Oaklief - the answer is not to stop taking drugs, and go to an older, less proven 'system', but to deal with the problem of universal healthcare properly! Do you seriously believe that all the seniors in the U.S. would be happy to switch to herbalism to fight their major debilitating diseases, let alone to prolong their lives? Do let me know when you've convinced them!

Switching to an entirely herbal system of medical care for the elderly would take care of our social security problem in the US.

Rather than that worst case scenario I vote we fix the damn broken system.

The voluntary switching from the "rotten American medical system" to the mystical herbalism system gives evolution the opportunity to show its power. The weak, slow and dimwitted slowly dissappear. I am willing to bet that if every patient in the oncology department of your local hospital would quit taking those evil medical drugs and search out an herbalist we would get a shining example of evolution. Guaranteed. Would you allow your child to make the switch? Leukemia is a mother effer and hard to treat with dandelions.

Second post.

Man Evolution is always happening, it is the unavoidable fait of everything, survival of the stable.

A shining exmple of the great American Health Care System and it's followers , Who have no business spreading lies on the herbalsm Forum. I'm proud everyone ignores them. BUT THEY STILL NEED REMINDED HOW STUPID THEY ARE.

Another reason to take a good long look at the medical industry and protect yourself by researching what you're prescribed and told.
Remember who on this forum is a part of the failed medical system. And take their advice accordingly.

Its always good advice to research anything you are recommended, Like when someone recommends an herb, you should go find out about the potential side effects, or find out what the active ingredients are and in what concentrations they are found and are effective. Its always fun to find out that you have to inject 6 gallons of an herb slurry to get a statistically significant effect on an infection. The only connection that the evidence based medicine advocates on this forum have is the evidence. Evidence from sources that Oakleif trusts when they agree with her preconceived notions and disparages when they disagree with her. I think they call that Cherry Picking and its one of the ways that people twist the evidence to support there point of view, irregardless of its validity.

The pain has shifted to the gluteal area.

Herbs have been around for thousands of years and were used to treat disease long before the modern medical system. Likewise, modern medicine has done some amazing things. I work in the healthcare industry, and there are people in their eighties who take no medicines and are amazingly healthy and 40 year old shipwrecks taking 15 meds. Most healthy seniors will tell you that prevention and being pro active for your own health is key to staying healthy. It is nice to integrate the two, that way, you're getting the best of both.

Seeing the long lists of drugs that some people are on does make me wonder how many of them are necessary. The other side of the coin is that a lot of those people would be worse off (or dead) without having control of their hypertension, blood sugar etc.

Lifestyle and diet are certainly important, as are genetics and just plain luck. You'll hear about people who don't exercise, smoke and drink to excess and yet survive to old age with few problems. Most of us can't get away with that. I am similarly skeptical about people who proudly talk about how they don't need prescription drugs, have superior immune systems so they don't need immunizations etc. Their good fortune up till now is no guarantee against what they'll face in the future, without taking reasonable steps to lower risks of preventable health problems.