Have you noticed that there is often a sharp divide in between the allopathic health community and the naturopathic health community? In other words, the Medical Doctors and the Natural Health Professionals often seem to disagree fundamentally. But which is right?

Perhaps it is not so much of an issue of being right as it is an issue of roles and expertise. Perhaps it is not that Medical Doctors are bad or that natural health solutions are a hoax. Perhaps they should work together!

In the part one of this report, we'll discuss the medical side of the issue: Pros and cons. Then we'll do the same for the natural side, then wrap the discussion up.

The downside of the allopathic approach to health

One of the biggest problems with the medical approach to health is side effects. Quite simply, there are no pharmaceutical drugs that do not have undesirable side effects. Some have fewer side effects, some have more. Some side effects are very serious, others are not. But all drugs have side effects.

Another bad aspect to allopathic health is that it generally is designed to artificially and often superficially correct the problem, but not deal with the root issue. For example, when you take cold medicine, it does nothing for your cold – it just suppresses the symptoms so that you don't notice the cold symptoms as much.

So for me, the biggest problems with using pharmaceuticals is that they are toxic, can be dangerous, and often do not address the root health issue.

On the plus side, the Medical approach excels in crisis situations. For example, if I were in a car accident and were in critical condition, I would not go see a nutritionist. I would go to the hospital, where they could forcefully intervene and hopefully save my life.

While the allopathic approach to health certainly has it's share of faults, the natural health approach is not perfect either.

Probably the biggest issue the natural health community faces is the issue of quality and truth. In other words, what really works, and what doesn't? You sometimes have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the gold, as the proverb says.

Often times a particular nutrient, plant, or source may be helpful, but the end product is not. One study showed that some antioxidant products actually had an oxidative effect. Why? Because the company producing them had not properly researched, developed, and tested their products.

The greatest strength of the natural approach is that it generally works with your body, instead of against it or in spite of it, like the medical approach does. There are exceptions to this, though. Many herbs are really just natural drugs, so you should be careful with them.

But nutritional supplements, for example, work with your body to strengthen, build up, and equip your body to protect, defend and restore your health naturally, with no side effects. The flip side of the coin is of course that nutrition takes time to do it's job. In critical cases, something more abrupt is needed – perhaps something the medical community has to offer.

That leads us to the conclusion: perhaps the solution is for natural and medical health practices to work together to create an even healthier you.

What if you were to use improved nutrition, nutritional supplements and other natural methods to naturally improve your health, but still use "conventional" medical approaches when needed? The key is to balance the cost and the benefits. Is not feeling your cold symptoms worth the potential side effects and long term health damage that you could get from using cold medication? On the other hand, if you have an infection, is running the risk of a serious infection or running the risk of damage from antibiotics worse?

Get the facts, balance the issues, and use natural and medical approaches together for the best of health!