What is good about herbal medicine?

- And How Modern Herbalism Is Different

What is good about herbal medicine? There is much that is good about herbal medicine.

Herbal medicine encompasses remedies with both powerful pharmacological actions (these plant are not usually used by modern herbalists due to restrictions as they can have potentially bad side effects). And more gentle remedies, and a wide range within that spectrum.

Gentle means not that these plants aren't effective, but that they don't have strong toxic effects. And can be taken over a longer period of time quite safely (chamomile, mint, valerian, hawthorn etc). There are no standardized active principle that mainly determine these herb's actions (Weiss). Plants often have a large complex of active principles, and only the complex as a whole brings therapeutic action. And often with gentle acting herbs, they need to be taken over a period of time for their effects to take place. And unfortunately, some scientific methods of studying effects of substances only measure acute and powerful actions. For this reason these herbs are often overlooked.

For example, valerian does not cause central nervous depression, but it does have a sedative action, which can be measured by encephalography (Mueller-Limroth in Weiss)

There are many herbs that are within the middle of this spectrum of mild to strong effect, like arnica, licorice, and st johns wort. Its important to note that long term or excessive use of some herbs can have adverse effects on the body. For example, licorice can cause edema, bradycardia, and hypertension. Long term use of laxatives can cause an electrolyte imbalance in the colon, which may have symptoms of exhaustion and paralysis like symptoms. These same laxatives in the short term are often quite safe, with no side effects.

When looking at what is good about herbal medicine, one of the modern developments is isolated active plant principles. These have a lot of benefits, and some cautions.

Isolated active plant principles mean that herbal medicine is:

• able to be studied by science
• able to accelerate the impact of those substances by concentrating them
• you are able to determine the quality of a product or brand more easily

But -

• sometimes you miss out on the wider effect of the whole plant
• plus there may be active principles that are being missed/not discovered yet that you would still get the benefit of in a whole herb preparation
• many medicinal plants that are not so easily studied/disseminated are missed as possible treatment options when they may well be valuable plants, as demonstrated by traditional use
• old formulations with many, many extracts - they become a complex product that is different than the sum of their parts, and again, this is not easily quantified

What is good about herbal medicine now, about the combination of scientific study and traditional and practical experience, is that a much clearer picture of an herb can be understood. And given the use now of pharmaceutical drugs, particularly with serious diseases that herbs are also used to treat or help manage, it is important to understand how herbs interact with the body and these drugs.

Vogel as quoted from Weiss: "Applied to the problems of medicine and pharmacotherapy this means: man being a complementary being of body and soul, the subjective statements of the patient concerning drug actions are just as valid as laboratory parameters. Instead of double blind trials, it might be better to adhere to the rule attributed to Abraham Lincoln - you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Applied to pharmacotherapy this means that when a (herbal) drug has been used for a long time, is demanded by patients and prescribed by doctors, its action has to be considered established, even without double blind trials." (p5 Herbal Medicine by Rudolf Weiss)

Gentle herbs are used as part of a long term therapy for metabolic problems, chronic heart disease, rheumatic problems, and others.

Its important to note that not all the old 'traditional' uses may have merit. Modern Herbalist Associations in the UK, and Germany in particular have made great inroads in assessing traditional indications against modern scientific advances, and finding a balance between the two that doesn't mislead the consumer into using herbs for something for which it actually has no effect.

Another aspect in what is good about herbal medicine is prevention. This was a strong element in traditional and modern Chinese herbal practice. In fact, a TCM herbalist in days of old often would not get paid if his patient got sick, as it was believed he had not done his job (of keeping a patient healthy) well!

The more gentle herbs are best here, as they have less side effects. Some examples are:

• Hawthorn (sympathomimetic) - heart disease
• chamomile (antispasmodic) - gastric problems
• mint (antispasmodic) - gallbladder
• dandelion - rheumatic

Source: Herbal Medicine by Rudolf Weiss, MD