I know from experience that most people will ignore natural medicines up until the day they run out of options. Most people only turn to herbs and natural medicine when their regular, conventional physician has left them to die. They only turn to alternative medicine when modern medicine has failed them. And that is their great missed opportunity, because they could have survived, and been healthier and disease free all along, if they had just looked at the solutions nature has provided us.

Conventional medicine is based on dogma, not science

You see, all you have to do to survive the next pandemic is shift your beliefs about medicine and disease prevention. Stop believing that conventional medicine has a monopoly on health knowledge. The vast majority of people on the planet don't even use prescription drugs -- they use plants and herbal medicines which, by the way, are not manufactured in medicine labs. They're made inside the leaves, roots, stems and fibers of plants. Garlic, for example, contains dozens of antiviral compounds (as well as phytochemicals that lower cholesterol, halt the growth of cancer tumors, and much more).

Pomegranate seeds, blueberries and other superfruits contain the strongest and most biologically diverse antioxidants known to anyone. Green tea, lemon balm, olive leaves and even Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs contain medicine that even the best pharmaceutical scientists could only dream of creating -- medicine to overcome chronic disease, infections and even pandemics. The most powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal chemicals, like the ones found in garlic, are far more effective than the ones manufactured in medicine labs.

In fact, the best-known antiviral prescription drug TamiFlu is derived from an active ingredient in a traditional Chinese herb called "star anise." But the drug is only an isolated extract. The herbs work far better than the drugs because they offer a multitude of complementary phytonutrients, not isolated chemical extracts.

Weeds are smarter than the pharmaceutical industry

Take a close look at a plant and marvel at how it is an independent pharmaceutical factory; how one plant sitting in a yard can produce $100,000 worth of healing phytochemicals that save many lives, even though it doesn't know what it's doing. In fact, I bet there is a plant in your yard right now, called the dandelion plant, that contains literally hundreds of different chemical compounds with medicinal potential. We already know that dandelion leaves and roots protect the liver, support kidney function and help regulate blood sugar. And yet this is a plant that most people try to kill by spraying it with poison.

A lot of those people also believe in the dogma of modern medicine. And, frankly, those are the very people who are more likely to die in a bird flu pandemic because they will be unable to accept information or ideas outside the realm of prescription drugs.

As a result, they may take their beliefs with them to the grave, because they were too narrow-minded, too dogmatic and too ignorant to open their minds to the possibility that surviving the bird flu is easier than you think, and that the human body was actually programmed to conquer infectious disease. A whopping twenty-five percent of your genetic code, for example, is dedicated solely to fighting off infectious disease.

Don't be a victim of your beliefs. Expand your mind and be open to additional ideas beyond Tamiflu and vaccinations. By doing so, you will greatly improve your ability to survive any infectious disease outbreak. This doesn't mean you should avoid using Tamiflu or other anti-viral drugs if you're fortunate enough to have access to them, but it does mean you shouldn't limit your thinking to only those drugs. Think beyond the drugs to give yourself the best defense possible.