Some Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen White didn’t like any prescription medications and only recommended “natural methods” for healing.  But this isn’t the case.

Doctors in the 1800’s had little understanding or agreement on how medicines should be used, and most people were unaware of the risks of medicines that were popular at that time.  For example, quinine was given to treat malaria, which she supported.  But it was also used to treat a variety of other illnesses that it did nothing for, like muscle cramps, fever, and flu.  This overuse frequently caused quinine toxicity disorders like kidney failure, blindness, and even death.  Physicians and patients had no idea it was their beloved quinine that made them so ill.

By 1895, morphine and opioid powders were so overused that 1 in 200 Americans were active addicts [Smithsonianmag.com, “Inside the Story of America’s 19th-century opioid addiction”].  Arsenic and mercury were often prescribed for a variety of ailments because doctors didn’t realize they were toxic, deadly poisons.  Even cyanide was considered a medicine of choice for many illnesses.

In 1889, EGW wrote that “physicians should seek more and more to lessen the use of drugs instead of increasing,” also writing that “drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse [2SM 283.2].  Though recommending quinine for malaria patients [CH 261], she warned against using it for the many other diseases it was frequently (and uselessly) given for.  She advocated against treating illnesses with widely used poisonous drugs like arsenic and mercury, and she understood the addictive nature of opioids when most doctors didn’t.

Her understanding about medicines and medical interventions was sensible and balanced.  She accepted a vaccination against small pox when the disease was spreading through her community, and urged those around her to get immunized as well.  And when she developed what was described as a “black spot” on her forehead (probably a skin cancer like melanoma), she took 23 radiation (X-ray) treatments for it until the lesion had healed.  [2SM 303.2].

God blessed her with divine insight to know the difference between medical practices that were beneficial, and those which were useless and deadly.