perscription medication or natural remedies?

[beamali]

Which do you prefer?

Growing up my mom always handed me medicine to try to cure any sickness or pain. As I got older and have my own children I tend to steer away from store bought or prescription drugs unless it is an antibiotic! My success with this has been tremendous! My kids are barely ever sick and and very healthy!

[writerpal]

Home remedies are best to treat small ailments like headache, cold, body pain, etc. We should exercise caution in using these because, sometimes your fever might be an indication of a serious health problem. You may not be able to diagnose and treat it at an early stage, if you keep subsiding the temperature with alternative medicine or home remedies. So it is better to have a good knowledge about diseases and their symptoms, before trying out alternative medicine.

[bluewhale]

I prefer natural remedies to prescription drugs. However, I'd not hesitate to use a prescription drug if the situation so warrants.

The general perception is that pharmaceutical drugs can have side-effects and are best avoided. While I partially subscribe to this notion, I'd like to leave the decision in the hands of a qualified medical professional or a doctor. Every doctor does a benefit vs risk analysis before prescribing a medicine to his/her patients. 

Therefore, it isn't a great idea to avoid prescription drugs altogether. That said, we can indeed communicate our concerns to the consultant doctor and seek his/her clarification.