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Why Use Herbs?
Why use an herb?
Most herbalists would answer this way:
Herbs represent an additional tool for the toolbox.
Plants contain many dozens of chemical constituents. Consider the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, plus other nutrients contained in a plant. In an Herbal supplement which I create, these ingredients in the plant have a synergistic relationship . Synergy. That means the entire plants chemical constituents combine to produce a greater effect than each has alone, and that the body extracts the compounds it needs from the plant and discards the others.
One possible reason that scientific studies sometimes fail to confirm an herb’s traditional use in promoting health is that the studies often focus only on the isolated compound, not on the whole plant. For instance; ginkgo, which is used to boost brain functions and circulation, has been found to be more effective when used in its whole form instead of its isolated active compounds.
Side Effects
Unfortunately, even when a potent magic bullet drug is right on the mark when it comes to resolving a certain problem, it often creates side effects or new problems.
Herbs produce few bad side effects, and many of them contain protective compounds that keep their potency in check. Since Herbs are so nutritionally dense the side effect is a well feed body!
Environmental and Ethical Concerns
Another plus for the 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, Hoffmann’s major issue when he ran for Parliament in England was global ecology. He focused on what happens when you regularly take a common drug used to treat stomach ulcers and gastritis: “You become very involved in an ecological cycle that involves all of the pollution produced in the factories that prepare the drug. In the process of healing our selves with Chemically created treatment, we buy into killing fish from runoff, into environmental destruction, and we legitimize the destruction of laboratory animals. Is that healing? I suggest not.
Hoffmann also points out that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest practitioners of vivisection (operating on a living animal for research purposes). The research and development of new drugs generally involves killing thousands of laboratory animals. The resulting drugs are then tested on more animals before being declared safe for humans.
“You can sip herbal tea without worrying that a rat or a guinea pig had to die to enable you to do so.”
Instead of contributing to destroying the environment, herbs bring us closer to it.
"Interest in herbs is increasing. Perhaps the day is not far off when the separation of traditional and modern medicine will have no significance, and all health care practitioners will feel comfortable working in a new system that incorporates both disciplines." (Using Herbs for Health and Healing by Kathi Keville)
I am not a doctor. I do not diagnose and prescribe, and our services do not take the place of a physician. We do not use any surgical technique or any legend drugs, and that the substances we use are all legally sold over the counter and regulated as dietary supplements.
Rose Kalajian - Herbalist
991-5177
email: rose@imherbalist.com