frequent course is that they don't get nutritional counseling from their doctor, or they don't listen to it, and they do less exercise because they feel weak, nauseous, have stiff joints and are in pain. I know this applies to many of you, my readers, or to members of your household. I bring you good news: you don't have to be sick!
   
3. Prescription drugs are very expensive, because the proceeds support multi-million dollar laboratories and multi-million dollar advertising campaigns in magazines and newspapers. I have read several articles which compared prescription drug costs to the costs of their naturally-occurring herbal counterparts sold in health food stores. The cost difference is great. For example, a month's supply of a certain prescription drug might be $48, compared to the comparable herbal product which costs $8. And with the $48 product comes a new illness, the side-effect, Wisely chosen herbal products have NO undesirable side-effects. They don't just suppress symptoms; they reverse the disease, often completely.

To avoid this downward spiral, please begin to read the health books and magazines, I have described in previous Articles, and go to a nutritionally-oriented physician. Your health depends on what you eat. This is very good news because, no matter what your illness, it can be reversed by healthy food, the right supplements, and regular exercise such as walking.

A healthy diet is pretty easy if you make small, gradual changes over months and years. You'll be amazed at how much better you feel, so amazed in fact, that you will want to tell other people. It's well worth the effort. There is HOPE for your future, a future of health.