REMEDIES HERBS
A Beginner’s Guide
By
Rettodwikart
Thenu, S.Pd
Welcome to the Wonderful World of
Medicinal Herbs
 |
RECOGNIZED
AS THE OLDEST SYSTEM OF HEALING on the planet, herbal medicine traces its
roots back to the earliest civilizations. Today, herbalism continues to
flourish as a people’s healing art. Even with the amazing technological
advances of conventional (allopathic) medicine, herbalism — the art and science of healing with plants — is
still widely popular. And its popularity is gaining, not waning. According to
the World Health Organization, 80 percent of the world’s population used some
form of traditional medicine in 2008, and its rate of affordability,
availability, and accessibility is surging.
So
it’s no wonder you’re drawn to these healing plants and curious to learn more
about them. But perhaps you’re nervous about trying herbal home remedies: What
are these herbs? Are they safe? Do they work? Can you grow them at home? Can
you make your own remedies? When and how do you use them? How easy is it to get
started? These are some of questions we’ll address in this book.
What Is a Medicinal Herb?
If you use herbs in cooking,
then you’ve already taken the fi rst step in using herbal medicine. All of our
common culinary herbs and spices are among our most important and esteemed
herbal medicines. And if you garden, tucking herbs here and there in your
vegetable and fl ower beds for their added scent and beauty, then you also have
been “practicing” herbal medicine.
Garden herbs such as
lavender, thyme, sage, basil, rosemary, mint, yarrow, and peppermint are some
of our most trusted herbal medicines and have long histories of use as teas,
salves, poultices, and tinctures for healing purposes. Open your refrigerator
and you may fi nd more common herbal remedies, including horseradish (one of
the best rmediies for sinus infections ) and cabbage
(a singularly effective poultice for shingles
and hives).
But wait, you might say, aren’t some of these
plants vegetables and not herbs? Botanically speaking, an herb is an herbaceous
plant with a nonwoody stem. However, when herbalists speak of medicinal herbs,
they are basically including any plant that can be used in healing. Remember,
herbalism is an art that evolved over centuries around people and people’s
needs. It only makes sense that people would use what they had available, in
the kitchen or in the backyard. Many of the most common plants are still our
best and most popular remedies for common ailments.
So even without knowing it, you may already
be a practitioner of herbal home medicines.
How Is Herbal Medicine
Used?
While conventional or
allopathic medicine is particulary effective in lifethreatening situations and
unrivaled in its ability to save lives, herbal medicine is the medicine of the
home. It is used most effectively for the myriad nonemergency health problems
that arise in everyday life: simple first-aid situations, the bumps and bruises
of life, headaches, colds and fevers and flu, coughs and aches and pains, and chronic
illness.
But more important than
“curing” illnesses, plants play a great role in preventing them. Rich in
nutrients, herbs are the supreme preventive medicine, bolstering our body’s
ability to fight off pathogens that cause illness. How do they do this?
In addition to having
superconcentrations of the important nutrients essential to the health of the
human body, medicinal plants tend to be concentrated in specific chemicals that
aid and abet the human immune system. When we eat medicinal plants, our own
body becomes more resilient, hardy, and persistent, like the tenacious weedy
plant that seems able to survive anything, from endless
mowing to barrages of nasty “weed killers.”
BALANCING ALLOPATHIC &
HERBAL MEDICINE
Make no mistake, this book is about family
herbalism. It is written as an introduction to using herbs to enhance health and
well-being and to reintroduce the traditional practice of home health care for
everyday common illnesses. But it does not advocate that herbs or home remedies
be used to replace the guidance of trained health-care professionals.
Health problems that are
beyond the care of a home herbalist include life-threatening illnesses such as
heart disease and kidney disease, neurological disorders, clinical depression
and anxiety, broken bones, poisoning, and life-threatening injuries such as
gunshot wounds, wounds with excessive bleeding, and so on. Any life-threatening
injury or illness should always be treated under the supervision of a competent
medical professional.
A good rule of thumb to follow
is that any injury or illness that does not respond to herbal remedies and home
health care in a timely manner should be evaluated by a professional
health-care practitioner. If an injury or illness gets worse, not better, then
seek professional help. If you don’t feel comfortable using herbal remedies to
treat a particular injury or illness, then seek help.
