Dr. Gary Null
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 TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Chinese medicinal herbs were proven effective against osteoporosis, studies with women have shown.
Y. H. Huang and X. Q. Ye, [Bone Metabolism and Chinese Medicinal Treatment of Menopausal Osteoporosis], Chung Kuo Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih 13, no. 9 (September 1993): 522-24, 515.
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
Animal studies show osteoporosis can be prevented and reversed with a treatment of pulsed electromagnetic fields.
C. T. Rubin et al., "Prevention of Osteoporosis by Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields," Journal of Bone Joint Surgery, 71, no. 3 (March 1989): 411-417. |
| Treatment of Immunological Infertility with Chinese medicinal herbs of Ziyin Jianghuo], Chung Kuo Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih 15, no. 1 (January 1995): 3-5.
Traditional Chinese herbs were used to treat infertility by regulating the menstrual cycle and tonifying the kidney. Basal body temperature was significantly increased by treatment, there was improvement in the hyperthermal phase 7-8 days following ovulation, and a 56 percent pregnancy rate was achieved in uncomplicated cases of luteal-phase defect.
F. |
Paul Pitchford
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 Wild plants and medicinal herbs can be added to soups.
Salty, enzyme-rich miso soups eaten at the beginning of a meal help one to relax and prepare the digestive system for the rest of the meal. Soups with little or no salty flavor quench thirst and can be eaten as meals by themselves or in smaller amounts at the end of a meal so as not to overly dilute digestive juices.
Be creative and vary your soups to stimulate the senses daily.
• Use various soup stocks for full-bodied flavors.
1. Cook vegetable scraps and ends slowly for an hour. Strain and squeeze out broth.
2. |
| Kidney from Pig, Sheep, or Deer: Strengthens kidneys; benefits knees and lower back; treats impotence (use organic kidney)
Leek: Warming to viscera; good for chronic diarrhea
*Adapted from Chinese medicinal herbs, translated and researched by F. Porter Smith and G. A. Stuart; San Francisco: Georgetown Press, 1973, p. 470. |
| A property of hypericin, rarely encountered in other medicinal herbs, enables it to penetrate the blood/brain barrier87 and thus treat "brain fatigue" in EBV patients.) The herb also supplies an antidepressant dye which acts on the nervous system to reduce anxiety, hysteria, and depression. Before the twentieth century, St. Johnswort was used to rid the body of "bad spirits," a term associated with serious diseases. Terminology aside, St. Johnswort was correctly identified as having great healing potential in the treatment of difficult conditions. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 With over 5,000 medicinal herbs available worldwide, even the most knowledgeable herb experts do not know them all. Most nations of the world have developed government-approved volumes known as pharmacopeias to provide a comprehensive guide to matching symptoms and signs to specific herbs and herbal formulas. The pharmacopeias of the United States are known as the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and The National Formulary. |
| Do not use a metallic tea ball for brewing medicinal herbs. Metals, particularly aluminum and iron, can leach out of metallic and aluminum-coated utensils and cause unknown chemical reactions with the herbs. The pot must have a tight-fitting lid and be clean. Place the recommended amount of the herb in the teapot, cover with 1 cup of water (use good-quality bottled water) that has been brought to a boil, and allow to stand for five to ten minutes with cover on. Strain and drink.
Chinese herbal teas are always prepared from custom-made combinations of loose herbs. |
| For this reason, the official guidelines for the use of medicinal herbs in the European Union counsel caution in the use of the herb by people with diabetes. There is no evidence, however, that marshmallow products taken orally or externally can cause hypoglycemia or otherwise interfere with diabetes treatment.
Mate
Latin name: Ilex paraguariensis (Aquifoliaceae [holly] family) Other common names: Jesuit tea, yerba mate
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Mate is an evergreen shrub native throughout northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and naturalized to portions of Texas. |
| Its oldest surviving medical text, known as the Ebers Papyrus, dating 1,500 years before recorded Chinese medicine, lists 700 medicinal herbs. Several of these herbs, including aloe vera and senna, have been used continuously for 3,500 years.
The Ebers Papyrus was perhaps the first recorded attempt to separate magic from medicine. It contains 877 herbal recipes concerning a great variety of diseases or symptoms, and only recommended incantations for twelve diseases for which the causes were completely unknown. |
Frantisek Stary
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 Ribwort is one of the most popular medicinal herbs for home remedies. It is commonly used to treat inflammation of the upper respiratory passages, coughs, and for digestive disorders and externally for slow-healing wounds. It is used in the form of an infusion (steeped briefly or for several hours)—one teaspoon of the crumbled drug to one cup water, taken three to five times daily. This may be sweetened with honey. Ribwort syrup or juice pressed from the fresh leaves, thickened and sweetened with honey, may be used for the same purpose. |
Gale Maleskey
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 In years past, people simply added medicinal herbs to their foods, or they made some kind of brew using the dried and ground-up plant. Today, the large and small companies that distribute herbs have developed many ways to process them for consumption. Squeezing the herb into a pill or capsule certainly makes it convenient to take, but certain decisions are made by the producers when herbs are processed this way.
