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Alternative Medicine InformationHerbal Medicine has been used for thousands of years to succ
by:
Danny Siegenthaler
Herbs or healthful
plants have a long history in treating malady and health disorders. In traditional Chinese medicine, for example, the written history of flavouring medicine goes back over 2000 years and herbalists in the West have used “weeds” equally long to treat that which ails us. We are all familiar with the virtues of Garlic, Chamomile, Peppermint, Lavender, and different common herbs.
Interest in healthful
herbs is on the rise once more and the interest is primarily from the pharmaceutical industry, which is always looking for ‘new drugs’ and more effective substances to treat diseases, for which there may be no or really few drugs available.
Considering the really long traditional use of flavouring medicines and the large body of evidence of their effectiveness, why is it that we are not generally pleased
to use traditional flavouring medicine, instead of synthetic, incomplete copies of herbs, called drugs, considering the millions of dollars being spent looking for these on the face of it elusive substances?
Herbs are considered treasures once
it comes to ancient cultures and herbalists, and many a so-called weeds are worth their weight in gold. Dandelion, Comfrey, Digitalis (Foxglove), the Poppy, Milk Thistle, Stinging nettle, and many a others, have well-researched and established healthful
qualities that have few if any rivals in the pharmaceutical industry. Many a of them in fact, form the bases of pharmaceutical drugs.
Research into the healthful
properties of such herbs as the humble Herb is presently
being undertaken by scientists at the Royal Biological science Gardens, in Kew, west London, believe it could be the source of a life-saving drug for cancer patients.
Early tests suggest that it could hold the key to warding off cancer, which kills tens of thousands of folk every year.
Their activity on the cancer-beating properties of the dandelion, which as well has a history of being used to treat warts, is part of a more larger project to examine the natural healthful
properties of scores of British plants and flowers.
Professor Monique Simmonds, head of the Property
Uses of Plants Group at Kew, said: "We aren't arbitrarily screening plants for their potential healthful
properties, we are looking at plants which we cognize have a long history of being used to treat certain medical problems.”
“We wish be examining them to find out what active compounds they contain which can treat the illness.”
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, this group of scientists appears to be looking for active ingredients, which can later be synthesized and then ready-made into pharmaceutical drugs. This is not the way herbs are used traditionally and their functions inevitably change once
the active ingredients are used in isolation. That’s like language that the only important part of a car is the engine – nothing else necessarily to be included…
So, why is there this need for uninflected
the ‘active ingredients’?
As a scientist, I can understand the need for the scientific process of establishing the fact that a particular herb works on a particular disease, infectious agent or what ever, and the need to cognize why and how it does so. But, and this is a BIG but, as a doctor of Chinese medicine I as well understand the process of choosing and prescribing COMBINATIONS of herbs, which have a synergistic effect to treat not simply the disease, but any underlying condition as well as the person with the malady – That is a big difference and not one that is easily tested mistreatment standard scientific methodologies.
Using anecdotal evidence, which after all has a history of thousands of years, seems to escape my prestigious colleagues all together. Rather than trying to isolate the active ingredient(s), why not test these herbs, utilizing the noesis of professional herbalists, on patients in vivo, mistreatment the myriad of technology accessible to researchers and medical diagnosticians to see how and why these herbs activity in living, breathing patients, rather than in a test tube or on laboratory rats and mice (which, by the way, are not humans and have a different, tho'
several what similar, physiology to us…).
I suspect, that among the reasons for not following the above procedure is that the pharmaceutical companies are not actually interested in the effects of the healthful
plants as a whole, but rather in whether they can isolate a therapeutic substance which can then be factory-made
cheaply and marketed as a new drug - and of course that’s wherever
the money is…
The problem with this approach is however, that healthful
plants like Comfrey, Herb and different herbs commonly contain hundreds if not thousands of chemical compounds that interact, yet many a of which are not yet understood and cannot be manufactured. This is why the factory-made
drugs, based on so-called active ingredients, often do not activity or produce side effects.
Aspirin is a classic case in point. Salicylic acid is the active ingredient in Analgesic tablets, and was 1st isolated from the bark of the White Willow tree. It is a comparatively
simple compound to do synthetically, however, Analgesic is best-known for its ability to cause stomach irritation and in several cases ulceration of the stomach wall.
The flavouring extract from the bark of the White Willow tree generally does not cause stomach irritation due to other, so called ‘non-active ingredients’ contained in the bark, which function to protect the lining of the stomach thereby preventing ulceration of the stomach wall.
Ask yourself, which would-be I choose – Side effects, or no site effects? – It’s a really simple answer. Isn’t it?
So why then are flavouring medicines not used more ordinarily and why do we have pharmaceutical impostors stuffed down our throats? The answer is, that there’s little or no money in herbs for the pharmaceutical companies. They, the herbs, have already been invented, they grow easily, they multiply pronto and for the most part, they’re freely available.
Further more, aright
prescribed and developed
flavouring compounds generally resolve the health problem of the patient over a period of time, deed no requirement to support taking the preparation – that means no repeat sales… no current
prescriptions… no current
problem.
Pharmaceuticals on the different hand primarily aim to relieve symptoms – that means: current
consultations, current
sales, current
health problems – which do you think is a more profitable proposition…?
Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that all drugs are impostors or that none of the pharmaceutical drugs cure diseases or maladies – they do and several are life-preserving preparations and are without doubt invaluable. However, flavouring extracts can be likewise
effective, but are not promoted and are extremely
under-utilized.
The daily news is full of ‘discoveries’ of herbs found to be a possible cure of this or that, as in the example of Herb and its possible anti-cancer properties. The point is, that these herbs need to be investigated in the correct way. They are not simply ‘an active ingredient’. They mostly have hundreds of ingredients and taking one or two in isolation is not what does healthful
plants work. In addition, seldom
are flavouring extracts prescribed by herbalists as singles (a preparation which utilizes only one herb). Commonly herbalists mix a variety of healthful
plants to do a mixture, which addresses more than simply the major symptoms.
In Chinese medicine for example there is a strict order of hierarchy in any flavouring prescription, which requires extended depth of noesis and experience on the physicians part. The fact that the primary or principle herb has active ingredients, which has a specific physiological effect, does not mean the different herbs are not necessary in the preparation. This is a fact on the face of it unheeded by the pharmaceutical industry in its need to manufacture new drugs that can control disease.
Knowing that healthful
plants are so effective, that these plants possibly
hold the key to many a diseases, are affordable and have established their worth time and time once more over millennia, why is it that flavouring medicine is still not in the forefront of medical treatments, and is considered by many a orthodox medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies as hocus-pocus…. hmmm.
Just about the Author
Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his adult female Susan, a medical healer and aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Flavouring Products to share their 40 years of combined skillfulness
with you.
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