Pharmaceutical vs. Natural Health products, a look into an ongoing discrepancy

According to a recent Statistics Canada survey, 33-58 per cent of Canadians feel uninformed when purchasing consumer health products. That 58 per cent emphasizes Canadians who feel doubtful when deciding whether or not to purchase natural health products.

However, when it comes to choosing pharmaceuticals, confidence levels rise, leaving only 33 per cent who feel uninformed when choosing which pharmaceuticals will suit their needs best.

This begs the question, why do Canadians feel less informed about treating ailments using natural health products?

Lynn LaFave, is a professor at Mount Royal University who obtained her PhD in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She hopes to promote a healthier society through her research.

LaFave believes that the history of natural health products are to blame for a lack of knowledge about these alternatives.

“For instance, a company that I won’t name were putting different amounts of echinacea in each of their batches. They were not being consistent in the amount they were putting in,” said LaFave.

Due to instances like this, people may feel that there is no way to fully trust what’s going on with these natural health products.

“There is also a lot of money to be made. One of the rules we have with physicians is that they should not be able to sell the product and make money off of it if they’re going to prescribe it,” said LaFave.

LaFave believes that when people are able to sell you a product and make money, they’ll exaggerate the benefits to earn a profit.

“It creates a sense of danger, because this individual can lie to you. We’ve seen this time and time again, where people make monetary decisions that are not ethically based,” said LaFave.

Doctors can not profit from the pharmaceutical drugs they prescribe to their patients, which could be what encourages a higher level of confidence that society has in drug products that are not naturally sourced.

Because of the trust that people have in their mainstream medical doctors, it is naturopathic doctors like Kim Gowetor who wish that naturopathic and medical doctors could work more closely with one another to find a balance between natural and pharmaceutical treatments. However, a study by BioMed Central found that there was little evidence to prove that naturopathy is scientifically sound and works beyond the placebo effect.

“There’s the belief that naturopaths are ‘hippie types,’ and that we don’t have scientific proof for the treatments that we’re using. Which is just not true,” said Gowetor.

Though science may be unclear about the benefits, Gowetor genuinely tries to get to the root cause of health issues with her patients by sitting down with them and thoroughly analyzing their personal situations.

“If people have a decent rapport with their doctor, they’re probably going to go there first. If that’s the only option that they’re offered then it stops there because people trust their doctors. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but it would be nice if we could work together and people knew of other options for their health,” said Gowetor.

There are also a lack of options generated by medical doctors as to what people can do for their health, Gowetor believes that there are many options that remain unaddressed by mainstream medical professionals.

A nursing student at Mount Royal University, Danielle MacDonald, says she has found that there is a lot more information available about pharmaceutical drugs.

“There’s tons of research done on drugs, like I have a whole textbook on drugs, a whole class is based on drugs,” said MacDonald.

Because of the knowledge that health care professionals have about pharmaceutical drugs, MacDonald can see that patients invest a lot of trust in their health care providers and there is a lot of promotion toward treating ailments in this way.

“I think pharmaceutical drugs are a great thing, they help people. For example, there are cardiovascular drugs to help lower your blood pressure. But at the same time there are tons of side effects, especially with narcotics, like fluid retention, constipation and confusion,” said MacDonald.

Though MacDonald does support the pharmaceutical drug industry, she believes that Western medicine needs to start to view medicine more holistically and encourage more natural ways to take care of health.

“There needs to be a balance between the two, and more emphasis on nutrition and overall prevention, like how to not get sick in the first place, it’s called upstream thinking,” said MacDonald.

Upstream thinking emphasizes the idea that one is able to prevent future ailments if they’re mindful of what they’re eating, and how they’re taking care of their bodies overall.

MacDonald encourages mindfulness about health and prevention before there is a dire need to reach for pharmaceutical medications.