Michael T. Murray, N.D.
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 It provides a comprehensive overview of the history and use of herbal medicine. It cites extensive research on the safety and effectiveness of herbs for most of today's illnesses. It lists herbs that can be used to treat dozens of self-limiting, self-diagnosable health complaints. The interested reader can easily find chapters on the appropriate herbal treatments for arthritis, colds, flu, cough, allergies, and many other minor but annoying conditions.
In addition, Dr. Murray cites references to the scientific studies conducted worldwide. |
Jean Carper
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 Around twenty human studies credit the herbal medicine with as much as a 90 percent success rate in treating enlarged prostate. That's more cure power than pharmaceutical drugs and surgery can boast. Some studies were short-term and did not account for a placebo effect. But of seven well-conducted (double-blind placebo) studies on saw palmetto extract, six deemed the plant superior to a dummy pill after one to three months of use. |
Michael T. Murray, N.D.
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| The Black Plague and syphilis
Although Galenic medicine dominated the Middle Ages, herbal medicine was still deeply entrenched in European culture. The Black Plague of 1348 a.d. may have marked the beginning of a change in medical thought, as conventional medicine proved itself totally useless in this crisis. As nearly one-third of Europe died as a result of this plague, the public began to lose faith in Galenic medicine.
Nearly 150 years later another blow was dealt to Galenic medicine, when syphilis became a major medical problem. |
| The rebirth of herbal medicine, especially in developed countries, is largely based on the renewed interest of scientific researchers. During the last 10 to 20 years their efforts have yielded an explosion of scientific information concerning plants, crude plant extracts, and various substances from plants as medicinal agents.
The role of herbs in medicine: American versus European policies
For the past 25 years about 25 percent of all prescription drugs in the United States have contained active constituents obtained from plants. |
Linda B. White, M.D.
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 And consumers are not the only ones increasingly interested in herbal medicine. Many of today's physicians and medical students are using herbs as well, with good results. Not long ago, only a handful of medical schools even broached the subject of alternative therapies. Today, at least 75 medical schools offer courses in various alternative healing techniques. |
| The alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, yoga, and meditation, were still in their infancy in this country, while herbal medicine was at the dawn of a renaissance after decades of neglect.
I felt open to medical alternatives, thanks in part to my grandmother, who was a big believer in the folk medicine of her native Ukraine. I learned to meditate, and enjoyed it. But professionally, I focused pretty much on mainstream medicine: heart bypass surgery, organ transplantation, and new drugs. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 Mowrey, The Scientific Validation of herbal medicine, New Canaan, CT, Keats
Publishing, 1986, p. 108.
¦ BLACK WALNUT
Cancer
This study examined antitumor activities of compounds present in Juglans nigra (black walnut) in mice with spontaneous and/or transplanted tumors. |
the Editors of PREVENTION
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 But there are times when herbal medicine alone is not adequate."
The Case for Herbs
The increasing popularity of integrative medicine logically implies a growing acceptance of herbs by conventional physicians. Indeed, in European countries such as France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, natural remedies are regularly prescribed by M.D.'s. Germany has taken the global lead in modern scientific research on herbs. |
Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.
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 One example of this comes from Asian herbal medicine. The most celebrated Eastern medicinal tonic, ginseng, is considered an adaptogen. Ginseng is believed to endow those who use it with greater ability to adapt to life's changes, rather than to rigidly resist them, and then become stressed by them.
This Eastern interpretation of ginseng's value is paralleled by the Western view. According to Western nutritionists, ginseng is a powerful adrenal tonic—and your adrenals, of course, are vitally important in enabling you to respond to stressful change in a positive way. |
Jean Carper
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| Sometimes lowering the dose slightly to let your body adapt to the herbal medicine makes side effects disappear.
Some doctors warn hypericum users to stay out of the sun, because of "photosensitive" poisoning or skin reactions. That has happened in light-skinned animals grazing on St. John's wort, but it would take about thirty to seventy times the recommended antidepressant doses to cause such problems in humans, studies indicate. The extensive use of the herbal remedy in Germany has not produced evidence of short-term or long-term toxicity at recommended therapeutic doses. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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 For practitioners, mastering the components of traditional Chinese medicine, such as herbal medicine, requires many years of study and practice. As when evaluating the background of any health-care provider, you should determine the length of training and time in practice of a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner.