One of the major differences between conventional
(allopathic) medicine and herbal or natural medicine lies in their relationship
to constitutional or foundational wellness. Conventional medicine, as we all
know, is great for treating acute illness and can often temporarily alleviate
its symptoms. Such treatment can be extremely comforting to someone in the
midst of an “attack”: an asthma attack, for instance, or an oncoming migraine.
However, symptom suppression, while necessary, hardly means the cause or root
of the illness has been addressed.
Herbs and natural therapies are the medicine
of choice for fostering constitutional wellness and addressing the root of chronic
health problems. Chronic issues — meaning they are long term and/or recurring —
usually have their root in lifestyle choices, environmental conditions, and/or
genetics. They are most often corrected by lifestyle changes that include
dietary changes, herbal remedies, and exercise programs. Treat the root or core
of the problem, and the whole gets healthier.
Thankfully, we don’t have to make the choice
between conventional medicine and herbal medicine. Both are amazing, effective
systems of healing, yet they are distinctly different systems, designed to be
used in different situations. Each is complementary to the other.
Figure 1. A field of echinacea can
provide a wealth of immuneboosting
remedies.
Figure 2. The flowers of St. John’s
wort have medicinal properties that are useful for relieving stress and
anxiety.
The Benefits of Herbal
Medicine
One of the greatest benefits
of herbal medicine is that it gives us the ability to become more self-reliant.
Feeling that we have choices in how we care for ourselves and our families, and
that we ourselves can play a central role in treatment and preventive medicine,
can help us build a positive attitude of empowerment. With very little effort,
time, or money, we can grow our own herbs, make our own medicines, and care for
our families and ourselves, much as people have been doing for millennia.
Herbalism is truly an accessible, inexpensive, natural, gentle, and, most
importantly, effective system of healing.
Herbs are among the safest
medicines available. This does not mean that there are no herbs with harmful
side effects.
There are, but they are an
isolated group, and most of them are unavailable commercially. Occasionally an
herb will stimulate an idiosyncratic, or individual, reaction in a person. This
doesn’t mean the herb is toxic; it’s just a poor choice for that particular
individual. Strawberries, a perfectly delicious fruit, are a sweet treat for
some and a noxious poison for others.
Herbs are also an inexpensive
way to boost your health. Herbal supplements for sale in a natural foods store
are, capsule by capsule, much less expensive than pharmaceuticals. And herbal
medicine becomes really cost effective and inexpensive when you plant some
herbs, don an apron, and brew up your own remedies. You’ll be surprised to
discover how easy, inexpensive, and fun it is to make your own salves,
tinctures, syrups, capsules, and teas, especially if you’re making them from
herbs you’ve grown yourself! Begin by making simple medicines for coughs,
colds, cuts, infections, and sprains, and you’ll find they not only work
wonderfully but can also cut the cost of family health care, in the same way
that growing your own vegetables helps reduce your grocery bills.
A
MANTRA FOR HOME HEALTH CARE
I am my own healer. I have a radiant voice
within that guides me. I can make decisions for myself. I can rely on others as
needed, but at my discretion. It is my body, my health, my balance, and my
responsibility to make right choices for myself. Right choices include working
with competent health-care professionals when necessary, allowing friends and
family to help as needed, and, above all, being true to my beliefs, with the
wisdom and willingness to change as part of the path of healing.
SIDE EFFECTS?
I once
heard a doctor state that the “side effects” of pharmaceutical medication are
not side effects at all, but the actual effects of the medication. This is an
aspect I appreciate about herbal remedies; they are effective, yes, but side
effects are few and far between. There are people who have idiosyncratic
reactions to certain foods and herbs, but it’s an individual reaction rather than
toxicity in the plants. And while there certainly are toxic plants that can
have nasty “side effects” or actions, most of these herbs are not legal for use
and certainly are not used in herbal family medicine. In this book you’ll find
none of the herbs with a potential for toxicity, but rather those congenial
herbs with a long history of use as food and medicine with few or no known side
effects.
When a person does experience
“side effects” from a particular herb, they are generally short term and
idiosyncratic: itchy eyes, sore throat, a skin rash, or nausea and an upset
stomach. These symptoms Disappear after discontinuance of the offending herb
and are not long lasting.
Because we are working with
nontoxic herbs with few or no side effects, we don’t have to be as careful with
exact dosages. The problem is generally not taking enough of the herbs to be effective,
rather than taking too much.
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