The Value of Natural Medicine

When we become ill, we look for medicine to get better. We hope the medicine will be effective and also that it will be fast-acting. Thus medicines that have been formulated to meet these criteria are what folks want to have handy when they are in need.

Unfortunately all too often we are encounter products that contain strong chemicals which may cause allergic reactions or even be harmful with long term use. This is particularly true with products that are developed for skin care.

Ideally we should use products on our skin that are free from harmful chemicals and which permit the skin to breathe better. When the pores of the skin are not clogged with chemical residue they can breathe freely and such common and disturbing conditions such as contact dermatitis are readily treatable.

While these facts are well known to the companies that produce, distribute and sell skin care products, why then do we have so many products on the market that are made with chemicals which do very little to help the skin conditions and sometimes even make the conditions even worse?

The answer is P-R-O-F-I-T. The skin care business is a very large one. Sales in this category exceed seventeen billion dollars a year in the United States alone. And profit margins in this category are among the highest in any industry. Why so big and so successful? Many of the larger multinational companies justify their high prices and enormous returns by claiming their research efforts to advance skin care technology and improve patient care.

This is mostly fluff. Most skin care products companies spend fifteen times the amount of money on advertising, packaging and marketing than on research and product development. Also, they often fund the wrong kind of clinical research, done in the wrong way with the wrong motives, thus avoiding the lines of inquiry that might actually teach us something important.

The surest guarantee of profit is the “me-too” repackaging of basically the same product over and over again. Developing a product that might make a real difference for patients is financially risky. The “smarter” approach to insure executive bonuses and shareholder dividends is to fiddle slightly with existing compounds, just enough to make them different enough from those products which are already on the “gravy train.”

A quick review of the last few decades shows us that the skin care products industry does not have an enviable success record in terms of improving the overall quality of life for patients suffering with conditions including contact dermatitis, eczema, and seborrheic dermatitis among others. It seems the most exciting period of discovery in skin care was in the latter part of the nineteenth century when antiseptic products derived from coal tar such as carbolic acid were used to cure and prevent infections. None of these breakthroughs were expensive and all of them were the result of the careful and concerned care given to a patient by a physician.

The F.C. Sturtevant Company began making skin care products in 1871. Our original Columbia Antiseptic Powder formula contained four ingredients all natural and sourced from the earth. Since that time, we have continued to use the same four ingredients and we produce this product exactly the same way we did back then.

Surely, we continue to engage in scientific research in the hope of developing new compounds which will enhance the treatment of skin conditions, and we have been focusing our efforts on improving the hydration of the skin for nearly eight decades. A recently introduced product, Columbia Restorative Hydrating Cream is the result of a ten-year effort by a team of scientists and doctors working together from around the globe to identify the best combination of plants, minerals and vitamins that would blend together and result in a new compound that stimulates the natural hydration process of the skin.

Similarly, we recognized globally as the leading provider of topical probiotic treatments. Our Columbia Probiotic Concentrate and Columbia Probiotic Complex products when used in tandem can protect healthy skin to remain so, while helping damaged skin to become repaired and healthy. We believe in the systems approach to skin care and our products all reflect our commitment to providing products that are efficacious, fast-acting and perfectly safe to use.

In addition, all of our products are made in the United States using the highest quality medical grade ingredients. We do not include any colorings or artificial fragrances in any of our formulations. Our products are all allergy tested and they are PETA approved as well.