There's been an explosion of interest in natural medicine as people turn to less invasive, non-drug therapies to prevent and treat ill health.
Drugs once offered the hope of an end to disease. That dream is over, and increasingly we're finding that these powerful substances have serious side-effects, especially if used long-term.
Antibiotics, we're told, increase cancer risk; the million-women hormone replacement therapy (HRT) study was halted lasted year because of indications that it is damaging; children are being given far too many psychiatric drugs at a young age. Latrogenic disease (disease caused by drugs and medical procedures) is now the third biggest cause of ill health in the United States (there are no figures available for South Africa).
People are now turning to more natural approaches.
Not only are there non-drug ways to treat ill health, but there's a huge body of research which points to the value of optimum nutrition, supplementation and lifestyle in preventing disease and premature ageing.
The natural medicine market in South Africa is valued at about R2-billion (about 0,7 percent of a $50-billion world market).
"Natural medicine" is an all-encompassing term including disciplines like homoeopathy, Ayuverda and Chinese medicine. It's been called alternative medicine, holistic and complementary through the years.
Now there's a new approach, called integrative medicine. It grows out of the paradigm which says that just as there are no single causes for disease, it's not likely that there are single solutions.
Increasingly traditional systems are being integrated into Western allopathic health systems, along with cutting edge scientific research around bio-energetic medicine.
The Natural Medicine Event, a three-day conference which takes place in Stellenbosch, outside Cape Town, this week, brings together a range of people who will speak on the diverse topics included under this umbrella.
Nutrition, nutraceuticals, stress-management, bio-energetic medicine, DNA and RNA medicine, sexual loving and hunter-gatherer healing are some of them.
"Integrative medicine refers to a major paradigm shift in the way medicine is practised," says Dr Bernard Brom, editor of the South African Journal of Natural Medicine and chairman of the Society for Integrated Medicine.
"While the shift is often superficially thought of as a mixing of more conventional ways of working with alternative and more natural ways that have proved their worth scientifically, in fact this is not the true meaning of integration.
"Mixing is one thing, but when a mixture becomes a compound the individual components give up their identity to become a new product with completely new properties," he says.
"Integrated health emphasises improving physical, emotional and spiritual health rather than the treatment of disease.
International speakers at the conference, which is aimed at doctors, other health practitioners and the public, include the pioneer of integrative medicine Professor Majid Ali.
Ali, who is to be keynote speaker at the event, is president and professor of medicine at Capital University of Integrative Medicine in Washington. He's also associate professor of pathology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and author of many books.
Asked in which direction he thought natural medicine would move, he said: "Firstly, most people in the world will recognise that there are no controversies in human nutrition, only levels of understanding and enlightenment.
"Secondly, a new titan of the 'healthful ageing industry' will emerge (perhaps as much as $1-trillion within 25 years) to take on the twin trillion-dollar industries of depleted foods and blocker drugs.
"In 1995 in my book RDA: Rats, Drugs and Assumptions I wrote that two elements characterise medicine in the US today: The cost of health care continues to escalate, and the health of Americans continues to deteriorate. If the two trends were to hold, a time can be foreseen when the nation's total resources will have to be committed to health care, and everyone will be unwell.
"In 2003 the US spent nearly $1,5-trillion on disease care and everyone knows about epidemics of diabetes, obesity, ADHD, fibromyalgia, environmental disorders, and other chronic disorders. So, in 2004, it is evident that we are much closer to my projection," says Ali.
"What will happen in Africa? I can only imagine the havoc wreaked by Aids in Africa. The virus is one part of the larger reality. I only hope that the understanding and enlightenment I speak about will come to Africa before it is annihilated by the titans of depleted foods and blocker drugs."
Another field of medicine which is growing fast is bio-energetic medicine.
"The conventional medical paradigm is based on the understanding that the body is basically biochemical and that all illnesses are therefore biochemical and can be treated with biochemical drugs," says Ali.
"The 'new' paradigm suggests that biochemistry is only part of the picture and that there is also energy (bio-energy) within and around the body. This energy together with the information that it carries controls, modulates and directs the flow of this biochemistry. Disturbances in energy flow causes disturbances in chemistry.
"Acupuncture, healing, prayer, various manipulations, possibly even homoeopathy and the power of mind all function through this energy field to affect the chemistry of the body."
Speakers Terry Skrinjar and Michael Stern, from Australia, believe that energetic and holistically orientated natural medicine will become the new frame of reference for all medicine of the 21st century.
South Africa, they believe, is uniquely suited to become a major player in this integration process as traditionally, culturally-orientated natural medicine is already being recognised as significant and valuable.
Dr Todd Ovokaitys, an expert in longevity and DNA regeneration, said he believed integrative medicine was the medicine of the future.
"But it is itself in the process of turning a mixture of all kinds of approaches into a more cohesive and integrated medical system," he said.
- The Natural Medicine Event is being held at the Lynedoch Sustainable Institute in Stellenbosch from March 19 to 21, hosted by the South African Journal of Natural Medicine. For details contact 021 880 1444.