Naturally, An Advertisement

EoR has been browsing an advertising brochure for Roseneath Organics Pty Ltd (<-- Ooh! Look! A sign of Big Altie associations!) which explains the philosophy and benefits of herbal medicines.

In 'days gone by' most medicines and healing agents were extracted naturally from plants and other materials directly.

EoR wonders how you extract medicines "naturally" from plants. If it was natural, they'd be oozing out on their own. But it's important to get that "natural" keyword in as early and as often as possible. Never mind if it makes any sense, we want a feeling of cosiness and comfort.

Now most pharmaceuticals can, and are, being artifically mass synthesized in industrial laboratories. These new artifically contrived copies of natural compounds are very often not chemically, nor structurally, the same as the original plant compounds.

Now we can start with the fear. "Artifical". "Mass synthesized". "Contrived copies". And what's the difference between "chemically" and "structurally" the same?

The difference between natural plant derived and artificial compounds comes about because often the cost of reproducing an exact copy of the natural substance is prohibitive or simply because skilled pharmaceutical chemists don't know how to artifically synthesize natures' gifts!

Not so "skilled" after all, it seems.

In some cases the imperfect artifical copies are quite hazardous and toxic when used alone as single dose pharmaceuticals.

More scare mongering. Indeed, almost all pharmaceuticals are dangerous in certain situations, in combinatino with certain other medications, or in excessive doses. But since they use the active compound extracted from the plant, how does this make the same compound in the plant magically safe? St John's Wort, anyone? Of course, with the plant, you're also getting all those extra, unspecified compounds along with the active compound, in fairly random dosage levels. Much safer indeed.

Many of these synthetic pharmaceuticals also have shocking side effects and debilitating long term health consequences.

The same comments apply again. Though EoR is thankful the brochure shows enough restraint not to mention thalidomide. Most alternatistas would have done so by now. Maybe EoR needs to have a lie down and ingest some nice safe herbal relaxants like Deadly Nightshade. That should calm him down.

It is horrific to think that approximately 50% of current human pharmaceuticals are based on chemically manipulated, patentable synthetics or upon artificially created and imperfect copies of natural plant substances!

Are the other 50% fine to use then? And if pharmaceuticals were really trying to "copy" plants, they'd be made from the plants, just like the natural (=safe, obviously) herbal mixes being pushed here.

Unfortunately the consumer is too often the experimental laboratory rat or powerful political and social manipulations, collective and corporate greed, immoral marketing practices and the hazy dreams of multinational controlled research scientists.

Big Pharma wants to kill you! Government wants to mind control you! Resist now! Make a conscious choice! Become a laboratory rat for untested herbal supplements. Which, of course, is a political and social manipulation in itself, promoting and supporting collective and corporate greed (just in a different direction).

EoR is off to take his Dream State Insomnia Spray ("Enough pillow aromatherapay for 125 sleeps!").