Homeopathy and mainstream medicine approach illness from opposite ends of the problem. Homeopathy starts with the study of cures, while mainstream medicine begins with the study of disease. |
Rudolph M. Ballentine, M.D.
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 Traditional Chinese Medicine
Asian Health Secrets: The Complete Guide to Asian herbal medicine, Letha Hadady, D.Ac., Crown, New York, 1996. A substantial and practical guide to using available patent Chinese and other common remedies for the garden-variety problems of daily life: depression, overweight, PMS, etc. Hadady ventures into the realm of integration by juxtaposing Chinese and Tibetan (which is basically Ayurvedic) approaches to diagnosis. A hands-on, user-friendly book.
Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine, Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac., and Efrem Korngold, O.M.D. |
| An inspiring attempt to integrate the four major herbal medicine traditions of the world: Ayurvedic, Chinese, European, and Native American. Though one would need some passing knowledge of each of these systems to be able to use this book to greatest advantage, it remains unique and stimulating.
American Medicinal Plants, Charles F. Millspaugh, Dover, N.Y., 1974. Originally published in the nineteenth century, this is the classic Materia
Medica of American plants used in homeopathy. The line drawings are beautiful and helpful for plant identification. |
| This is in contrast to herbal medicine, where researchers can feel comfortable with the idea that it might work if they can identify the "active ingredient" and understand its action the way they understand a drug. But there's no way you can stuff homeopathy into a materialistic paradigm. It won't fit, and the dyed-in-the-wool materialist can only insist stubbornly that it can't work. |
Bill Gottlieb
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 The techniques they use in their practices include (but are not limited to) nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and many types of physical therapies.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Naturopathic physicians believe that the body is a self-regulating mechanism that has the natural ability to maintain a state of homeostasis, or balance. When people are ill, naturopaths attempt to restore or enhance homeostasis. They do this by supplying the body with what it needs for optimal functioning, such as dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and other natural medicines. |
| These techniques include dietary therapy, acupuncture (insertion of sterile needles into specific points on the body in order to control the flow of chi, or life-energy), moxibustion (burning an herb, called moxa, over acupuncture and other points), herbal medicine, and qigong (a combination of exercise and meditation).
Each technique that's used in TCM is meant to balance various systems in the body, mind, and spirit. These systems include chi, shen (spirit), the 12 organ systems, and the meridians, or channels of energy that connect the organ systems.
WHAT CAN IT DO FOR YOU? |
| A cream works better than other healing mediums, says Fischer, because it lets the herbal medicine stay next to the wound.
Here are her step-by-step directions for making your own Boo-Boo Cream. Apply it three or four times a day or as needed for minor irritation and abrasions.
1. Combine equal parts of dried com-frey root, calendula flower, and plantain.
2. Grind the herbs in a clean coffee grinder. (Fischer recommends that you invest in a coffee grinder that you can dedicate to grinding herbs.)
3. Pour the mixture into a jar.
4. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Aromatherapists sometimes combine knowledge of aromatherapy with other forms of alternative practice, such as traditional Chinese healing or herbal medicine.
What Practitioners Say It Does
Aromatherapy has three main functions. The first is stress reduction, which is achieved primarily through the personal use of aromatic oils in one's workplace or home, or by combining aromatherapy with other stress reduction activities, such as soaking in a hot bath treated with scented oil or receiving a massage accompanied by aromatherapy.
The second function is preventive. |
Bill Gottlieb
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| Oriental medicine and specialist in herbal medicine in Beverly Hills. And, he says, some of the most powerful alternative methods are from the ancient healing system of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
Using TCM to Enhance Fertility
The first and most important step is to restore general health to the man and woman through a dietary regimen, herbal decoctions, and acupuncture. Even if you and your spouse can't see a TCM practitioner to help boost your fertility by restoring health, though, the following home remedies can be extremely helpful. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Chinese herbal medicine A mainstay of the 3,000-year-old Chinese system of comprehensive health and healing. Thousands of different herbs are used to treat specific complaints. chiropractic The largest nonsurgical and drug-less system of healing in the West. Chiropractic assumes that a smooth flow of nerve impulses from the brain to all parts of the body through the spinal column is necessary for maintaining homeostasis or equilibrium among different parts of the body, and thus good health. |
Rudolph M. Ballentine, M.D.
