Out there on the hillsides is the sure cure for every disease.
But people walk up the hills and down the hills and all they see are flowers. Flowers! As if God Almighty - honour and praise to Him! - had nothing better to do with His time than making ould flowers.
If,
in modern times,
research on natural remedies had received a fraction of the funds which have been put into pharmaceutical industries we would now be able to effectively tackle, cure and curtail many illnesses and major diseases in a natural way.
In its natural form, a medicinal plant is extremely complex and subtle, containing hundreds of different chemicals. Although one of these might seem to predominate, the main therapeutic effect of the plant occurs because of the interaction of many substances. When one of these is isolated, the delicate balance is upset.
For instance, it is well-known that chemical diuretics can be very damaging because they create inflammation in the kidneys and deplete the body’s store of potassium. However, dandelion (which is a natural diuretic) does not cause these problems.
Treatment with chemical drugs has another serious disadvantage. Chemical drugs are made from inorganic substances, while the cells of bodies are organic, as are those of the food we eat. An organic cell is one that can duplicate, grow, eliminate and then perish. Our bodies are not designed to absorb inorganic matter.
Substances we tolerate in large quantities in their organic form become toxic, even in small doses, when inorganic. For instance, seaweeds contain a great deal of organic iodine which we can easily absorb and benefit from. But taking even the smallest amount of chemical iodine can make us very ill. This is why chemical medicine can be so toxic.
Although some chemical drugs are stronger, many natural substances, if properly and judiciously administered, can have a similar, if not more powerful effect, and a much safer one. i
All of the above is, with a few changes and adaptations, extracted from the book 'Kitchen Pharmacy, a book of healing remedies for everyone' by Rose Elliot and Carlo de Paoli (p.15-16).