Natural help for side effects

With medicinal herbs as well as the right diet and lifestyle, unwanted side effects of medication can be effectively alleviated

Sabine Ritter and Elisabeth Schittler-Krikonas combine herbal know-how and nutritional recommendations with various methods to improve well-being in order to counteract or prevent drug side effects in a natural way.

The horror of the package leaflet
Reading the package insert often sends a shiver down the reader's spine. The list of side effects of a medication sometimes gives the impression that you are being asked to swallow harmful poison rather than healing medicine. Skeptics may then not even take the medication prescribed by the doctor because they cannot imagine that they will survive unscathed. It is all too easy to overlook the fact that medications generally significantly improve the quality of life of many patients and in some cases significantly extend their life expectancy. Not everyone suffers from side effects and not all of the consequences described occur in one and the same patient.
In their new guide “Treating side effects naturally”, pharmacist Sabine Ritter and alternative practitioner Elisabeth Schittler-Krikonas show that herbs and naturopathic preparations in particular, in combination with some targeted changes in lifestyle and diet, are suitable for alleviating the effects of the unwanted side effects of medication.

No effect without side effects
The desired effect of drugs is partly the result of the fact that drugs suppress certain processes in the body. These processes are deliberately slowed down in order to minimize the damage caused by processes that get out of control and cause illness. Other drugs replace missing substances in order to compensate for a deficiency. There are also active ingredients that get weakened processes going again. The benefit of a drug is therefore basically to specifically manipulate or regulate disease processes. The side effects are therefore a logical consequence of the effect.
However, some side effects are also non-specific in nature and are more a result of individual susceptibilities. In addition, the extent of the undesirable effects also depends on the dosage, the form of administration and the duration of use of a medication. Constitution, illnesses, lifestyle and diet, among many other things, have contributed to the development of individual susceptibilities that are not only apparent when taking medication. These include weakness, tiredness and drowsiness, complaints in the gastrointestinal tract or pain in the limbs, muscles and joints. Even if some of these are only so-called discomforts, they can still noticeably impair the quality of life.

Self-help for side effects
"Use the knowledge of alternative medicine to make you feel better during your conventional medical treatment!" advise the two authors. However, the treating doctor should always be informed first if side effects are observed in connection with taking medication. Only if the doctor has no concerns about continuing the treatment is there nothing wrong with trying to alleviate the symptoms yourself, provided the treating doctor does not object to the planned measures.
The recommendations of "Treating side effects naturally" are building blocks that can be combined with one another as desired: "This is how you can put together your own individual self-help measures." Lifestyle and diet measures can be combined with individual herbs and/or one of the naturopathic preparations after consulting a doctor or pharmacist. Alternatively, you can just change your lifestyle and diet and primarily take up several suggestions from these two categories. In the case of temporary drug treatment, the building blocks can be gradually discontinued once the patient is feeling better and the therapy has ended.

Book tip:
Pharmacist Sabine Ritter / Elisabeth Schittler-Krikonas: Treating side effects naturally. Tried and tested medicinal herbs, exercises and nutritional recommendations – how to alleviate unwanted side effects of medication. Mankau Verlag, 1st edition July 2017, paperback, 16 x 22 cm, full color, 287 pages, 20 euros (D) │ 20.60 euros (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-403-8.

Link recommendations:
More information about the guide "Treating side effects naturally"
More about Sabine Ritter
More about Elisabeth Schittler-Krikonas