| The eminent pharmacognocist Varro Tyler liked to point out that a great percentage of conventional modern medicines actually come from plants, and he argued convincingly that "rational herbal medicine is conventional medicine" (Robbers and Tyler, p. 15). In other words, while many people consider herbs to be alternative medicine, they really are quite conventional when you examine history and current practice. Tyler also identified ten criteria that are characteristic of what he called "paraherbalism," which he considered a pseudo-science. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 However, this list can be helpful when you consult other works on herbal medicine. abortifacient A plant that causes miscarriage or expulsion of the fetus. It is important that a pregnant woman avoid this type of plant. An example is the herb pennyroyal. adaptogen Helps the body adapt to stress, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional. It is often referred to as a "tonic." It supports energy levels. Many adaptogen herbs work in part by supporting adrenal gland function. Ginseng is a classic example. |
| Under the neurotransmitter theory, Western expected to complete a five-year scientists postulate that these needles inhibit spinal cord nerve cells COurse which includes two and release beta-endorphins and other substances that deaden pain and years of herbal medicine In the relieve patients. Wes^ an acupuncturist shou|d
Acupuncture, they theorize, also helps to stimulate anti-inflamma- have comp,eted at ,east a three. tory cell activity, increase skin temperature, and stimulate the flow of blood. year course. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Aside from all of this, the FDA also has a rather lengthy history of suppressing alternative medicines such as herbal medicine, nutritional supplements, vitamins, homeopathy and other modalities that are not under the control of the pharmaceutical industry. This is something that has not received much public attention, but which may receive attention in the years ahead as the true criminal behavior of the FDA begins to unravel and be made public. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 This is an agency that has attempted again and again to discredit Chinese medicine, nutritional supplements, herbal medicine and anything that would compete with prescription drugs. It has sought to outlaw these natural substances and herbs that have been proven healers for literally 2,000 years in the history of medicine. This is the FDA that has put drug profits first, and public safety last, time and time again.
This is the agency that rigs its own safety panels. "Oh, is there a dangerous drug out there? Let's have a panel and a hearing. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 I can't tell you how many people I've talked to -- clinicians, people trained in herbal medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, or even those trained in Western medicine -- who are doing some advanced research on cancer. They've cured cancer, or more accurately, they've helped patients cure their own cancers, because cancer is a disease that is actually quite easy to beat, especially if it's caught in the early stages.
This is not a difficult disease to eliminate, but in modern medicine they try to make it complicated. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Why doesn't everyone choose the path of health, longevity, and being happy and healthy through nutrition, herbal medicine, and natural health? Because it requires taking responsibility for your outcome. It seems so much easier to sit back on the couch, avoid exercise, eat junk foods, and blame somebody else for your health problems. You then go to the doctor and blame them when you don't get healthy. I think it's so ridiculous.
People need to take responsibility for their health. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| This rebirth of herbal medicine, especially in developed countries, is largely based on renewed interest by the public and scientific researchers. During the last 20 to 30 years, there has been an explosion of scientific information concerning plants, crude plant extracts, and various substances from plants as medicinal agents. This research has lead to increased marketing and consumption of herbal remedies.
Plants play a major role in modern pharmaceuticals. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 And you know, a lot of herbal medicine is used in an allopathic mindset.
Dr. Duncan: Yes.
Mike:For example, if someone has inflammation, they shouldn't use Vioxx. Instead, they should use this herb. But that still misses the point, doesn't it?
Dr. Duncan: You are very wise, my friend. Your statements and your knowledge and your understanding are very deep. I say to people when I speak and when I do appearances on CNN and ABC and CBS and NBC news, "Depression is not a deficiency of Prozac". Depression is also not a deficiency of St John's Wort.
Mike:Exactly.
Dr. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Patients should be taught to use herbal medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic care, nutritional supplements and naturopathic advice in conjunction with their own good decisions about health. That's where herbs are truly powerful and can, indeed, help a person overcome practically any disease: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, you name it.
