Blog 5: The Usual Suspects

Dimetapp. The bane of my existence. Everyone had that one medicine that they were forced to swallow down whenever they were sick as children that made them want to puke and mine was the grape flavored monstrosity. Dimetapp is your basic over the counter cold allergy medicine that supposedly relieves you of nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. However, we all know theres a dozen other medicines we can name from the top of our heads that can do the exact same thing. You got the usual suspects: Benadryl, Claritin, Zyrtec, Allegra and NyQuil. All of them do the job of temporarily relieving the symptoms of a lingering cold and are all antihistamines.  Naturally this is due to branding and marketing causing people to pay more than what is necessary. Yet, I think it is also important to mention that sometimes we don't always need to use over the counter medicines to alleviate our symptoms because there are plants that do the exact same thing.

First off, there are a lot of science articles and history in general that prove that medicinal plants and herbs work just as well. For example, this link, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358962/, is an article published by a professor in the department of pharmacognosy detailing the uses and types of plants used in world history. She lists the Vedas as an example since it includes treatments with plants in its scriptures and Charles the Great, who founded the reputed medical school in Salerno, because he grew medicinal plants on the state owned lands. To be even more specific, she mentions that "In the Middle Ages, the skills of healing, cultivation of medicinal plants, and preparation of drugs moved to monasteries. Therapy was based on 16 medicinal plants, which the physicians-monks commonly grew within the monasteries as follows: sage, anise, mint, Greek seed, savory, tansy, etc." Proof! Or if you want more, here's this other article, http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/124/2/507, listing plants with their medicinal uses and the chemical compounds they're composed of. For instance, Kava is a plant in the western pacific that is noted for its "treatment for anxiety, nervous tension, agitation, and/or insomnia. Clinical studies have shown an effectiveness of Kava that is comparable with sedatives such as benzodiazapines but without the development of either physical or psychological dependency".  It's all very interesting to consider. So yes, medicine is helpful but very concerned with branding but if you have a headache or cold and want to try something different, but has actually been used for thousands of years, then maybe take a trip to your garden.