Glenn W. Geelhoed, M.D. and Jean Barilla, M.S.
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 We know how difficult it can be to find out how to prepare many herbal remedies, and unless you have a friendly neighborhood herbalist to consult, you've probably been confused, too. The thing is, most of these preparations are pretty easy to make and can be concocted using tools you probably already have handy in your kitchen. Let's take a look and learn how to do it!
Poultice
Though it sounds like something exotic, a "poultice" is simply a mash of herbs applied to the body. |
Doris J. Rapp, M.D.
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 Some EM specialists suggest herbal or single or mixed homeopathic preparations routinely to treat chemical sensitivities. Some of the companies who sell these remedies have studies to help document the effectiveness of their preparations. You can check for their claims and research on their web sites. See detailed information in Appendix D.4 for suggested homeopathic remedies for illnesses related to chemicals, as well as for ADHD, allergies, infection, heavy metals, immunity and diseases in various organs. |
Kathi Keville
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 If your doctor has prescribed any type of heart medication, do not take it upon yourself to add herbal remedies to your regimen without consulting your doctor. Combining herbs with drugs can be tricky business, and the results can be disastrous. For example, hawthorn, a popular herbal heart tonic, can make you more sensitive to the potent prescription heart medication digitalis (which, by the way, is derived from the poisonous herb foxglove), slowing your heart's rate and increasing the force of its contractions. |
Jean Carper
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 Licorice, a member of the legume family, reportedly made its medical debut 5,000 years ago in China, being included in a compilation of herbal remedies called the Pen Tsao Ching.
Since then it has been used medicinally in ancient Egypt, in Greece, and in Europe in the Middle Ages and until the present day, mainly as a folk treatment for respiratory infections, colds, coughs, and more recently, ulcers. The part used is the root or rhizome. |
| Established in 1978, Commission E examines all the modern scientific evidence available on herbal remedies, including well-conducted studies on humans, and also takes into consideration the historic traditional use of the botanical medicine. Commission E has issued about 300 monographs on herbal medicines, 200 of which it has approved as reasonably effective and absolutely safe. The standard of proof of efficacy is not as strict as the double-blind human studies required by our FDA for pharmaceutical drugs. |
| Thus patients have an economic incentive for getting a prescription for over-the-counter herbal remedies. In fact, according to a new survey, 80 percent of German physicians prescribe phyto (plant) medicines; such natural drugs account for 27 percent of all over-the-counter medicines sold in Germany. Most popular are ginkgo, garlic, echinacea, and Asian ginseng.
Because of Germany's superior regulatory system, it consistently turns out the very best quality herbal medicines. |
| Yes, herbal remedies, botanical medicines, and natural drugs of all kinds, available anywhere without restriction or prescription, are being embraced by Americans. "Medical experts say that over the past ten years, more people have been turning to more kinds of alternative therapies than ever before," wrote New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata in June 1996. Some see this movement as "a return to our roots," a desire for natural medicines used by our ancestors. |
| A 1997 Prevention magazine survey of the general public (not just its readers) found that about one-third of adult Americans, or 60 million, say they frequently use "herbal remedies." Even people in the industry were surprised. "Herbs are becoming more mainstream much faster than we ever expected," said Mary Burnett, spokesperson for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington, D.C., trade association for the nutritional supplement industry. |
| The quality of research on herbal remedies is so outstanding in Germany, says Dr. Tyler, precisely because its government's regulatory system actively encourages natural remedies, making research worthwhile for consumers and doctors and profitable for companies that make and test herbal products. Much of the high-quality testing of natural remedies used in the United States and throughout the world, including St. John's wort (an antidepressant herb), valerian (an antianxiety herb), and echinacea (an antiviral herb), has been conducted in Germany. |
Kathi Keville
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| The result is that few herbal remedies are manufactured commercially, and drug use (especially use of specific brands of drugs) is encouraged.
Environmental and Ethical t g Concerns q&J\
Another plus for herbal medicine is that it is environmentally sound. One person who has considered the relationship between environmental pollution and drugs is English herbalist David Hoffmann. Author of a number of herb books, including The Holistic Herbal and Successful Stress Control, Hoffmann's major issue when he ran for Parliament in England was global ecology. |
Prevention Magazine
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 Choose the right form. Many herbal remedies come in three forms: as pills or capsules, as liquids (called extracts and tinctures), and in their natural form as leaves, bark, roots, and flowers. Each form provides healing benefits, but they act in slightly different ways, says Debra Brammer, a naturopathic doctor and clinical faculty member at Bastyr University Natural Health Clinic in Seattle.
