Green Pharmacy vs Terrain Based Medicine

Have you heard someone say, "I tried the natural route, but it didn’t work"? Perhaps you have experienced this yourself. Natural products can help ease many ailments, but they may not be enough when the underlying cause remains unaddressed or continues unnoticed.

This approach of just treating the symptoms & replacing pharmaceuticals with natural products & not looking at the root cause is called green pharmacy. Practiced by Functional Medicine Practitioners and many Naturopaths, Nutritionists & even some Chinese Medicine practitioners, all still going off the allopathic model that germs, genes and bad luck cause disease, using herbs and synthetic supplements instead of pharmaceuticals to stop symptoms, not addressing how & why the individual got there in the first place.

While symptoms suppression is an attractive option, as no one likes feeling unwell. symptom suppression often leaves you with two problems. Even in the case of using green pharmacy. One you haven’t addressed what needed to be addressed in the first place and two, there can be serious repercussions from using synthetic supplements or pharmaceuticals.

The terrain approach differs because it does not aim simply to stop or suppress symptoms. Instead, symptoms are respected as part of the body’s own pharmacopeia and treated as cues to adjust, redirect, rest or nourish. Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution, assessment includes looking at a person’s medical history, lifestyle, what personal care products are used, their environment, emotional health and diet. Dietary interventions, wholefood supplements and herbs can then be used as allies alongside the changes those symptoms suggest are needed. This individualised approach can support genuine healing and vitality. It requires radical responsibility, but the results are worth every effort.

To be clear, in some circumstances the green pharmacy approach may work. Let’s say a person was really emotionally stressed. The stressor ceases to be an issue, but the stress caused a certain amount of dead and dying tissue that the body needs to clean up, so a detox event happens. The person gets sick say with a cold, herbs &/or supplements help to alleviate this illness & to move it throw the body with more ease. As all the body needed in this situation was help clearing out the debris as the stressor is no longer relevant. In another circumstance, we’ve got someone getting sick all the time. They have ongoing stress and they are given herbs and supplements. However the ongoing stress is not addressed and the herbs and supplements seem to do very little. Or the person is living in a house where there is some toxic building materials that leeching in their home and no one has flagged that this is an issue for their health. They’re taking the herbs and the supplements, nothing works, the root cause hasn’t been addressed. This is where the terrain model excels because it is very common for people’s ongoing stressors be it environmental, dietary, lifestyle, emotional etc to go unnoticed.

 It’s absolutely fine to grab for herbs and wholefood supplements when you know you need something if you know that the stressor has been and gone and you just need a little bit of help getting back on track, I absolutely encourage that. The point I’m trying to make is when you don’t know why you got to where you are then investigating is paramount otherwise you’re just throwing (expensive) things on top of a burning fire.

At The Clinic, I use a terrain-based approach that treats each person as an individual—not as a disease, diagnosis or collection of symptoms. I consider the whole person. I have recently updated my services, so whether you have a small health question, an acute condition or need ongoing support, there is an option designed for you. You can read more about it here.

For the individual who knows what need when they are feeling under the weather I have an extensive range or products that include herbs, wholefood supplements & therapeutic teas as well as a range for first aid & injury. Use the drop down menu to find the products with ease at The Shop