02/10/2025
Most people don’t realize that the modern medical system was heavily shaped by business interests in the early 1900s.
John D. Rockefeller, who had major investments in petroleum, saw an opportunity to create a new pharmaceutical industry based on petroleum-derived drugs. At the same time, Andrew Carnegie was working to “reform” higher education. Together, through the Carnegie Foundation, they pushed universities to abandon courses in natural healing methods- such as chiropractic, naturopathy, herbalism, and homeopathy- in favor of a standardized, drug-based model.
The turning point was the Flexner Report of 1910, which led to many natural healing schools being shut down or stripped of legitimacy. To further secure control, Rockefeller and Carnegie funded a widespread public relations campaign labeling non-drug approaches as “quackery” and “pseudoscience.”
These terms stuck- not because the practices were scientifically disproven, but because they were positioned as competition to a growing pharmaceutical empire.
Understanding this history helps explain why natural approaches have been marginalized for over a century, and why many of the same debates are still alive today.
✨Reminding you to think for yourself, question the labels, study the history, and explore health approaches that were silenced, not disproven. Your health, your knowledge, your choice.✨
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