Take this advertisement of an herbal supplement - a capsule a day will send diabetes away. That capsule's main ingredient is bitter gourd or ampalaya. The cost of the vegetable is way much cheaper than the capsule because obviously the capsule is a commercial product. But with the efficacy? I think the real thing is more effective than the supplement. When I was diagnosed of kidney stones in 2006 and was prescribed herbal supplement to dissolve the stones, we resorted to the real sambong leaves that we can get for free in the neighborhood instead of the sambong pills that I take 3 times a day costing 24 pesos (about 50 cents). The urologist had agreed that the real leaves indeed have more efficacy than the processed pill. Can you imagine the amount of money I had saved? I have been drinking sambong tea until now, a concoction from the leaves of that sambong plant that we have in our garden.
I agree. Fresh herbs have more potency compared to processed versions of them. I got the habit of drinking ginger tea and calamansi tea from my late grandmother when I have the colds and cough. She would also boil lagundi leaves for me when she was still alive. The doctors here would actually recommend using herbs if those can help better than the pharmaceuticals. Dengue fever was staved off because of the tawa-tawa herb. We know several people whose sons and daughters and parents who were cured from the herb. The government won't typically recommend the use of herbs because pharmaceutical labs pay them.
I have often wondered about this. I take a lot of supplements and can't help but wonder if they are always worth it. I saw a tv show one time and Dr. Rosenthal was asked of all the supplements available on the market, which is the most important to always take. And he said Omega 3. We take Omega 3 and lately have been using Krill oil because it is supposedly a better grade of Omega 3.
