The commercial dominance of Western scientific medicine has marginalized age-old natural forms of health care. The use of unnatural chemicals as medicines assaults the body in much the same way as a disease organism or toxin. Illness is the body's way of expressing it is not in balance. Cures should be sensitive to the body's own protective and restorative powers; support them not disable them.
Many foods have medicinal properties, for example, garlic, licorice and ginger. Ever more frequently, these healthy foods are being viewed as drugs by the drug companies and international regulatory organizations, such as Codex. The drug companies stand to gain enormous profits if a food can only be sold via prescription as patented drugs. Codex sets international nutritional health standards and regulates United Nations member countries' food standards. Drug companies are strongly represented at Codex meetings, but the natural health care industry and the general public are not represented.
Sales of alternative medicines in western Europe rose to $1.2 billion a year by 1992. Sales of homeopathic medicines in western Europe increased fourfold between 1981 and 1991, and are forecast to reach $550 million a year by 1997.