Natural Medicine Perils
Why are natural medicines not more widespread?
No Natural Profit
There are some economic reasons. Because natural products can’t be patented, pharmaceutical giants don’t invest in natural product research. Pharmaceutical companies spend a billion dollars on drug research but only because they will get a patent monopoly and will be able to charge high prices. The average profit margin on pharmaceutical drugs is over 75%---even with fat salaries and expense accounts. Herbal medicine is not as popular because there’s little money in it.
Herbal Testing Costs
Herbal companies have to pay to harvest natural crops, and often it’s a painstaking process. Herbs can’t be cheaply made in a lab. Then herbal products are subject to extensive testing, which is necessary but expensive. It is exceptionally costly when the batches are small compared to pharmaceutical drug batches. Testing costs are per batch. Whether it is 1,000 bottles or 1,000,000, the cost is the same. And multi-ingredient herbal products have even higher test costs as each herb must be tested.
Hidden Quality
Another complication with natural products is there are different grades of ingredients that all have the same label. For example, various grades of white willow bark vary in effectiveness and cost, but they all show up on the label as white willow bark. For some herbs, only a particular part of the plant works. The cheapest herbal products are often not the best value.
Subsidies
Pharmaceutical companies can charge high prices for drugs because governments or insurance companies often foot the bill. Governments fund many prescription costs. Helping people pay for expensive drugs makes sense, but it creates a tilted playing field. Governments or insurance companies do not subsidize natural products. This is even when research shows the herbs work better than the more costly and dangerous prescription drugs. It’s as if the government told grocery stores to sell donuts for 5¢ each and pays the stores 95¢ to cover the cost, but if you want to buy a carrot, you have to pay the full $1 yourself.
Medical Training
North American medical training focuses on prescription drugs: examine, diagnose, and then prescribe. This type of medicine has its place, primarily when natural medicine can’t address a problem. In general, you won’t get natural medicine recommendations from your doctor or pharmacist. There are some great medical professionals who support natural options first. If you have one of these, treasure them! You wouldn’t expect an accountant to carve a sculpture, and you wouldn’t ask an artist for tax advice---training matters.
Pharma—Industrial Complex
The problem lies not in the many caring medical professionals but in the system. Pharmaceutical companies use their billions of dollars to shape governments. All areas of drug policy are impacted. For example, pharmaceutical companies lobbied for hefty, fixed drug-disposal fees paid by each company. A family-owned herbal manufacturer pays the same fixed charge as a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical conglomerate for the disposal of drugs, even though consumers can safely dispose of most herbs in a compost pile! Drug lobbies use government drug disposal fees to penalize small herbal companies.
Biased Research
Universities and other public research grants do most of the natural medicine research. Natural medicine studies are published whether the results are positive or not. Private pharmaceutical studies are only published if the results are favourable for the company. Drug companies can do 5 studies that show their drug has minimal effect, but they don’t release these results. Instead, they change their study to get a better outcome for their drug. Only the study with the best results is made public.
A Duped Media
There is media bias against herbal medicine. A few years ago, a ‘study’ was released, showing that some herbal products don’t contain what they say. They used ‘DNA technology.’ This ‘study’ got a lot of media attention. It turned out this study was fraudulent---not mistaken but fabricated. There was not much coverage of the fraud that was perpetrated on the herbal companies. Media coverage is shaped by money. Herbal companies don’t spend billions on advertising, but pharmaceutical companies do. Herbal hit pieces get big coverage.
Use Drugs Sometimes
There are times when the best option is a prescription drug. There are some conditions where effective natural alternatives are not available. And although many drugs offer tiny benefits with significant side effects, a few drugs are safe and relatively effective. One of our missions at Panacea is to help people navigate this terrain. Doctors and pharmacists are, with few exceptions, honest and hardworking folks, but they are embedded in a system that heavily favours prescription drugs over natural alternatives.
Buyer Beware
When you are dealing with drugs, treat them like any purchase. Keep in mind that the system is weighted against natural products. It’s as if the entire system, including the education system, media, and governments, are selling you one type of car, and that car is not always your best option. When you shop for a car, you don’t blindly believe everything the friendly salesman says. You look up trusted, independent reviews. For your health’s sake, find reliable sources of information to make your decisions.
