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Herbs in Many Forms
Herbs and herbal
products come in many forms, and are now available not only in
natural food stores, but also grocery stores, drugstores and gourmet
food stores. Also, a number of multilevel marketing organizations sell a variety of
herbal products, as do mail order purveyors.
Conditions Benefited by Herbal Medicine
Herbal remedies can be
used for a wide range of minor ailments that are amenable to
self-medication, including stomach upset, the common cold, flues,
minor aches and pains, constipation and diarrhea, coughs, headaches,
menstrual cramps, digestive disturbances, sore muscles, sore
muscles, skin rashes, sunburn, dandruff, and insomnia.
A growing number of American
health consumers use herbal remedies for these conditions, which
have been traditionally the domain of the nonprescription or
over-the-counter drugs.
Other conditions that respond well to
herbal medicine include:
digestive disorders such as peptic ulcers, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome; rheumatic and arthritic conditions;
chronic skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis; problems of the
menstrual cycle and especially premenstrual syndrome; anxiety and tension-related stress; bronchitis and other respiratory conditions;
hypertension; and allergies.
Herbal medicines can also
be used for a number of conditions normally treated by prescription
only. One example is milk thistle seed extract for use in cirrhosis and hepatitis.12
Another example is the use of hawthorn as a heart
tonic.13
This herb is highly recommended for cardiac patients by
physicians in Germany (see The Herbal Medicine Chest section in this chapter).
“When treating chronic illness with herbal
medicine, it is extremely important to treat the entire body, as the
illness may be simultaneously affecting many systems of the body at
various levels,” says Mary Bove, N.D., L.M., head of the Department
of Botanical Medicine at Bastyr College of Natural Health Sciences,
in Seattle, Washington.
“The course of the treatment
must include nutritional, tonic, and restorative plants in
conjunction with herbs that support the body’s elimination
functions.
We find the alterative
and adaptogenic plants to be very effective.
Digestive function is also
an important consideration in most chronic diseases.
The duration of treatment is often longer, with a constant dose of the remedy being given over a longer period of time.”
Dr. Bove reports, “I had a thirty-eight-year-old female patient who came in with a ten-year-old case of colitis. She
had been seen by several M.D.’s and N.D’s over the past decade with
some improvement. After
discussing her long history, I chose to treat her from a different
perspective. Primarily,
I gave her digestive nerviness and tonic herbs like catnip, lemon
balm, and tilia flowers.
Within three days, she went from eleven stools per day to two
per day. I continued with these herbs, adding some others for gut healing.
We had excellent results which were supported by diagnostic imaging.
Herbal medicine
has also had great results with arthritic conditions.
Consider the case of a forty-two-year old woman with rheumatoid arthritis, confined to a wheelchair due to extreme and almost constant pain and swelling. She consulted with David Hoffman, B.Sc., M.N.I.M.H., past President of the
American Herbalists Guild, whose treatment involved herbal medicine
and a re-evaluation of her diet and lifestyle.
Herbs were selected initially to east the digestive problems caused by medications she
was taking and to help her sleep.
Once such side effects were
alleviated, a program was started that enabled her to completely
abandon the wheelchair after six months.
Though she still had some
arthritic pain, she was able to live with it comfortably.
The uniqueness of each individual is important in
evaluating any holistic therapy, whether it be homeopathic, herbal,
or nutritional. In
order to prescribe effectively, it is critical that a physician be
knowledgeable and adaptable to each patient’s individual
situation. John
Sherman, N.D., of the Portland Naturopathic Clinic in Oregon tells of a woman he treated who came to his clinic complaining of heart
palpitations. She was also concerned about the drugs she’d been prescribed for her heart
arrhythmia. She told Dr. Sherman that the drugs had been “sapping” her energy and only
partially helping her heart problem.
Dr. Sherman prescribed a combination herbal tincture of cactus, hawthorn, valerian, and lily
of the valley, which is a standard combination naturopathic
physicians use to combat arrhythmia and a “feeble” heart.
He also analyzed her diet to
determine her intake of specific minerals which affect the heart,
including calcium, potassium, and sodium.
She returned to Dr.
Sherman’s clinic two weeks later, still complaining of heart
palpitations and feeling even more frustrated.
Dr. Sherman decided to
change the herbal formula slightly by adding scotch broom.
Within a few days, she
happily reported the absence of any heart symptoms and was subsequently able to wean herself off the prescription
drugs. |
The Future of Herbal Medicine
According to James Duke,
Ph.D., a scientist and USDA (United States Department of
Agriculture) specialist in the area of herbal medicine, one of the
reasons that research into the field of herbal medicine has been
lacking is the enormous financial cost of the testing required to
prove a new “drug” safe.
Dr. Duke has seen that price tag rise from 91 million dollars over ten years ago to the present figure of 231 million
dollars. Dr. Duke asks,
“What commercial drug dealer is going to want to prove that saw
palmetto is better than his multimillion dollar drug, when you and I
can go to Florida and harvest our own saw palmetto?”
Yet the future looks bright for those who want to explore the benefits of herbal
medicine. The demand for an alternative to synthetic and pharmaceutical drugs is growing,
and herbal medicine is working to meet it.
“I feel very optimistic
about the future of herbal medicine,” says David Hoffman, past
President of the American Herbalist Guild.
“It has an abundance of
gifts to offer both individuals in search of health and a society in
search of compassionate and affordable health care.
With the growing recognition
of the value of herbs, it is surely time to examine the professional
therapeutic use of these herbs.
There are profound changes happening in the American culture and herbal medicine, ‘green
medicine’ is playing an ever-increasing role in people’s experience
of this transformation.”
