They are much more predictable, well understood and easier to dose than the chemical cocktail of natural compounds. Please note that I am not saying that there aren’t any useful natural medicines. I am stating that it is better to isolate the active components.
This only applies to anything taken orally and absorbed by the intestine. Also this can both be positive or negative since it increases or decreases absorption of the active agent, which makes it less predictable. Most “ingredients” dont cross the blood-brain barrier.
I can’t think of a natural remedy over a synthetic/isolated that would not be oral. My point though is that I think the synthetic/isolated is superior if we actually know everything about the thing and can make that perfect concoction but most of the time we only really understand one dimension of how a natural thing works so the natural can be superior. Also though if the intervention need is high I will go for the man made thing. So prediabetic I will add barberries to my diet maybe but if I pass into diabetese I will likely take the metformin or whatever the doctor suggests.
We also don’t know how the natural remedy works. It’s dangerous to think something natural is automatically safer, nature is a bitch.
We by and large eat anything edible that is not posionous so its as safe as eating any food. granted though supplementing with it is not necessarily good if its being purified. Thats like just a half measure of purification but adding foods to the diet you otherwise don’t eat is not dangerous.
In general I agree with you, but I’m going to play the devil’s advocate. I think it’s fair to mention that not everything we eat and consider edible is not poisonous. Especially when it comes to food that contains chemicals which kill you slowly, like carcinogens. It’s beneficial to check what our food items do to us long-term, just like it is beneficial to check our medicinal remedies.
fair enough but I don’t think it invalidates the technically part of my initial response which I think is what we are talking about.