As people go through life, they tend to focus mainly on the short term benefits of the various activities they partake in. It is in fact human nature to "live for the moment", instead of considering the long term ramifications of our actions, and wheather they may be extremely gratifying or sorely disappointing. It is in fact this instinctual action that causes most of us to miss out on taking advantage of the effectiveness of herbal supplements.

The majority of people across the globe have been taught that prescription drug companies have their best interest at heart and that they are the people to trust when you have a physical problem. The notion that a drug chemical compound dreamed up in a boardroom is superior to natural herbal supplements, some would say, is a fictitious and harmful delusion brought about by non commercial advertisements. Many herbal supplements are not only more effective at treating certain conditions than their prescription counterparts, but they have very few minor if any existent side effects. Prescription drugs on the other hand have a long history of having many side effects with varying degrees of severity.

Recently, in many locations, there has been a huge movement to educate individuals as to effectiveness of herbal supplements. This is amid the new found knowledge that many prescription drugs have been discovered to have significantly harmful side effects long term. However the process of changing the opinion of many regarding how they should treat themselves has been a slow one. This is mainly due to the fact that over time, and through billions of dollars in advertising campaigns, prescription drug companies have convinced people that they are out to help them. This illusion has begun to lose its power lately, as more and more individuals discover the benefits and low costs of herbal supplements far out weight the hollow promises from the prescription drug companies.

Proponents of herbal supplements find it mystifying that people continue to buy their medication from these huge pharmaceutical prescription drug companies. If you ask herbal supplement users what they're two main debating points are and they will tell you for one: the higher cost of prescription drugs vs the much lower cost of herbal supplements that treat the same condition and their second point: the long and ever growing list of terrible side effects that come with the ingestion of prescription drugs vs the relatively tiny if not non-existent side effects of herbal supplements.

In past decades it was an uphill if not a no win battle for the supporters of herbal supplements to increase awareness of the benefits of natural remedies. The main obstruction to the masses becoming educated about herbal supplements was and still is the pharmaceutical companies. These companies have not only lobbyist to make it easier for them to distribute their products, no matter how damaging those products may be. They also have at their disposal billions of dollars to load into advertising campaigns designed to disarm individuals into believing that their drugs are for their own good and created in a lab with the best of intentions.

Over the past fifteen years or so the amount of new users of herbal supplements has begun to grow at a rocket like pace. This can be directly attributed to the fact that the supporters of herbal supplements have turned to the internet to spread their beliefs. The internet has been able to give the proponents of herbal supplements the ability to reach millions of people across the globe in a short amount of time. Many of these are people who were never privy to the overwhelming effectiveness of herbal supplements before they logged onto the internet.

The internet has brought about sever new lines of communication. Some of these forms are; message boards, article reading websites, chat rooms, etc. New arenas for communication are springing up all the time online. This of course leads to more people being able to gain important and timely information about herbal supplements and their man benefits. This comes as a welcome addition to most homes who are use to get a constant saturation of the airwaves with prescription drug advertisements.

This all brings us now to the question of if we are seeing a drastic change in public opinion, one drastic enough to possibly put an end to all misleading and untruthful prescription drug companies for good. Well, I wouldn't hold my breath. Though it is definitely safe to say that the internet has drastically reduced the stranglehold prescription drug makers have on the opinions of people across the globe when it comes to their healthcare. Most likely in the past even the most unrelenting supporters of herbal supplements would find it difficult to envision this time. With the constant and ever growing amount of new users each year of herbal supplements, it is becoming less and less difficult to imagine herbal supplements becoming the preferred method of individual healthcare across around the planet.