Our Bodies as One Huge, Complicated Chemical Factory...and Why Natural Remedies Aren't So Amazing

The only subject more feared than chemistry is biochemistry. (I don't count physics...since that's not a real subject, having been created to keep people with extraordinarily large brains from annoying us constantly with their intelligence)  So...biochemistry is that field which deals with the incredibly complicated chemistry of life.

While most people will acknowledge the fact that our bodies are just one giant chemical factory in principal, they don't really think of it that way in day-to-day life.  In reality, everything we take into our bodies creates some sort of chemical reaction.  These reactions either help us create energy in some way, maintaining the mind-boggling balance within the body, or they cause this balance to somehow go sideways...creating chaos within the system.  The system, in this case, is what we stare at in the mirror every morning.

Therefore every bit of 'food' (and I do use the term loosely here) that we ingest is going to have to be processed in some way by our bodies.  So when this food contains some chemical that the body isn't naturally attuned to, the body does it's best to deal with it.  Unfortunately, the only way it can do this is through the chemical processes our 'factory' already has.  Just like a real factory, if you put in the wrong materials, you don't get the products you expected.

In biochemistry, these 'unnatural' chemicals can do anything from delaying the processing of necessary nutrients to shutting down our system altogether...and all sorts of undesirable things in between.  So this brings me to the question of natural health remedies...and why they really aren't so 'amazing'.

For decades now we have become more and more reliant on pharmaceuticals to fix whatever ails us.  Of course the problem with these pharmaceuticals is that they tend not to be very precise in their work.  Although they may have some effect on the ailment, they are also likely to release chemicals into the body which (by their own disclosures) create unwanted side-effects which can often be worse than the original problem.

When we talk about natural remedies though, it conjures up images of witch-doctors and crazed alchemists.  When in fact, they are merely chemicals in themselves, which react in a more benign way with our body.  Helping to remedy the issue while not injecting other potentially dangerous toxins into the body. And strangely enough, they work for the simple reason that it's chemistry matches those that have somehow come unbalanced.

More and more these days, we do see people...even those in the medical community, if not quite embracing the concept, at least open to the idea that something doesn't have to come from a pill bottle to be affective.  We just have to rediscover (as a society) things our ancestors understood.  That we are still a part of nature and that understanding nature's chemistry...whether it's in eating healthier food or utilizing natural remedies...can still be the best way to stay healthy.