Alternative medicine is a type of treatment that continues to grow in popularity. Often it includes treatments that aren't new and some people might even call them ancient.
Since its inception, many have called modern medicine a gift from God. Sometimes, however, we look back to the treatments of our ancestors. Dr. Josh Axe, the founder of the most-visited natural health website in America, says equating healing with pharmaceuticals is a relatively new concept.
"Up until 150 years ago when somebody used the word medicine it typically didn't mean a synthetic medicine," he told CBN News, "It typically meant an herb or spice, like ginger or frankincense, and all of these things that are referenced in the Bible that's what was meant by medicine."
In his new book Ancient Remedies: Secrets to Healing with Herbs, Essential Oils, CBD, and the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in History Dr. Axe recommends herbs, supplements, essential oils and foods to treat about 75 different conditions.
"For instance, if somebody is struggling with hypothyroidism, I go through those top five herbs so people know exactly what to do," he said, "If somebody has Alzheimer's, I go through what to do. If somebody has inflammation, heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, hormone imbalance, I go through all of those things in there."
Dr. Axe says some natural treatments date back to the dawn of civilization.
'It's believed that Abraham taught a lot of these natural ways of healing, using different herbs and foods to support healing," he said, "And that is the basis of Chinese or different types of Asian medicine."
Why Go Natural?
Many people are content to use medicines that are made in a lab, however, if given the choice, might prefer something a little more natural. Dr. Axe points out that many of today's man-made drugs often began as imitations of their natural counterparts.
"For instance, take white willow bark. That's where they got the idea for aspirin," he explained, "White willow bark helps naturally thin the blood, reduces pain naturally, is anti-inflammatory. Well, aspirin is actually taken from that. But these pharmaceutical companies wanted to save money, so they started making it themselves, that is synthetic."
Dr. Axe says that process can result in side effects like nutritional deficiencies.
"Diabetes drugs actually pull Coenzyme Q10 from your body and certain B vitamins," he said, "So if you're on a diabetes drug it increases your risk of a heart attack and stroke. If you have taken an antibiotic drug it kills the good bacteria in your body and also depletes your body of zinc."
Healing Any Disease Begins with This
Dr. Axe maintains that regardless of the disease, the first step towards healing involves building a better gut since that's where most of our immune system resides.
"The foods that are most healing to the gut, number one, is bone broth," he explained, "Bone broth is made up of 90 percent collagen and your gut itself is made up of 70 percent collagen so you have to have collagen in order for it to heal."
He said healing the gut not only involves adding the right foods to our diet, but also subtracting the wrong ones.
"Gluten, dairy, and sugar are the things that will most weaken our immune systems."
Marijuana's Sober Cousin
Dr. Axe says we can also boost our body's natural defenses against disease by balancing our hormones, lowering stress, and getting a good night's sleep. He says marijuana's sober cousin, CBD, can do all three.
"There are two main compounds found in hemp, which are CBD and THC," he said, "THC, that's the compound that can cause hallucinogenic effects where people hear about getting high. CBD is a completely different compound."
So while drug companies churn out their pills, Dr. Josh Axe points to nature. He says we, like people centuries before us, can use the remedies there to cure what ails us.
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