Similarly, acupuncture is much more than just something to stop nausea after chemotherapy (a role to which organized medicine would love to relegate the therapy). |
Mike Adams
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 In the world of herbal medicine, there are a great many herbs that are available now for male impotence or male sex function. The author I recommend on this is Chris Kilham—also known as the Medicine Hunter—and author of the book Hot Plants. Check out his book if you want to know what exotic herbs he has discovered from around the world that boost male performance.
He also has products available in the marketplace—some supplements specifically designed for this purpose. Look for them in health food stores. Enzymatic Therapy manufactures them, and they say "Hot Plants" right on the labels. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 But no, it's going to focus on headlines that tout the dangers of a few dozen Ayurvedic herbal medicine products found on some niche product shelf imported from Pakistan. That's how the FDA is trying to convince the American public that it's doing its job. Meanwhile it ignores the high-priority dangers in our foods and medicines that are killing people right now.
Actually, it's worse than that: the FDA intimidated and threatened its own drug safety scientist, Dr. |
Mike Adams
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| Under a system of health freedom, we would be able to choose natural treatments, including Ayurvedic medicine, Western herbal medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body medicine, energy medicine, or any other system of medicine that we believed would be helpful to us.
The Codex threat
After all, isn't it up to each individual in society to make their own decisions about what they eat, what activities they engage in, and how they wish to plan their own future? |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 Every Native American nation has its own herbal medicine tradition based on the plants growing in the geographic area where it lives. Common among all Native American cultures is the spirituality attached to the gathering and use of herbs, and many peoples use the same herbs both medicinally and ceremonially. For the Navajos, for example, herbalism is a complex and specialized religion, in which the Navajo healer serves as both doctor and priest. Before plants are collected, prayers and offerings are made to the earth and the plant spirit. |
Leslie Taylor, ND
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 In Peruvian herbal medicine, the frond and rhizome are used for hair loss, gallstones, hepatic calculi, hydrophobia, asthma, coughs, catarrh, and to regulate menstruation. In India, the entire plant is used for its cooling effects, for diabetes, colds, bronchial disease, and for its menstrual-promoting properties. Externally it is used for boils, eczema, and wounds.
PLANT CHEMICALS
Chemical analysis of avenca reveals an array of compounds including triter-penes, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, and carotenoids. |
| Finally, those plants whose actions/properties have been recorded just by their documented use in herbal medicine are listed in column 5; these plants are also listed alphabetically.
This information has been compiled and provided as a quick-reference guide to what has been actually documented on the plants. It is not intended to make specific medical claims for them. |
The Editors of FC&A
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| One of the world's leading voices in herbal medicine, the German Commission E, touts this exotic spice as a cure for indigestion. Turmeric seems to prompt your liver to pump out more bile, an essential digestive fluid. If you don't have enough bile, you'll feel dyspeptic — bloated and sick to your stomach — after a normal-sized meal.
You can get more turmeric in your diet by eating curry dishes because it's a key ingredient. But you can also find the pure spice in your grocery store. Try sprinkling a half tablespoon on your food every day to help avoid that bloated, uncomfortable feeling. |
Leslie Taylor, ND
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| The table also differentiates whether the actions/properties have been documented through research or only through traditional use in herbal medicine. Those plants whose specific actions/properties have been documented through clinical research and/or laboratory studies are listed in column 4; these plants are listed alphabetically. Please remember that actions of the plants listed in this column may have been documented by a laboratory experiment, a test tube study, or preliminary animal research and not a human clinical study or medical trial. |
| Rainforest plants having the specific property/action, as documented in this book and by hundreds of third-party documents, clinical studies, laboratory experiments, and/or herbal medicine books published in other countries, are then listed. Since many actions and properties can be attributed to the same plant (and many plants can have the same documented action), it can get confusing to the average person, and even to the professional, as to which plant to first turn for a particular action or property. |
| In herbal medicine in the United States and Europe, very little distinction is made between the two species of trees; they are used identically and just called quassia. The name amargo means "bitter" in Spanish and describes its very bitter taste.
