Last summer, I brought my wife Gillian to Italy. They say it is the romantic country, and hence why we went. But really the romance cannot be separated from the food – which is truly the essence of Italian culture. Sure the beaches are nice. The Mediterranean waters are warm and beautiful. The country side is pretty. The history is fascinating and the architecture is stunning. But it is truly the food that I loved the most.
I mean pesto has got to be the best tasting sauce in the world! Homemade pesto is close to divine. I think I tried it on pretty much every kind of dish – and I never tired of it. Actually all the food in Italy is divine, most likely because its ingredients are simple, fresh, whole, and natural. We wouldn’t want our food any other way, would we?
Now think about our medicine – Isolated synthetic chemicals pressed neatly into colourful tablets. For some reason we have the highest regard for food to be whole, natural, simple, and fresh, but have so easily accepted our medicine to be something totally different. Can you imagine going all the way to Florence, Italy, only to be served a plate of the regions finest synthetic vitamins! Absurd right? But actually, by accepting our medicine to be something that only comes in colourful pills is exactly the same.
In China, up to just a hundred or so years ago all medicine was natural. All the major hospitals were treating all the major health disorders known to human kind with ONLY natural medicine. They did so because natural medicine is extremely safe and effective in the treatment of most disorders known to human kind – hundreds upon thousands of years of clinical experience by millions of doctors have proven this to be the case. Loads of published books exist, documenting the use of natural medicines to treat disease. Thousands of case studies exist. This is no fairy tale, this is real life.
In the mid 20th century, the famous Cambridge scientist Joseph Needham made known to the world that many inventions like the compass, printing press, and gunpowder all originated in China. We actually couldn’t think of a smooth running society without many of the technologies and philosophies that originated from China. We really should have the same regard for medicine as it was and still is practiced in China. Many diseases that we struggle to treat with the synthetic chemical drugs of the west have a long history of successful treatment in China. Psoriasis, eczema, acne, and rosacea are just a few examples of disorders that the Chinese have successfully treated with natural medicines, for many hundreds of years. We have learned a lot from the Chinese culture and we certainly can learn a lot more.
Hippocrates said. “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” which means we should respect our medicine in the same way as we respect our food – by keeping it in its natural harmonious state.
Dr Trevor Erikson
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Trevor Erikson