When you're sick and want fast relief, herbal extracts are usually best because they're absorbed very quickly by the body, Dr. Brammer says. |
Kathi Keville
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| For the finicky child, you can disguise many herbal remedies as "normal" food. After all, the herbal pharmacy includes many fruits and vegetables that have medicinal properties. Herbalists even count juices and oatmeal among their remedies! Teas sweetened with fruit juice can be transformed into fizzy drinks or frozen into enticing popsicles. (Note: Don't use honey as a sweetener for children under two years of age— there is a microorganism in honey, which is otherwise quite innocent, that sometimes makes them ill. Alternatives include barley and fruit-based sweeteners. |
Glenn W. Geelhoed, M.D. and Jean Barilla, M.S.
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| Drink plenty of fluids to help loosen the stuffiness, and take advantage of the following herbal remedies to ease your discomfort.
BASIL In the 16th century, Europeans made a tea to treat the stuffiness caused by inflamed mucous membranes by steeping 5 grams of fresh basil in a cupful of water. The Japanese use basil tea for this same purpose. Pungent oils such as thymol and camphor in the plant help open clogged passages. fenugreek When someone in Greece comes down with a bad cold, he or she promptly boils the seeds of the fenugreek plant into a tea. |
| To help control hormonal excesses, the Chinese take Chinese angelica, which is frequently used in Oriental herbal remedies. You can eat it raw or cooked, or take it as a tincture. cucumber To the Chinese, acne is a "hot" skin condition. So, they eat fresh, cool cucumber to treat it. The vegetable is sometimes preserved and eaten for its cooling action on all the body's organs. echinacea This natural antiseptic is also called purple coneflower and Sampson root. Native American Indians used this helpful herb to treat skin problems like acne and boils. |
| This applies to herbal remedies, too. The good thing about herbs is that they are far more gentle than even over-the-counter remedies, but you should still take care to give the right dosage and watch for any side effects. Here are some handy rules for determining herbal dosages for children.
¦ Weight Rule: Divide the child's weight by 150 to determine dosage. For example, if a child weighs 75 pounds, divide 75/150 to get 0.5, or Vi the adult dosage.
¦ Cowling's Rule: Divide the age that the child will be on his or her next birthday by 24. For example, if a child is 2, divide 3 by 24 to get . |
| Tinctures are often used in herbal remedies that require mixing concentrated herbal preparations with other liquids. In particular, homeopathic and Bach System methods of healing make a wide use of tinctures.
Bath
Often herbs are most useful when you can soak in them. In particular, aromatic herbs such as lavender, chamomile or rosemary are great soaks to relieve tension and muscle aches.
To make an herbal bath, fill a muslin bag with an herbal mixture and hang it over the bathtub faucet so that the incoming water flows through it. |
Ralph Golan, M.D.
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 The efficacy of these herbal remedies has been validated mostly from clinical experience and not controlled studies. They work well for some individuals and not for others.
• Take grapefruit seed extract and artemisia annua (Chinese wormwood) from Allergy Research/ Nutricology of San Leandro, California (available as Para Microcidin: up to 250 milligrams three times a day with food, and as Artemisia: up to 1,000 milligrams three times a day with food). |
| Also note the following:
• Each common ailment is followed by a variety of treatment options, including: dietary recommendations, detoxification programs, nutritional supplements, and herbal remedies, etc. To institute all of these measures simultaneously could be overwhelming and is not advisable. Frequently, not all measures are necessary. Reviewing the Common Denominators that pertain to the ailment in question can help you to prioritize treatment measures and will alert you to any precautions.
• There are many products and nutritional supplements mentioned in this section. |
| Glyconda" by Eclectic Institute (Sandy, Oregon) and "Gastro Relief" by Enzymatic Therapy (Green Bay, Wisconsin) are effective combination herbal remedies for indigestion. Deglycerhizinated licorice root is an effective healer of stomach and duodenal inflammations and ulcers; take two tablets twenty minutes before meals and at bedtime. Chapter Nineteen discusses these and other digestive herbs.
Uncooked fermented foods and uncooked sprouts are also beneficial. |
Janet Zand, LAc, OMD, Allan N. Spreed, MD, CNC, James B. LaValle, RPh, ND
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 Make a tea using equal parts of these herbs (see PREPARING herbal remedies in Part Three) and take one cup three times daily until the symptoms subside.
¦ Once the infection is gone, you can use American ginseng and/or astragalus. Both of these herbs are excellent sources of trace minerals and micronutrients, and also support and strengthen the immune system. Take 500 milligrams of either or both three times a day for two weeks.