Different Systems of
Herbology
There is a great diversity and richness in the
various herbal traditions of the world, most of which still thrive
today. Native American
cultures contain a cornucopia of healing wisdom as do European
traditions, from the Welsh to the Sicilian.
There are a number of highly
developed medical systems around the world that utilize the
medicinal plants in their healing work.
These include ancient
systems such as Ayurveda from India and Traditional Chinese
Medicine. The essential
differences between these various systems of medicine are their
cultural contexts rather than their goals or
effects.
Traditional Chinese Medicine:
The
restoration of harmony is integral to Chinese herbal medicine.
Harmonious balance is expressed in terms of the two complementary forces – yin and yang;
and the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.
The five elements are of
particular importance to the Chinese herbalist; they give rise to
the five tastes by which all medicinal plants are evaluated.
Fire gives rise to
bitterness, earth to sweetness, metal to acridity, water to
saltiness, and wood to sourness.
Each taste is said to have a particular medicinal action; bitter-tasting herbs drain and dry;
sweet herbs tonify and may reduce pain; acrid herbs disperse; salty
herbs nourish the kidneys; sour herbs nourish the yin and astringe,
preventing unwanted loss of body fluids or qi.
Herbs that have none of
these tastes are described as bland – a quality that indicates that
the plant may have a diuretic effect.
The taste of a plant can
also indicate the organ to which it has a natural affinity.
Besides
defining particular herbal
tastes the Chinese ascribe different temperatures to herbs – hot,
warm, neutral, cool and cold.
Ayurveda: Ayurveda medicine has ancient roots in the Indian subcontinent.
It also recognizes five
elements: ether, fire,
water, air, and earth.
These five elements manifest themselves in the body to form
the tridosha or three basic humors:
vata (the principle of air
or movement); pitta (the principle of fire); and kapha (the
principle of water).
Ayurvedic medicine sees all universal energies as having
their counterparts within the human being.
The healing process seeks to
achieve in individuals a balance between the elements of air or wind (vata), fire or bile (pitta), and water or phlegm
(kapha).
Ayurvedic medicine holds that the taste of an herb
is indicative of its properties.
The Sanskrit word for taste,
rasa, means “essence”.
There are six essences; sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter,
and astringent. For
example, pungent, sour, and salty-tasting herbs cause heat and so
increase pitta (fire); sweet, bitter, and astringent herbs have
precisely the opposite effect, cooling and decreasing pitta.
As in Chinese herbal
medicine, Ayurvedic texts categorize all plants according to this system, so that their herbalists can prescribe herbs more
easily.
Western medicine: The use of medicinal plants is also fundamental to Western society’s pharmacologically based approach to medicine.
The majority of medicinal drug groups were discovered or
developed from the plant kingdom, even if they are now manufactured synthetically. However,
most modern health professionals view medicines as biochemical
“magic bullets,” which should be expected to provide instant
results. This approach
has been very successful in certain areas, such as the treatment of
acute illness, but has major limitations when it comes to chronic or
degenerative disease.
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There is a great
diversity and richness in the various herbal traditions of the
world, most of which still thrive today. Native American
cultures contain a cornucopia of healing wisdom as do European
traditions, from the Welsh to the Sicilian. There are a number of highly developed medical systems around the world that utilize medicinal plants in their healing work.
These include ancient systems such as Ayurveda from India and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The essential differences between these various systems of medicine are their cultural
contexts rather than their goals or
effects.
Traditional Chinese
Medicine:
The restoration of harmony is integral to
Chinese herbal medicine. Harmonious balance is expressed in terms of the two complementary forces - yin and yang; and the five elements - fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.
The five elements are of particular importance to the Chinese
herbalist; they give rise to the five tastes by which all
medicinal plants are evaluated. Fire gives rise to
bitterness, earth to sweetness, metal to acridity, water to
saltiness, and wood to sourness. Each taste is said to
have a particular medicinal action: bitter-tasting herbs drain
and dry; sweet herbs tonify and may reduce pain ; acrid herbs disperse; salty herbs nourish the yin and astringe, preventing
unwanted loss of body fluids or qi. Herbs that have none
of these tastes are described as bland - a quality that
indicates that the plant may have a diuretic effect. The
taste of a plant can also indicate the organ to which it has a natural affinity. Besides defining particular herbal
tastes, the Chinese ascribe different temperatures to herbs -
hot, warm, neutral, cool, and cold.
Ayurveda:
Ayurvedic medicine has ancient roots in the Indian subcontinent. It also
recognizes five elements: ether, fire, water, air, and earth. These five elements manifest themselves in the
body to form the tridosha or three basic humors: vata (the
principle of air or movement); pitta (the principle of fire);
and kapha (the principle of water). Ayurvedic medicine
sees all universal energies as having their counterparts within the human being. The healing process seeks to
achieve in individuals a balance between the elements of air
or wind (vata), fire or bile (pitta), and water or phlegm
(kapha).
Ayurvedic medicine holds that the taste of an
herb is indicative of its properties. The Sanskrit word for taste, rasa, means "essence." There are six
essences: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. For example, pungent, sour, and salty-tasting herbs cause heat and so increase pitta (fire);
sweet, bitter, and astringent herbs have precisely the
opposite effect, cooling and decreasing pitta. As in
Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic texts categorize all plants according to this system, so that their herbalists can
prescribe herbs more easily.
Western
medicine:
The use of medicinal plants is also
fundamental to Western society's pharmacologically based approach to medicine. The majority of medicinal drug
groups were discovered or developed from the plant kingdom,
even if they are now manufactured synthetically.
However, most modern health professionals view medicines as biochemical "magic bullets," which should be expected to
provide instant results. This approach has been very
successful in certain areas, such as the treatment of acute
illness, but has major limitations when comes to chronic or
degenerative
disease.
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