Monday, March 29, 2010

Abundant Natural Remedies in Switzerland





Switzerland, like much of Europe and Asia, has a long history of using natural remedies for health care. This is evident when traveling through Switzerland where drugstores and pharmacies throughout the country sell both natural and pharmaceutical products, often side by side. Switzerland is a highly developed, wealthy country complete with its own pharmaceutical giants, who would like consumers to buy their pharmaceutical products instead of long-standing, successful, natural remedies. But cultural heritage and attitudes run deep. In Switzerland, druggists and pharmacy owners must go through years of education and apprenticeship, including not only the study of pharmaceutical products but also of herbal and homeopathic remedies.

Unlike the United States where homeopathic and herbal preparations are sold in health food stores, you must buy homeopathic remedies and many herbal products in a pharmacy or apothecary – called Drogerie, Apotheke, or Farmacia. Fortunately there seems to be one on just about every street.

Natural remedies of the highest quality are made in Switzerland, Germany, France and other European countries. These natural products and medicines are displayed in pharmacy windows often with equal or greater representation than conventional products. Swiss brands include A. Vogel-Bioforce, Ceres, Weleda, and Phytomed.

In Zurich the Bellevue Pharmacy has been in operation since 1887 and stocks thousands of remedies including over 6000 homeopathic and anthroposophical medicines. Open twenty-four hours a day, all year long, you can find them in the old part of the city on Bellevueplatz by the lake.

It is a joy to travel in Switzerland (for many reasons) and have easy and abundant access to high quality natural remedies.

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