Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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 Leung in his informative book, Chinese herbal remedies (New York: Phaidon Universe, 1984).
After hundreds of research reports, however, scientists still do not understand exactly what ginseng does in the body. According to a celebrated Russian theory, ginseng is not so much a medicine as an "adaptogen," i.e., a substance that brings the organism into equilibrium. Thus, ginseng might increase the blood pressure of someone with low blood pressure, while decreasing it in people with hypertension. The adaptogen theory is based on many scientific observations over decades. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 1Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Dr Goodenough's Home Cures & herbal remedies. Crown. 1982 Green H. Fit for America: health, fitness, sport & American society.
NY: Pantheon Books. 1986 Griggs B. Green pharmacy. London, UK: Jill, Norman & Hobhouse.
1981
Haller J. American medicine in transition, 1850-1910. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. 1981
Inglis B, West R. Alternative health guide. New York, NY: Knopf. 1983 Kruger H. Other healers, other cures: a guide to alternative medicine.
NY: Bobbs-Merrill. 1974. Ludmerer K. Learning to heal. NY: Basic Books. 1985 Manger LN. A history of medicine. NY: Marcel Dekker. |
| The Thomsonian and Eclectic movements
During the early 1800s, standard medicine may have been ready to reconsider traditional herbal remedies, but then came the Thomsonian movement. Samuel Thomson (1769-1843) patented a system of herbal medicine that, in 1839, claimed over 3,000,000 faithful followers. Although Thomson brought back to medicine the vitalistic Hippocratic idea of vis medicatrix naturae and gained widespread public support for the use of herbal medicine, the Thomsonian movement was probably detrimental to medical reform. |
| Disturbing sources of arsenic, and other heavy metals, are a few contaminated, or adulterated, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbal remedies. In one study, imported traditional Chinese herbal balls used for fever, rheumatism, apoplexy and cataracts showed an arsenic level of 0.1-36.6 mg/ball. The recommended dose of two herbal balls daily could theoretically provide a daily dose of 73 mg of arsenic.28
Barium
The insoluble form of this element, barium sulphate, is used as an X-ray contrast medium and is non-problematic. |
| Her repertoire included herbal remedies such as clary, hyssop, lily, ergot, belladonna and digitalis - many still used by naturopathic physicians today. Codified in the written works of Hildegarde of Bingen and Trotula of Italy, her approach was scientific according to today's standards. Even established medicine referred to these works for centuries.8
The approach of medical doctors, deeply anti-empirical with no concern for the material world and empirical observation, was more consistent with church doctrine. |
| Today in Germany, the nature care movement in herbal remedies tradition has matured into a well-established health care practice, with about 5,000 professionals throughout the country. ...
One Kneipp practitioner, Benedict Lust, emigrated to America to begin teaching and practicing naturopathy here. By 1902, he had founded the American School of Naturopathy in New York City.
The practice quickly spread across the United States (California was the first State to pass a law regulating natural medicine, in 1919.)
Numerous schools offering a variety of training cropped up and disappeared. |
Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D.
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 Chinese Herbs
The Chinese have dozens of tried and true herbal remedies called "patent medicines" that they have used for thousands of years. These are just starting to catch on in the United States. They are available at many health food stores and herb shops. There are two that work
SHOULD YOU GET A FLU SHOT?
Every fall Americans are put through the annual flu season vaccination ritual. The ritual goes like this: You go to your physician, he or she tells you that the flu can be deadly and that a flu shot will prevent it. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
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 Fennel is used for culinary purposes, and the roots and seeds are used as herbal remedies. The seeds, which have a licorice-like taste, are used to flavor candies, pickles, breads, liqueurs, vinegars and pastries. Finocchio is used as a vegetable, often in salads.
The list of therapeutic claims for fennel is very long—without clinical evidence for almost any of them. Fennel seeds may help expel excess gas from the body. Fennel oil has been found to cause a number of adverse effects, including respiratory problems, water on the lungs (pulmonary edema), seizures and hallucinations. |
Elson M. Haas, M.D.
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 Nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, and homeopathic medicines are commonplace substitutes for drugs; when used correctiy, they support our body's natural healing powers and correct the internal organ/function/energy imbalances. Acupuncture is also helpful in this regard, as is chiropractic therapy. Massage and other body mechanics can be supportive both by allowing the body to heal naturally and by stimulating elimination during detoxification periods.
