Dr. Farrah Agustin-Bunch graduated from Saint Louis University as an M.D. in 2003 with her pre-med as a medical technologist. She passed the board exams on her first try and thus began her journey.
Her late father, Antonio R. Agustin was an esteemed herbalist. He advised her to quit training in the hospital and join him on his practice as an “herbularyo”. Since he was not a Medical Doctor, he knew that he was not qualified to attend to the sick. Dr. Farrah became his apprentice.
In the early days of her medical profession, Dr. Farrah was still hesitant to avoid using Pharmaceutical-based medicine, since she had dedicated so many years to studying them. Back then, she was basically prescribing synthetic medicine along with herbs, vitamins and minerals to her patients. She studied in foreign countries to learn about Natural Medicine. It saddened her that progressive countries all over the world have their own “Natural Medicine” that they are proud to showcase. China is well known for Traditional Chinese Medicine and India for Ayurveda.
Over time, she came to understand that she was blinded by the promise of “conventional” medicine. It wasn’t until her own family got sick that she completely questioned her beliefs. No drugs were helping them. Instead of getting better, their condition deteriorated day by day. She was utterly depressed. She felt helpless as a medical doctor. She couldn’t understand what was wrong with the protocols she followed.
She read the medical books repeatedly and asked her colleagues about their experiences. Yet nothing seemed to quell their sickness. Finally, after thorough evaluation, she resorted to experimentation. Hopelessness almost drove her to give up. In her work, it can often be confounding when prescribing drugs due to all of the side effects, combination side effects and even the lack of effects.
When questions would arise in patient care, her college professors and mentors would simply say that she didn’t have the right combination of drugs and needed to further evaluate the patient to get the right mix of drugs for them. Yet none would prescribe what should be done.
In the midst of all this misdirection and pharmaceutical peddling, she was stopped cold in her tracks when she saw what was said by Dr. Allan Roses, M.D., the worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. He said that fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. “The vast majority of drugs – more than 90 per cent – only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people.” she knew there had to be another way.
Dr. Farrah whipped up her first natural cough remedy made of honey and cinnamon and gave it to her daughter. To her surprise, on the second day, her cough miraculously disappeared. She was shocked and intrigued at the same time. Could it be that the best solution to asthma was in her kitchen pantry? Amazed, she hurried to the nearest bookstore and grabbed several books on natural medicine. She learned so much that first day. It was an eye opener especially to a medical doctor like her.
That day she learned 3 things. First, is that honey and cinnamon are potent antimicrobial foods with anti-inflammatory properties. Second, she came to realize that she was taught profit-based medicine instead of health-based medicine. Third, she felt like she’d received the keys to a wonderful kingdom. This was a time of awakening for her. She had opened her mind to new scientific knowledge and was rewarded with these eureka moments of discovery and understanding.
There comes a time in your life when you finally get it. The massive inner workings of the human body and how they directly related to nutrition came into focus. These concepts were barely whispered in her medical school training, whereas pharmaceuticals were unabashedly screamed from the rafters. We were simply taught a pill for every ill and when she realized this elaborate con, it made her sick and ashamed. She came to understand that she’d been misled in her education for the benefit of drug interests and the medical status quo. Her interest is in the health of patients and she refused to be a pawn for things that she does not believe work. She reassessed and redefined who she is and what she really believe in. Her first big decision was to give up on these ineffective synthetic medicines.
Her moment of helplessness was indeed an awakening for her. She was never the same again. She felt like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard Of Oz, when she woke up in her black-and-white house after it was deposited by the tornado in Oz and she walks out the door into the bright Technicolor world of Munchkinland.
Natural, nutrition-centered philosophies made her a better person, mom, daughter and wife. As a career woman, she has become a wiser practitioner, a conscious and active environmentalist, an agriculturist, a best-selling author, a passionate speaker and a humble student of nature.
Her life is now more colorful than ever. She wakes up every morning with a purpose. She feels that the Lord blessed her with a great treasure when she was led to discover the beauty of the power of nature.
With the help of her husband, she has been able to explore vast areas of her practice. Every day Dr. Farrah studies and discover many effective and unheard research that have been buried in time. The more she reads, the more she learns she knew so little out of medical school and this is still very humbling. It’s disappointing to come to the realization that medical school is in many ways another example of the extensive marketing arms of pharmaceutical companies.
In the Philippines, Dr. Farrah was responsible for about 150,000 people during her 16 years in practice there. The track record that she was able to develop speaks for itself. Now, she is in the U.S. and in a position to assist far more people than ever before with her formulations. Every single formulation she has developed is based upon her track record and extensive experience of what she knows to be truly effective.
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