Why We Should Use Herbal Medicine

Since early Neanderthal man, plants have been used for healing purposes. Even as modes of medicine changed throughout the centuries, plants continued to be the mainstay of country medicine as methods and ideas on plant healing were passed down from family to family, and within communities., Thus tribes, clans, villages, towns, sometimes entire countries, tended to have similar styles in healing. Most of these plant remedies were based on local discoveries and passalong uses, so it is alway's interesting to note how many plants are used in exactly the same way. Chamomile, for instance, is a digestive aid throughout the world.

Even though much of the medical community' ignores, perhaps even disdains, plant medicine as too old fashioned, plants are nonetheless the basis for some of the most effective drugs. For several thousand years the Chinese physicians used the Ma Huang plant. Later researchers extracted an alkaloid, ephedrine, from this plant. This is still used in many different ways, namely for relief of nasal congestion, bronchial coughs and asthma. Unbeknown to the general public, pharmaceutical firms continue to comb the more primitive places on earth to explore and define native folk medicine. They bring back various botanical specimens in the hope of discovering plants that can be successfully duplicated.

An interesting example of this continuous interest in new products, and why some investigations are quickly discontinued, was described to me by Dr. Vera Stecher, an international pharmaceutical researcher. When her work brought here to Malawi, Africa, Dr. Stecher met a Dutch scientist, a recent victim of a painful and recurring skin cancer. Although the cancer had been surgically removed several times in Switzerland, it always re emerged on his hand. One day this Dutchman took a long motor ride to the interior of Malawi, and there on a dusty road he gave a ride to a hitchhiking old tribesman. That simple act was a happy turning point in his life. The dignified African soon observed his host's pain in clutching the steering wheel. With a sign he motioned the Dutchman to stop the jeep. The African then climbed out and quickly cut a large fruit from a common native tree.

With deft fingers, the tribal doctor applied the pulp of this fruit to the Dutchman's throbbing, aching hands. Within minutes the pain disappeared. Subsequent applications of this fresh pulp not only controlled all pain, but eventually eliminated the entire skin cancer! This same treatment also proved effective for several other Europeans who had similar skin cancers.

Dr. Stecher was naturally excited by her colleague's personal discover. She carried large, whole fruits with her to Switzerland, her home laboratory base. The first results were outstanding. In the initial studies conducted by friends of Dr. Stecher, they found the fruit pulp did indeed control the artificially induced skin cancers of laboratory animals. Unfortunately, they did not get the same results when the fruit was ,chemically reproduced, and all future experiments were called off. Some plants cannot be successfully duplicated, and some plants, it seems, must be used only in the raw, fresh state. Willow bark, one of nature's great anti inflammatory plants, was used for thousands of years, even by American Indian tribes.

Unfortunately, consistent use of the bark affected the digestive system, and it became imperative to find a substitute, or chemical version. This duplication took over fifty years of investigation, and was solved when a clever German scientist broke the chemical code by using the spirea plant family, instead of willow bark. He called his result aspirin, now one of the most used drugs on earth.

History is studded with fascinating plant discoveries from primitive cultures, and some of these discoveries have even changed history and medicine. Ipecac, now used in the home as an emetic to disgorge poisons, once helped to control the savage dysentery that prevaded Europe. Quinine, from the tropics, saved the world from the ravages of malaria. Curare arrow poison, another tropical discovery, is now used to control breathing during some surgery.

My favorite plant story concerns a little old "herb lady" and William Withering, a curious and careful English country doctor, working during the eighteenth century. Dr. Withering was constantly aware of the limitations of his medical knowledge, and unceasing in his efforts to be a better doctor. Sadly he often sent his badly damaged heart patients home to die. "There is nothing more I can do for you." To his astonishment he would sometimes meet these same patients at local fairs. They were not only still alive, but hale and hearty. He finally asked some of them how they had achieved this miracle of life.

To a man they had quaffed the bitter remedies of. a plant lady, a strange, old woman who had the cure for dropsy, the fluid accumulation from heart, liver and kidney malfunction. Withering sought her out and she showed him her plant concoctions. Withering, an amateur botanist, instantly comprehended that the strongest of her plants was foxglove. He toiled ten years to isolate the active ingredient in this plant, and discovered digitalis, a substance still used in today's heart saving medicine.

For centuries tribal doctors in Africa, and non Western physicians in India, used preparations of the rauwolfia root to cure "moon madness." But this use for mental illness was ignored by all Western investigators until a certain incident occured in London. A young Nigerian prince, a student at a great English university, had a mental breakdown, and like Humpty Dumpty, none of the King's officers or men could put him back together again. Since no one could alleviate his distress, his fellow Nigerian students sent for a tribal doctor. He arrived with a batch of rauwolfia, and soon the young student was functioning in a normal way. The amazed British physicians instituted a major laboratory investigation of this root. The result the first synthetic tranquilizer: reserpine, a breakthrough in working with the mentally ill. Reserpine is the base of about a dozen anti hypertensive drugs which also sedate and tranquilize.

There are hundreds of such stories and many anecdotes of profound cures from either herbal simples (one vegetable substance) or herbal combinations. Many of these stories are lost forever, but only recently, as I discussed the rare virtues of the ginger root with my class at a local college, my student, Shirley Holmes, recalled that she had been saved from infant death by this plant.

Shirley had been born prematurely and was so small she couldn't be fed, and the doctor felt she couldn't live. Her Scottish grandmother asked if she could take the baby home as she was determined to give her ginger tea to survive. But the baby wouldn't drink the tea. The grandmother then hit on the marvelous notion of making a tea out of ginger snap cookies. The baby liked this ginger tasting tea, and in three months, all was well.

Plants are effective medicine, but they aren't the only answer to good health. I urge you to a full investigation of these varied herbal simples; and combinations, as part of your approach to holistic health practices' , You should be striving to rebalance the body, to restore your native energy level so that the body can cure itself. Sometimes plants can achieve this rebalancing and internal cleansing of the body. Often a com ' bination of water therapy and plants and nutrition is effective. Other times you might need pressure or manipulation techniques. With plants, and with water, you will have a considerable personal and natural home medicine chest for preventive health measures, first aid, and normal everyday health needs.

Many of the herbs presented in this website are foods that are in your refrigerator, or on your kitchen shelf. Some are also slightly more esoteric flowers, plants, leaves, barks, berries or roots. Many of these plants can be grown by you in your own backyards, and some will respond to window sill gardening.