Alternative medicines and modern medicine.......

Herbal medicine is widely used in the provinces. I remember that easing out a stuffy nose of an infant or small child would only take few minutes' walk to the corner of our yard in order to pick the young leaves of atis (sweet sop/sugar apple). I applied this practice to my own children and it really worked. I just place the young leaves of atis inside an old sock and place it underneath the pillow of the baby so that he can smell it. there are other known herbs to cure diseases, too. for dengue, the "mangagaw" weed (or "tauataua") are known to be best (sorry, do not know what is the english equivalent for this particular plant). and... my friend, our ever faithful "malunggay" (ben oil tree, it says from where i read here) is what we used for cuts and sores. "malunggay" leaves, they say, are good to bring down the high level of blood pressure, too. I know lots of plants have very good medicinal values. Ampalaya (bitter gourd) is known to lower the level of blood sugar, too. And the list goes on ....

I much prefer to use herbal remedies as opposed to chemical medications, mostly because i worry about the possible side effects to my ammune system that chemical meds might cause, and partly because i find most herbal solution better tasting/smelling.