OTC products, more easily abused than pharmaceuticals because they can be readily obtained, are usually less toxic. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
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| Most health food stores now carry a multitude of herbal products, and herbal remedies are increasingly being used by alternate health practitioners, including acupuncturists, naturopaths and chiropractors. Colleges teaching herbal medicine are more prominent and magazines discussing herbs, as well as advertising them, are being seen more frequently on the newsstands. In fact, there have been some very positive articles on herbs in conservative newspapers and medical journals. And it is no longer just a handful of familiar herbs that is being discussed. |
Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D.
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 In many cases, some tried and true herbal remedies are potent fungus fighters.
Vitamins
Biotin—Biotin, also called enzyme R or vitamin H, is a member of the B-complex family. It is a water-soluble vitamin, which can be synthesized in the intestines and also can be derived from food. Biotin is necessary for the normal metabolism of fat and protein and for the absorption of vitamin C. This vitamin works with vitamins A, B2, B6, and niacin to maintain healthy skin and nails.
A recent Swiss study involved forty-four patients with thin, brittle nails. Out of thirty-five people who took 300 meg. |
| Other herbal remedies for upset stomach and nausea are ginger-root ea, peppermint tea, and cinnamon.
Vitamins
'itamin B-complex with B6 can aid in digestion (B vitamins help to letabolize protein and fat) and there is anecdotal evidence that it can elieve chronic nausea.
Personal Advice
If you suffer from morning sickness during pregnancy, try starting your day with a strong cup of peppermint tea. If your symptoms are very severe, two ginger capsules may do the trick. (Check with your physician or natural healer before taking any medication during pregnancy. |
| My advice is to try it and see if it can work for you in combination with other herbal remedies such as white willow.
Personal Advice
First, remember pain is an exquisitely designed warning system to let us know when we are in trouble. If you suffer from pain, see your physician or natural healer to find out the cause.
Other noninvasive methods of treating pain include biofeedback, acupuncture, and meditation. Nonstressful exercise such as yoga, tai chi, and swimming can help control pain especially for pain associated with arthritis, backache, and other chronic conditions. |
| It also shows, lowever, that herbal remedies such as ginkgo can help the body to heal tself.
Vitamins
/itamin B6—This vitamin is a natural diuretic (which can help to dry ip the excess fluid in the ear canal) as well as a antinauseant.
Personal Advice
¦or thousands of years, the Chinese have been using acupuncture to uccessfully treat vertigo caused by an imbalance of ear fluid. Acupunc-ure works by increasing blood flow to the ear. If you are being made niserable by this problem, ask your physician or natural healer about icupuncture.
Earl's Rx
Ginkgo biloba: One 60 mg. |
Marion Nestle
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 As interest in this field has grown, studies have begun to demonstrate—albeit modest—benefits for some traditional herbal remedies. Small improvements, for example, have been observed in studies of saw palmetto for prostate problems and taking feverfew for migraine headaches.20 In some cases, as might be expected, studies funded by companies that make the products tend to show benefits for the supplement, whereas independent studies find no such benefits; studies of ginkgo biloba for memory loss in the elderly are a prime example of such research inconsistencies. |
| Many herbal remedies are known to produce allergic reactions, toxic reactions, mutagenic effects, and drug interactions, and because most such problems are unsuspected and underreported, our recongition of the harm that such supplements may cause surely reflects just the "tip of the iceberg."47
The supplement industry's effectiveness can be explained in part by a political environment that has increasingly favored a government that is smaller, less intrusive, and less responsible for the welfare of individuals. |
Robyn Landis
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 You'll hear about some of the experiences shared by thousands of people whom Karta Purkh has observed over more than two decades—people just like you who have prevented, soothed, or cured common conditions using simple, inexpensive herbal remedies. And you will learn how you can share those experiences.
You'll meet people just like you who tried every typical conventional treatment for aggravating, chronic health conditions—until herbs eliminated the source of the issue along with the symptoms. |
| Some of these women have had PMS for twenty or thirty years, and the very first month they try herbal remedies, they find their symptoms can be completely controlled— safely and easily.
Feeling Better Premenstrually
This is our standard disclaimer, but even before you consider using herbs to treat these symptoms, take a hard look at your lifestyle and how it may be influencing your condition. In the case of PMS, countless women have found relief simply by eating a high-complex-carbohydrate, low-fat diet; eliminating sugar and caffeine; and exercising regularly. |
| When health-care practitioners dispensed all of their "medicines" from their own "pharmacies" of herbal remedies, they maintained a complete selection of all major preparations in many forms for the needs of people at different ages. Since everyone stopped making natural remedies for kids for the period of time that herbal medicine was languishing in the United States, herbal medicines are often difficult to find in the forms that are best suited for children. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 1Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Over centuries, women developed and utilized herbal remedies, poultices, diet therapies, water treatments, and techniques for bone setting and the suturing of wounds. Their methods were passed down to form not only the basis of naturopathic medicine, but also much of what is allopathic medicine.
