Introduction
I am a medical student guided by the principle of creativity and innovation to enhance the healthy life of people in society. I am passionate about achieving higher heights in medical evolution to create a system that works for everyone. The professional goals that have attracted my interest are to make herbal medicine and make medicine and drugs with a holistic approach. Medications classified as herbal are those whose active components are derived from plant materials like leaves, roots, or flowers. However, only because something is natural does not imply you may consume it without risk.
Discussion
Herbal medicines have an impact on the body in a similar way to conventional drugs and may even be dangerous if misused. According to Gordon, in a holistic approach, instead of using a specific set of methods, holistic medicine takes an attitude-based healthcare approach (17). It covers the biological, psychological, family, social, ethical, and spiritual aspects of health and sickness and the biological ones (Gordon 3). The holistic method strongly emphasizes the individuality of every patient, the reciprocity of the doctor-patient connection, the person’s responsibility for their health care, and society’s duty to promote health. As a prospective doctor in medicine, I trust that the only best treatment is when the side effects of drugs and medication administered to a patient are evaluated to benefit the treatment.
I have a gift to make something out of nothing, a green thumb, and an interest in plants, health, and ethnobotany. I am open-minded to cultures and able to coexist with people from different backgrounds, which is integral when collecting data on certain herbal medications one is working on creating. The gift of creating something out of nothing relates well to the goal of making herbal medicine because making medicine from scratch requires research to support the means to achieve effective herbal drugs. According to Porras, having an interest in ethnobotany, which refers to the study of how local humans use local plant species, specific cultures, and geographic areas, is a crucial support to my goal (3496). Making medicine and drugs with a holistic approach relates well to the gift of making something out of nothing. It all involves researching and learning new ways to fill the gaps created by the effects of synthetic medicines.
A controversial social topic relevant to the professional goal of majorly into herbal medical treatment is mortality from adverse drug reactions. Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a concern to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is working to prevent the incidents of death resulting from ADR. The side effects of synthetic pharmaceuticals account for around 8% of hospital admissions in the United States of America, with over 100,000 individuals dying each year as a result of these toxins (Karimi et al. 25). Herbal-related hospitalizations or fatalities are extremely uncommon and challenging to locate such that the US National Poison Control Centers’ database does not include a section for side effects or adverse effects from plants (Karimi et al. 28). It indicates that even though herbal medicines have side effects have not been categorized as a threat to the public. The side effects are minimal and only occur when the herbs are picked from the wrong plant.
Pharmaceutical drugs are often formulated to induce a specific response, and their side effects or harmful outcomes are typically swapped as a risk for the benefit of the primary use of the drugs. Herbal remedies usually have several simultaneous, wide supportive, or simultaneous effects on physiological systems, usually within the same broad therapeutic orientation and frequently without being mainly targeted. In addition, these behaviors rarely have negative outcomes resulting from the medicine administered to the patients. Herbal medicine activities are typically too complicated to be fully defined by the language of medication action phrases. There is no known use of herbal chemical formulas learned in class for making herbal medicines and drugs, thus making it hard for scientists to define processes or formulate a standardized formula. Due to the nature of herbal drug-making, there are a few known herbalists and I want to be a professional with skills in herbal sickness or disease treatment.
I believe being natural and herbal medicine is the best approach to addressing the adverse drug reactions associated with synthetic medication. The ability of herbs to cleanse the bloodstream was a fundamental herbal medicine premise that had already gained widespread acceptance by the seventeenth century. I strongly preach that plants exist to support the survival of human beings. Our ancestors had a better life free from mortality from synthetic adverse drug reactions. We need to use plants to make herbal medicines and drugs whose side effects are less fatal to a threat to the life of human beings.
The topic of death due to adverse drug reactions is essential because it is the focal point to achieving the goal of making herbal medicine and using a holistic approach to make medicines and drugs. A doctor of medicine’s primary duty is to provide patient care and ensure the safety of the drugs administered to the patients contributing to the recovery process. I want to be in a position to provide medication whose effectiveness does trade with the side effects of the drugs or medicines. I am committed to making the world a better place than I found it and using a holistic approach to making herbal medicines and drugs is the critical driver.
Adverse drug reactions are an element of the natural branch of science because they affect the body’s normal functioning. Natural science seeks to explain the rules that govern the natural world through scientific methods. The impact of ADR has resulted in the study of Pharmacovigilance which is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse events or any other drug-related problem (Coleman and Pontefract 482). Medicines and drugs induce chemical reactions in the body that affect the biological functions of the body. Whether it is herbal or synthetic medicine or a drug, a chemical reaction must occur to rip the benefits. Due to these chemical reactions whose strength depends on the type of chemical elements used, I choose to major in the goal of the herbal making of drugs and medicine whose reaction levels can be sustained by the patients’ bodies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I know the fatality rate from adverse drug reactions can be reduced if the use of herbal medicines and drugs is incorporated into the treatment of patients. As a doctor of medicine, I am focused on bringing that change as I embrace an herbal and holistic approach to treating patients. There is an evolution in the medical field with the eruption of new infections and new synthetic treatment forms; therefore, evolution in herbal treatment must be embraced.
Works Cited
Coleman, Jamie J., and Sarah K. Pontefract. “Adverse Drug Reactions.” Clinical Medicine (London, England), vol. 16, no. 5, 2016, pp. 481–485.
Gordon, James S. “The Paradigm of Holistic Medicine.” Health for the Whole Person, 1st Edition, Routledge, 2019, pp. 3–35, Web.
Karimi, Ali, et al. “Herbal versus Synthetic Drugs; Beliefs and Facts.” Journal of Nephropharmacology, vol. 4, no. 1, 2015, pp. 27–30, Web.
Porras, Gina, et al. “Ethnobotany and the Role of Plant Natural Products in Antibiotic Drug Discovery.” Chemical Reviews, vol. 121, no. 6, 2021, pp. 3495–3560, Web.