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| Each of the great schools of herbal medicine, for example, has focused on a specific type of remedy. Ayurvedic medicine excels in the area of rejuvenatives, such as ashwagandha and chavanprash, while Chinese medicine is especially rich in adaptogens and remedies that tonify such as ginseng, astragalus, and fo ti.25 As a result, these Eastern traditions offer a wealth of herbs for maintaining strength and vitality even into the later years of life. |
| The Native American tradition, though much of it is lost, may be our best way of gaining a sense of the sacred in herbal medicine, because of its vision of a living Earth and its reverent partnership with other life forms.
The perception of the plant as sacred and as possessing spiritual power is, I think, the special offering of the Native American herbalism to us, just as the modern European school elucidates the physiology of herbs and Chinese herbology teaches us the relationship of specific plants to organ complexes. |
| They teach a spectrum of holistic traditions: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathy, nutrition, as well as herbal medicine. They are, we might imagine, the Eclectic medical schools reincarnated.
This reappearance of schools of natural medicine and, indeed, the larger holistic movement of which they are only a small part, suggest that we are witnessing another resurgence of the deep human need to recover our relationship with the healing power of nature. |
Stephanie Beling
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 The maitake is indigenous to northern Japan, where it has long been a staple of traditional herbal medicine. Its name means "dancing mushroom"—a reference to the joyful reaction of people who found it in the woods. During Japan's feudal era, maitakes could be exchanged for their weight in silver, and they remain today a valuable and costly mushroom.
Their true value, as demonstrated in recent laboratory research in Japan, is that "of all mushrooms studied, maitake has the strongest activity in tumor growth inhibition,"* as one study put it. |
Gale Maleskey
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 When you step inside the doors of Herbalist and Alchemist, an herbal medicine manufacturer in Washington, Hew Jersey, the complexity of the operation is immediately apparent. In the factory, which employs 13 people, technicians make herbal tinctures in a processing room that's the picture of scrupulous hygiene. People wear gowns, goggles, hair and beard nets, and rubber gloves. Some have respirators. |
| When you're having an attack, you can calm your aching colon by taking peppermint oil extract, an herbal medicine long used for digestive problems, says Dr. Hecht. To decrease the severity of your IBS symptoms, you can take it every day.
Peppermint oil extract relaxes the smooth muscles that line the intestines and other internal organs. The herb calms overactive peristalsis, the muscular contraction that moves food through the gastrointestinal tract, and relieves cramping. It also helps you belch and relieve gas buildup, according to Dr. Hecht. |
| If you find that you're experiencing irritability, nervousness, or insomnia at higher doses, cut back by at least half until you don't experience any side effects, then gradually work back up over a few weeks, she says.
An herbal medicine Chest
Two other medicinal herbs that can inhibit outbreaks of the herpesvirus are echinacea and licorice.
Echinacea is a potent antiviral and antibacterial herb that strengthens your immune system by stimulating white blood cell production. |
| You should consult a qualified practitioner of herbal medicine before using herbs during pregnancy," she says. is born with spina bifida, a condition that can cause paralysis of the lower body because the vertebrae don't join properly to protect the spinal cord.
Nearly 30 years after the first studies, neural tube defects still affected more than 4,000 babies born in the United States every year. We now know the cause, however, and have learned that many of these birth defects can be prevented. Studies have shown that getting adequate amounts of folic acid can protect infants. |
Bill Gottlieb
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| Chinese herbal medicine utilizes thousands of herbs. Using the correct herbal prescriptions, which usually consist of customized formulas combining multiple herbs, requires getting an accurate diagnosis. And since these herbs, just like the drugs of Western medicine, have many limitations and possible side effects, TCM practitioners advise using them only with the supervision and approval of a trained practitioner.
Visualization
WHAT IS IT?
Imagine being on a beach, feeling the warm sun shining on your skin, hearing the slap of the waves, and smelling the salty tang of the breeze. |
Dr. Gary Null
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 Mowrey, The Scientific Validation of herbal medicine (New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing, 1986): 280.
Malabar tamarind is a natural food containing hydroxycitric acid, which substance, in animal studies, reduced food consumption. The fruit has been used for centuries in Asian countries with no harmful effect; sprinkled on food it makes meals more filling and satisfying.
W. Sergio, "A Natural Food, the Malabar Tamarind, May Be Effective in the Treatment of Obesity," Medical Hypotheses 27 (1988): 39-40. |
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