Women have always been at the forefront in providing humane health care, from the venerated women healers of ancient Greece, to the persecuted medieval women lay healers, to the pioneering women of North America. |
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
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| Not all herbal remedies can be used in combination with conventional pharmaceuticals.
What makes it worse?
• Food sensitivities—especially to the foods from plants in the nightshade family that contain the chemical solanine—can produce severe arthritic joint pain. These plants include white potatoes, tomatoes, all peppers except black pepper, eggplant, and tobacco. And although the nightshades are common offenders, you could just as easily become sensitive to the particular chemicals found in any food. |
Michael Lerner
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 The Promise of Juzentaihoto
Juzentaihoto, or JT-48 or JTT, which is spelled and labeled variously in different translations, appears to be one of the most thoroughly studied and promising of Chinese herbal remedies. Its traditional use was in anemia, anorexia, and extreme exhaustion and fatigue. Researchers now suggest it "may now provide new advantages with little toxicity in combination with chemotherapy or radiation therapy [as well as] preventing leukemia in cancer patients who take antitumor agents. |
| Fortunately, a respected scientific literature is available on laboratory tests of the anticancer effects of herbal remedies that patients, physicians, and researchers can consult. However, there are few rigorous studies for most of these remedies as actual treatments for human cancer. This category of herbal approaches overlaps significantly with the pharmacological category above. |
| They also often use specific herbal remedies, which in in vitro research tests have been found to have anticancer effects.
Pharmacological Approaches
A vast range of pharmacological approaches to cancer includes pharmacological use of nutritional supplementation, herbs, and hundreds of other unconventional pharmaceutical agents, new and old. Laetrile, vitamin C, the mistletoe extract Iscador, and hydrazine sulfate are examples of a few of these pharmacological treatments. Pharmacological approaches are among the most common unconventional cancer treatments. |
| Traditional Chinese medicine, whose practitioners offer a combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbal remedies as an adjunctive approach to treating cancer and, significantly, alleviating side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
5. The group of "great men and women" who offer unique and often closed or partially closed pharmacological therapies for cancer. This group includes Emanuel Revici in New York, Stanislaw Burzyn-ski in Texas, the late Virginia Livingston in San Diego, the late Lawrence Burton in the Bahamas, and Gaston Naessens in Canada.
6. |
| As you read the often astonishing claims for the herbal remedies, keep in mind two thoughts: first, clinical trials in China are frequently not randomized controlled clinical trials. And even when they are, the methodology is often suspect by Western scientific standards. So the human trials reported below should be seen as suggestive and intriguing but by no means definitive. |
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
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| Using herbal remedies can have negative effects during surgery. Experts in the medical field recommend patients to stop taking herbs at least two to three weeks prior to scheduled surgery. Doctors say certain herbs may have dangerous interactions with drugs used to anesthetize patients during surgery, such as problems with blood pressure and bleeding. treat arthritis, headache, toothache, muscle pain, rheumatic complaints, gout, and sciatica. Sore throat pain can be relieved with a gargle made from wintergreen. The cool, soothing flavor works wonders. |
| For each entry, I have given you a brief synopsis of facts about the condition or symptom and then followed that with information about which vitamins, minerals, and herbal remedies help (or may help) the condition and which, if any, may worsen it. You will notice that most of these entries list several vitamins or minerals that current medical research studies, the professional and lay literature, or my own clinical practice experiences have proven beneficial. |
Elson M. Haas, M.D.
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| It is usually best to take vitamin and mineral supplements after meals, as they are naturally part of foods and are best tolerated and utilized in this way. herbal remedies are often taken between meals to assist their medicinal activities; however, if they are not tolerated well, they can also be taken after meals. Vitamin C can be taken following meals if it is used only a couple of times per day, as it can help the absorption of many minerals, especially when taken as ascorbic acid. Usually some of the vitamin C we take should contain the bioflavonoids, which are also important nutrients. |
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
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| Be sure to let your physician know of your decision to use herbs; not all herbal remedies are useful or safe when used in conjunction with conventional pharmaceuticals.
What makes it worse?
• Diets composed primarily of whole cereal grains and green vegetables can interfere with adequate absorption of zinc, creating deficiency, and weakening your immune function.
• Diets inadequate in regular intake of complete protein can also increase susceptibility to infections. |
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