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Articles
Herbs as Medicine
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Herbs or medicinal plants have a long history in treating
disease. In traditional Chinese medicine, for example,
the written history of herbal medicine goes back over
2000 years and herbalists in the West have used “weeds”
equally long to treat that which ails us. We are all familiar
with the virtues of Garlic, Chamomile, Peppermint, Lavender,
and other common herbs.
Interest in medicinal herbs is on the rise again and
the interest is primarily from the pharmaceutical industry,
which is always looking for ‘new drugs’
and more effective substances to treat diseases, for
which there may be no or very few drugs available.
Considering the very long traditional use of herbal medicines
and the large body of evidence of their effectiveness,
why is it that we are not generally encouraged to use
traditional herbal medicine, instead of synthetic, incomplete
copies of herbs, called drugs, considering the millions
of dollars being spent looking for these seemingly elusive
substances?
Herbs are considered treasures when it comes to ancient
cultures and herbalists, and many so-called weeds are
worth their weight in gold. Dandelion, Comfrey, Digitalis
(Foxglove), the Poppy, Milk Thistle, Stinging nettle,
and many others, have well-researched and established
medicinal qualities that have few if any rivals in the
pharmaceutical industry. Many of them in fact, form the
bases of pharmaceutical drugs.
Research into the medicinal properties of such herbs
as the humble Dandelion is currently being undertaken
by scientists at the Royal Botanical Gardens, in Kew,
west London, who believe it could be the source of a
life-saving drug for cancer patients.
Early tests suggest that it could hold the key to warding
off cancer, which kills tens of thousands of people every
year.
Their work on the cancer-beating properties of the dandelion,
which also has a history of being used to treat warts,
is part of a much larger project to examine the natural
medicinal properties of scores of British plants and flowers.
Professor Monique Simmonds, head of the Sustainable Uses
of Plants Group at Kew, said: ""We aren't randomly
screening plants for their potential medicinal properties,
we are looking at plants which we know have a long history
of being used to treat certain medical problems.”
“We will be examining them to find out what active
compounds they contain which can treat the illness.”
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, this group of
scientists appears to be looking for active ingredients,
which can later be synthesised and then made into pharmaceutical
drugs. This is not the way herbs are used traditionally
and their functions inevitably change when the active
ingredients are used in isolation. That’s like
saying that the only important part of a car is the
engine – nothing else needs to be included…
So, why is there this need for isolating the ‘active
ingredients’?
As a scientist, I can understand the need for the scientific
process of establishing the fact that a particular herb
works on a particular disease, pathogen or what ever,
and the need to know why and how it does so. But, and
this is a BIG but, as a doctor of Chinese medicine I
also understand the process of choosing and prescribing
COMBINATIONS of herbs, which have a synergistic effect
to treat not just the disease, but any underlying condition
as well as the person with the disease – That
is a big difference and not one that is easily tested
using standard scientific methodologies.
Using anecdotal evidence, which after all has a history
of thousands of years, seems to escape my esteemed colleagues
all together. Rather than trying to isolate the active
ingredient(s), why not test these herbs, utilising the
knowledge of professional herbalists, on patients in
vivo, using the myriad of technology available to researchers
and medical diagnosticians to see how and why these
herbs work in living, breathing patients, rather than
in a test tube or on laboratory rats and mice (which,
by the way, are not humans and have a different, although
some what similar, physiology to us…).
I suspect, that among the reasons for not following the
above procedure is that the pharmaceutical companies are
not really interested in the effects of the medicinal
plants as a whole, but rather in whether they can isolate
a therapeutic substance which can then be manufactured
cheaply and marketed as a new drug - and of course that’s
where the money is…
The problem with this approach is however, that medicinal
plants like Comfrey, Dandelion and other herbs usually
contain hundreds if not thousands of chemical compounds
that interact, yet many of which are not yet understood
and cannot be manufactured. This is why the manufactured
drugs, based on so-called active ingredients, often do
not work or produce side effects.
Aspirin is a classic case in point. Salicylic acid is
the active ingredient in Aspirin tablets, and was first
isolated from the bark of the White Willow tree. It is
a relatively simple compound to make synthetically, however,
Aspirin is known for its ability to cause stomach irritation
and in some cases ulceration of the stomach wall.
The herbal extract from the bark of the White Willow tree
generally does not cause stomach irritation due to other,
so called ‘non-active ingredients’ contained
in the bark, which function to protect the lining of the
stomach thereby preventing ulceration of the stomach wall.
Ask yourself, which would I choose – Side effects,
or no site effects? – It’s a very simple answer.
Isn’t it?
So why then are herbal medicines not used more commonly
and why do we have pharmaceutical impostors stuffed down
our throats? The answer is, that there’s little
or no money in herbs for the pharmaceutical companies.
They, the herbs, have already been invented, they grow
easily, they multiply readily and for the most part, they’re
freely available.
Further more, correctly prescribed and formulated herbal
compounds generally resolve the health problem of the
patient over a period of time, leaving no requirement
to keep taking the preparation – that means no repeat
sales… no ongoing prescriptions… no ongoing
problem.
Pharmaceuticals on the other hand primarily aim to relieve
symptoms – that means: ongoing consultations, ongoing
sales, ongoing health problems – which do you think
is a more profitable proposition…?
Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that all
drugs are impostors or that none of the pharmaceutical
drugs cure diseases or maladies – they do and
some are life-preserving preparations and are without
doubt invaluable. However, herbal extracts can be similarly
effective, but are not promoted and are highly under-utilised.
The daily news is full of ‘discoveries’ of
herbs found to be a possible cure of this or that, as
in the example of Dandelion and its possible anti-cancer
properties. The point is, that these herbs need to be
investigated in the correct way. They are not just ‘an
active ingredient’. They mostly have hundreds of
ingredients and taking one or two in isolation is not
what makes medicinal plants work. In addition, rarely
are herbal extracts prescribed by herbalists as singles
(a preparation which utilises only one herb). Usually
herbalists mix a variety of medicinal plants to make a
mixture, which addresses more than just the major symptoms.
In Chinese medicine for example there is a strict order
of hierarchy in any herbal prescription, which requires
considerable depth of knowledge and experience on the
physicians part. The fact that the primary or principle
herb has active ingredients, which has a specific physiological
effect, does not mean the other herbs are not necessary
in the preparation. This is a fact seemingly ignored by
the pharmaceutical industry in its need to manufacture
new drugs that can control disease.
Knowing that medicinal plants are so effective, that
these plants potentially hold the key to many diseases,
are inexpensive and have proven their worth time and
time again over millennia, why is it that herbal medicine
is still not in the forefront of medical treatments,
and is considered by many orthodox medical professionals
and pharmaceutical companies as hocus-pocus….
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