In the Amazon rainforest, amargo is used much in the same manner as quinine bark: for malaria and fevers and as a bitter digestive aid. It grows at lower elevations (where quinine does not) and contains many of the same antimalarial phytochemicals (plant chemicals) as quinine. In addition, it is used as an insecticide and tonic, and for hepatitis. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 On top of that, our public health infrastructure is already in shambles, thanks to a continuing state of oppression of herbal medicine, shocking nutritional illiteracy throughout the medical community, and the fact that more than 40% of working Americans have no health insurance.
To make matters even worse, the White House isn't talking about one of the most obvious problems with the whole "public health" approach to surviving bird flu: its the doctors and medical personnel who will be infected first. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Traditional herbal medicine continues to regard the plant as a useful anti-inflammatory agent for the respiratory tract, the skin, and the gastrointestinal tract.1 The esteemed German physician and herbal authority, Rudolf Weiss, MD, recommended mallow primarily for irritations of the mouth and throat, as well as for dry, irritating coughs.2 He also mentions its use topically for mild cases of eczema (page 177).
Active constituents
Like its close relative marshmallow (page 708) (Althea officinalis), mallow leaves and flowers contain high amounts of mucilage. |
| Buchu (page 645) leaf preparations have a history of use in traditional herbal medicine as a urinary tract disinfectant and diuretic.23 However, the German Commission E monograph on buchu concludes that insufficient evidence supports the modern use of buchu for the treatment of UTIs or inflammation.24
The volatile oil of horseradish (page 693) has been shown to kill bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections.25 The concentration that is required to kill these bacteria can be attained in human urine after oral ingestion of the oil. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 These healers are using herbal medicine with over 2,500 years of proven clinical use and millions of hours of clinical experience. I'm talking about traditional Chinese medicine, Western herbs, Ayurvedic medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, homeopathy and other modalities in the alternative medicine realm. Organized medicine says "Those aren't proven -- only our stuff is proven. Your stuff is not proven." But of course, all their stuff is the circular reasoning I was talking about. They dismiss everything outside of the corrupt system that generates profits for them. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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| It is still used by herbalists and some physicians trained in herbal medicine as a diaphoretic (promotes sweating), and for lung infections and conditions of the pleura that lines the lungs.4
How much is usually taken?
A pleurisy root tea can be made by lightly simmering one teaspoon of the dried, chopped root in one pint of water for 10 to 15 minutes. One cup of this tea can be drunk twice per day.5 Alternately, 1 to 2 ml of tincture of the fresh root can be used three times per day.6
Are there any side effects or interactions? |
| The root and leaves of nettle are used in herbal medicine.
Nettle has been used in connection with the following conditions (refer to the individual health concern for complete information):
Rating Health Concerns
þ ? Benign prostatic hyperplasia (page 58)
(root extract) Osteoarthritis (page 328)
þftft Hay fever (page 211)
Pregnancy and postpartum support
(page 363)
Rheumatoid arthritis (page 387) Urinary tract infection (page 436)
Historical or traditional use (may or may not be supported by scientific studies)
Nettle has a long history of use. |
| Motherwort has been used in connection with the following conditions (refer to the individual health concern for complete information):
Rating Health Concerns
•kitit Amenorrhea (page 22) (lack of menses) Anxiety (page 30) Menopause (page 311)
Historical or traditional use (may or may not be supported by scientific studies)
The use of motherwort is practically the same in European folk medicine and traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It was widely used to regulate menses and to treat associated conditions. |
Michael Friedman, ND
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 Chasteberry has a long history in European herbal medicine as a treatment for PMS. In a one study of Vitex versus the antidepressant Prozac, it was found that Vitex was more beneficial for the physical complaints of PMS, whereas Prozac proved more beneficial for the psychological symptoms. Improvements from Vitex are usually noted within two menstrual cycles.
Milk Thisde (Silybum marianum): This herb aids liver cytochrome P450 detoxification of estrogens.
Cramp Bark (Viburnum opulus): Cramp bark alleviates menstrual cramping acutely. |
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