In an extraction process, it's possible to isolate specific chemicals from the plant. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 Unlike many other medicinal herbs, blueberry tea is actually pleasant tasting. If you gather the leaves yourself (they grow all over the state of Pennsylvania), it's best to pick them before the fruit appears, or after it's gone. Otherwise, the berries absorb the strength of the plant.
By increasing circulation, ginkgo biloba can alleviate symptoms associated with diabetes, such as intermittent claudication and problems with the eyes. |
| Homeopathic Remedies
In addition to medicinal herbs, a wide range of homeopathic remedies are available to help alleviate chronic fatigue. Some of these are listed below, along with the types of symptoms—and types of patients—they are considered effective for.
Anacardium is prescribed by homeopathic practitioners for chronic fatigue with brain fog, forgetfulness, and fixed ideas.
Arsenicum album is a remedy for exhaustion accompanied by anxiety. The person may fear death and disease, and feel despair over lack of recovery. |
| Herbal Remedies
Although there are a variety of herbal remedies that can be useful in combating fatigue, consumption of herbs should be supervised by a qualified professional who can determine which are best for your unique needs. Some medicinal herbs are not ideal for general use, in that they can induce adverse side effects if used inappropriately. Others are safer to use on a daily basis. Adap-togenic herbs, which are mild tonics, fall into this second category, and can be useful in alleviating fatigue because they enable the body to naturally create more energy. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 Immunotherapy with Chinese medicinal herbs. II. Reversal of Cyclophos-phamide-Induced Immune Suppression by Administration of Fractionated Astragalus Membranaceus in Vivo," Journal of Clinical Lab Immunol, 25(3), March 1988, p. 125-129.
Results of this study showed that forced running exercises and the administration of Astragalus enhanced immune function in mice
—H. Sugiura, et al., [Effects of Exercise in the Growing Stage in Mice and of Astragalus Membranaceus on Immune Functions], Nippon Eiseigaku Zasshi, 47(6), February 1993, p. 1021-1031. |
Elaine Feuer
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 The FDA proposals would have severely restricted amino acids, medicinal herbs, and other unapproved nutrients, making them available only by prescription. Companies would have been prohibited from making health claims on their product labels without scientific research: Claiming that fiber can help prevent cancer would have been illegal; a brand name such as "Health Valley" would have been in jeopardy. To further restrict nutritional information, the FDA warned it would prohibit "third-party" organizations from making health claims associated with nutritional products. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| Growing interest in homeopathy and the "natural" approach has lead some consumers to herbs in the mistaken belief that "natural" is always better. medicinal herbs, which are unregulated, are like all drugs—toxic at certain doses. For example, comfrey and mistletoe are just two of the hundreds of potentially dangerous drugs (see Box 17.11 and Table 19.1, p. 665).
No government agency regulates the safety and effectiveness of herbal or health food remedies. |
Janet Zand, LAc, OMD, Allan N. Spreed, MD, CNC, James B. LaValle, RPh, ND
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 Once scientific methods were developed to extract and synthesize the active ingredients in plants, pharmaceutical laboratories took over from providers of medicinal herbs as the suppliers of drugs. The use of herbs, which for most of history had been mainstream medical practice, began to be considered unscientific, or at least unconventional, and to fall into relative obscurity.
HERBAL MEDICINE TODAY
Today, the U.S. Pharmacopeia, with its reliance on herbal compounds, has been all but forgotten by most modern physicians. |
| These three medicinal herbs continue to be used today.
In 2735 b.C.E., the Chinese emperor Shen Nung wrote an authoritative treatise on herbs that is still in use today. Shen Nung recommended the use of ma huang (known as ephedra in the Western world), for example, against respiratory distress. Ephedrine, extracted from ephedra leaf, is widely used as a decongestant. You can find its synthetic form, pseudoephedrine, in many allergy, sinus, and cold medications produced by large pharmaceutical companies.
The records of King Hammurabi of Babylon (c. 1800 b.c.E. |
Simon Mills and Kerry Bone
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 One-year follow up of children treated with Chinese medicinal herbs for atopic eczema. British Journal of Dermatology. 1994; 130(4): 488^93
5. Kane JA, Kane SP, Jain S. Hepatitis induced by traditional Chinese herbs; possible toxic components. Gut 1995; 36(1): 146-147
6. Ferguson JE, Chalmers RJ, Rowlands DJ. Reversible dilated cardiomyopathy following treatment of atopic eczema with Chinese herbal medicine. |
| Vascular effects of selected antihypertensive drugs derived from traditional medicinal herbs. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Phvsiology 1995; 22(suppl 1): S297-299
6. Yamahara J, Kobayashi G, Jvlatsuda H et al. Vascular dilatory action of the Chinese crude drug. II. Effects of scoparone on calcium mobilization. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (Tokyo) 1989; 37(2): 485-489
7. Yu SM, Ko FN, Su MJ et al. |
Christian Ratsch
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 In ancient times, honey was mixed with ground medicinal herbs (such as wormwood [cf. Artemisia absinthium]) and other pharmaceutical substances to produce what were known as "lick agents," a kind of pharmaceutical "hard candy." Some of these may have had psychoactive effects, for example: "A remedy to cool the uterus: hemp is pounded in honey and administered to the vagina.
