The other day I was watching the news on PBS and they where doing a poll or survey, the news anchor had a pie chart divided in to three sections which described wealth in different countries, the first chart was divided in to five equal portions of 20%, the second chart was around 40% most wealthy 35% middle class, 25% poor and the remainder below poverty, the last chart represented America with 80% of the population being extremely wealthy with around only a 10% middle class, now don’t hold me to these exact figures but they are close. Most people  when asked what category or chart they fell in to responded the middle, the true reality was that the Americans actually fell in to the lowest chart where around around 20% of the population held most of the nations wealth

Apparently one of the reasons for people thinking this way in America is because Americans in some form relate to their surroundings where most communities look the same, sure there are bad neighborhoods, but most cities and small communities all have the same things, restaurants, shopping malls so its very easy to assimilate that people are ok but   really do not realize how bad off they are.

You are probably wondering what does this have to do with health, well it has a lot to do with health, just as Americans do not realize how poor they are and what majority of the country is very wealthy, many neglect to see the reality in herbal products and supplements, mainly because people are bombarded 24/7 with advertisements from pharmaceutical companies.

For erections there is Viagra and cialis, for low testosterone there is a medicine that will increase that,  the list can go on and on,  there is virtually a medication that cures anything, bone density, calcium deficiency, trouble breathing it does not stop,  and sure in the advertisements they tell you how well they work and after that there is a list of sh***t that can happen to you if you do take the meds for an extended period of time,  the good thing for the pharmaceutical companies is that they are making billions selling their products.

Herbal supplements and tonics

Now there are tons of naysayers out there in fact in many modern countries the word alternative medicine is taboo , once the word natural, herbal or supplement arises it simply adds  a red flag to those products sating they will not work , however much has been said about the placebo effect in many prescription medications, there’s a great article published in wired magazine about placebo effects in prescription medications and its truly eye opening, even down to the way the pharmaceutical companies picked different colors and designs for each medication to become more appealing.

The bottom line is its everyone’s  independent choice on what they do to their bodies, a lot of this can be attributed to the way modern society functions and thinks, in fact with such fast paced societies focusing on work and money its a wonder people are not sicker than they are.

With health care going the way it is and natural foods becoming more scarce, we can only believe this is a wake up call for everyone to consider alternative methods to treat their ailments  with natural products, if you have never tried it before there is always a first time, and just for once ignore what everyone says and give the natural stuff a try, you will be amazed at the positive results the natural stuff can provide you.