Note: These herbs should be used during recovery only. Do not take them if you have a fever or any other signs of acute infection. |
Prevention Magazine
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| Back to Basks
Today, of course, it's much easier to find over-the-counter drugs than herbal remedies that do the same thing. But more and more Americans are putting drugs back on the shelves in favor of a more natural way of healing.
One advantage of using herbs is that they tend to cause fewer side effects than modern drugs. Drugs are highly concentrated, which is why taking one tiny pill or capsule can have such dramatic results. |
Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D.
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 Some of my patients have responded to various herbal remedies such as meadowsweet, feverfew, ginseng, black horehound, asarum, mahuang, and peony. However, I cannot vouch for their efficacy, or even for their safety, for that matter. Mahuang, for example, is widely used as an aid to weight loss. Thirty-seven people recently required hospitalization in Texas and two may have died because of the ephed-rine in this commercially available herb. Ephedrine is a potent drug (considered a narcotic in some states) that speeds the heart and raises blood pressure. |
Paul Pitchford
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 Notes: The most effective of the herbal remedies are uva ursi and pipsissewa, although prolonged use of uva ursi can be irritating to the urinary tract; pipsissewa is better for chronic bladder and kidney infections and long-term use. The leaves of the manzanita shrub (Arctostaphylos manzanita) of the American Pacific coastal region may be substituted for uva ursi, a close relative. Dandelion and plantain leaves also make good additions to broths; often thought of as common lawn weeds, each is nearly as effective as uva ursi for treating urinary infections. |
| When a deficient yin or deficient kidney yin syndrome exists, add y/n-nur-turing food and herbal remedies (pages 25 and 317).
Eating a wide sampling of foods from the following list strengthens the pancreas, regulates blood sugar, and at the same time improves the fluid metabolism. (The individual properties of many of these foods are given in the recipe section and elsewhere in this book. |
| Of the herbal remedies applicable to stomach fire, flax seed requires special preparation in order to preserve its rich stores of linolenic acid, which counteracts the inflammatory influence of excessive arachidonic acid discussed earlier.
Warm-water flax seed extraction: Place one-quarter cup of flax seeds in one quart of warm, purified water for eight hours, then strain.
Flax seed tea is a highly effective European folk remedy for general gastrointestinal ulceration, inflammation, and bleeding (consult a physician in case of hemorrhage). It also makes a soothing enema for these conditions. |
| The dietary and herbal remedies suggested in this chapter should initiate marked improvement within a few months.
5. Presoak grains and legumes before cooking to neutralize their phytic acid content, which otherwise binds the zinc, magnesium, calcium, and other minerals in these foods. See the recipe section for details of this method.
6. Use oxalic acid foods sparingly—rhubarb, cranberries, plums, spinach, chard, and beet greens—as they also bind calcium.
7. If dairy is used, the fermented kinds digest most easily: yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk, kefir. |
Sydney Walker III, M.D.
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 Li supplemented them with an arsenal of Chinese herbal remedies, which proved equally ineffective.) By the time I saw Mrs. Li, she'd been a semi-invalid for over a year and was well on her way to becoming addicted to her prescription drugs.
Mrs. Li's underlying disorder, it turned out, was seronegative syphilis. Her ear disturbances and "mental" symptoms were traceable to this infection, which I treated with antibiotics. But that didn't end her troubles, because she had a second problem: drug dependency.
Unfortunately, prescription drug addiction is a problem I see all too often. |
Bill Gottlieb
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 FLOWER ESSENCES: Feel the Light
Flower essences are not the same as herbal remedies, says Patricia Kaminski, cofounder and codirector of the Flower Essence Society, based in Nevada City, California. They are "soul medicine," allowing the person to become aware of and outgrow negative thoughts and feelings that can block the soul's full expression of creativity and love.
"Many of us are unable to feel light as our spiritual essence, so the soul feels dark and heavy," Kaminski says. "St. |
| They do this by supplying the body with what it needs for optimal functioning, such as dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and other natural medicines. Once the body is back in balance, it has the ability to better resist disease and maintain a state of health and wellness.
This approach is very different from that used by conventional, or allopathic, physicians. The goal of conventional medicine is generally to suppress or eliminate disease by using drugs or surgery. Naturopathic physicians believe the conventional approach actually may interfere with the body's natural ability to heal. |
| Due to reports that some Chinese-made products contain potentially harmful contaminants, it is recommended that you obtain Chinese herbal remedies from a qualified practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. While Ayurvedic herbs do not pose the same concern, it is best to consult an Ayurvedic practitioner to obtain the highest-quality herbs and receive personalized recommendations regarding their safe use.
Herb Safe Use Guidelines and Possible Side Effects
Aloe
(Aloe barbadensis)
May delay wound healing; do not use gel externally on any surgical incision. |
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