This is a contraction [of the uterus]" (Papyrus EbersS2\ [1550 b.c.e.]; in Manniche 1989, 82*). |
Simon Mills and Kerry Bone
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| Chinese medicinal herbs in the treatment of viral hepatitis. In: Chang HM (ed) Advances in Chinese medicinal materials research. World Scientific, Singapore, 1985, p 217.
21. Raman A, Lin ZX, Sviderskaya E et al. J Ethnopharmacol 1996; 54 (2-3): 165-170.
22. Lo AC, Chan K, Yeung JH et al. Eur J Drug Metab Pharmacokinet 1995; 20(1): 55-60.
Echinacea (Echinacea spp)
SYNONYMS
Echinacea herba/radix (Lat), Sonnenhut, Igelkopf (Ger), racine d'echinaeace (Fr), Echinacea (Ital), solhat (Dan).
WHAT IS IT? |
| Meyer supplied medicinal herbs, including pau d'arco, to pharmaceutical companies but is also credited with beginning the effort to save the tree from destruction. More recently, pau d'arco has attained almost fad status in the West, particularly as an antifungal agent in chronic candidiasis. While its use has faded slightly as other treatments have become available, it is still valued for its benefit to those with weakened immunity. Few side effects have been recorded despite its widespread usage, often self administered, and the potential toxicity of its active components. |
Kathi Keville
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 Duke theorizes that our bodies take fuller advantage than we realize of the complex chemistry in medicinal herbs. He believes that each herb contains hundreds of active compounds, many of which act "synergistically." That means that all these compounds somehow combine to produce a greater effect than each has alone, and that the body extracts the compounds it needs and discards the others. One possible reason that scientific studies sometimes fail to confirm an herb's traditional use in healing is that the studies often focus only on the isolated compound, not on the whole plant. |
Glenn W. Geelhoed, M.D. and Jean Barilla, M.S.
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 When you eat honey, you take advantage of several medicinal herbs at once because natural, unprocessed honey contains some of the pollen collected by bees from a variety of beneficial plants and flowers.
CAUTION: Bee pollen should not be used by asthmatics.
Royal jelly The Mayans of Guatemala and the Toltecs of Central Mexico used royal jelly as a youth tonic.
Royal jelly, the substance set aside in active hives for the queen bee, is much rarer than regular honey. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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| In addition, Asians benefit from the widespread use of medicinal herbs.
What Women Experience
The menopausal process usually begins with variations in the menstrual cycle. The time between cycles often becomes irregular, and sometimes periods are skipped. Although menopause is usually accompanied by reduced menstrual flow, some women report heavy, irregular bleeding. Hot flashes are another common experience, while some women may experience dry skin, irritability, vaginal dryness, night sweats, urinary tract infections, mood swings, fatigue, and sleep disturbances. |
Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich
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 A great many medicinal herbs are toxic, particularly when the person ingests a large amount. But the self-help herbalist has no way of knowing what constitutes a "safe" dose, since this information is seldom provided in herb books. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, a doctor recently reported three cases of poisoning, one fatal, resulting from three young women, independently, dosing themselves with large amounts of oil from the pennyroyal plant.
Homeopathy bears no relation to the free-spirit approach and practices of herbalism. |
| Nearly every community had its "goodwife" who supplemented her storehouse of English herbal medicines, plasters, and ointments with medicinal herbs acquired from her Indian neighbors. She decocted (prepared by boiling) the wintergreen plant and prescribed the infusion as a diuretic (to increase excretion of urine). Yaupon holly was used to stimulate the heart, and the Indians' balsam root for coughs and colds. In some regions the favored remedy for diarrhea and dysentery was "Indian chocolate," made by decocting the root of an herb called water avens and adding honey and milk to the decoction. |
Christopher Hobbs
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 Preparing a Tincture; Making a Liquid Extract
Making tinctures is a time-honored method of extracting and preserving the active ingredients of medicinal herbs and mushrooms. When making a tincture, use either 190 proof clear grain alcohol, if available (called Clear Spring in some places) diluted 50-50 with distilled water for most fungi, or if it is not available, 80 or 100 proof vodka. To determine the percentage of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) in a given proof product, divide by two. In other words, a common 80 proof vodka will contain 40% ethyl alcohol. |
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