I believe that modern medecine is probably the most effective medicine in most, but not all instances. Most medicines were derived from so-called "herbal" medicines, where the active part of the herb is isolated from the rest of the plant.

One of the disadvantages of using herbal medicines is you get the whole plant - active compound and all - and this might not necessarily be good if someone has an allergy to a certain part of the plant or if there are toxins in the plant. I still use some herbal medicines myself, but I am careful about it.

An interesting thing about medicine is the placebo effect - even if the medicine doesn't have any effect at all in the body, if you take a medicine and THINK it will make you better, chances are it will. I don't think scientists fully know why yet. This might be what's behind a lot of "traditional" medicines.

I try to only use medicine if I can't figure out what's causing my problem or I am in a lot of pain. For instance, when I get a headache I first drink a big glass of water before taking medicine, because most regular headaches are caused by dehydration. If that doesn't work, next I will try to drink a cup of coffee, because I drink a lot of coffee while I am at work but not as much at home on the weekends. Studies have shown that regular coffee drinkers can sometimes experience headaches when they do not have caffeine.

Great question.

I too think more research needs to be done on other types of medicine. Some of it clearly doesn't work at all, but there is some real reason that others do work. For example: acupuncture. I am not familiar with it but I believe that Chinese people say it works through chi or something...does it really work this way, or does it stimulate a measurable, biochemical response in your body that helps to relieve pain?

The benefit of using Western medicine is that it is well studied and in a pure, isolated form. We humans are just big bags of chemicals (we even make chemicals that are poisonous to ourselves! like carbon dioxide, acetone, and urea), and so it makes sense to try and fix us with chemicals when something goes wrong. That being said, discovering new chemicals to use in medicines will come from other cultures or through trial and error with unknown plants.

i think, consuming medicine too much, not good for your healty.. herbal is better

As John said, first I drink a cup of coffe, and if that doesn't work I use drugs.