Advantages and Disadvantages of Home Remedies

Introduction

About 80% (four billion) of people living in developing countries prefer home remedies to mainstream healthcare (Ekor, 2014).

Although home remedies are seemingly popular, they complement mainstream healthcare, since amid their advantages, home remedies have disadvantages.

This topic is particularly exciting for me, since I have both used home remedies, and delved into evidence-based ramifications for using them.

Thesis: Home remedies do not lose natural ingredients, are clinically and cost effective, but might have side effects due to incorrect dosage.

Body

1. Home remedies leverage the value of natural ingredients.
   1. Manufacture of synthetic medicine from natural products, lose some natural ingredients (Newman & Cragg, 2012).
   1. Some synthetic substances in mainstream healthcare medicine are not declared (Salahshour et al., 2020).

Thus, home remedies save natural ingredients and add eliminated risks associated with additional of synthetic substances, which may end up being very costly.

1. Home remedies are both clinically and cost effective.
   1. Home remedies are effective in clinical management and research.
      1. 60% of therapeutic tests on drugs are based on natural products used at home (Benzie & Wachtel-Galor, 2011).
      1. Herbal medicine is thus far proven effective in the management of cancer, memory deficit and Alzheimer, atherosclerosis, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases (Karimi et al., 2015). 
   1. Home remedies do not require sophisticated preparation or processing methods, which saves on production cost (Benzie & Wachtel-Galor, 2011).
      1. Some herbal medicines are used raw; they do not need processing.
      1. Most preparation processing’s are basic such as boiling, drying, and mixing.

Hence, home remedies are effective and affordable compared to mainstream medicines.

1. However, home remedies might have adverse implications. 
   1. Home remedies are not regulated, and people might abuse them.
   1. Like synthetic medicine, home remedies have side effects, which might have adverse or fatal (Karimi et al., 2015).

Thus, home remedies are a potential source of clinical problems, which prompts the need for regulation.

1. Also, home remedies are not regulated, which could lead to problems related to incorrect dosage.
   1. Home remedies contain many substances which have significant complexities (Benzie & Wachtel-Galor, 2011).
      1. Dosage would help moderate the complexity.
   1. The functioning process of most home remedies is not yet understood.
      1. It is challenging to create an accurate prescription for a home remedy

Conclusion

1. Home remedies are good because they leverage all-natural ingredients; they are clinically effective, and are quite affable. However, they have side effects which might be fatal, and there are no regulations for dosage and prescription.
2. Overall, home remedies are comparable to synthetic medicine and may compliment them, to save on healthcare costs.

References

Benzie, I., & Wachtel-Galor, S. (2011). Herbal medicine. Taylor & Francis.

Ekor, M. (2014). The growing use of herbal medicines: issues relating to adverse reactions and challenges in monitoring safety. Frontiers In Pharmacology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2013.00177

Karimi, A., Majlesi, M., & Rafieian-Kopaei, M. (2015). Herbal versus synthetic drugs; beliefs and facts. J Nephropharmacol., 4(1), 27-30. Retrieved 18 October 2020, from.

Newman, D., & Cragg, G. (2012). Natural Products As Sources of New Drugs over the 30 Years from 1981 to 2010. Journal Of Natural Products, 75(3), 311-335. https://doi.org/10.1021/np200906s

Salahshour, B., Sadeghi, S., Nazari, H., & Soltaninejad, K. (2020). Determining Undeclared Synthetic Pharmaceuticals as Adulterants in Weight Loss Herbal Medicines. International Journal Of Medical Toxicology And Forensic Medicine, 10(1), 26253. https://doi.org/10.32598/ijmtfm.v10i1.26253