Herbal Medicine Course

This section answers many of the most basic of questions, starting with "What is an herb?" Answer: Webster's Dictionary defines an herb as "any seed plant whose stem withers away to the ground after each season's growth." It further defines an herb as "any such plant used in medicine." However, the use of the word herb in natural healing has broadened to mean any substance from the Plant Kingdom that is used as medicine. Many of the world's herbal traditions also use a limited number of mineral and animal substances as "herbal medicines." ...

I can say that there are infinite good ways to prepare and manufacture herbs, infinite bad ways, and infinite ways in between. How can you know you are getting good quality herbs? ...

Information on herbs is now voluminous. Some days I get ten e-mails trying to sell me herbal products, a phone call or two from salespersons, and a few pounds of catalogs. Unless your are cross- trained in science, traditional medicine, and advertising psychology, it is very difficult to clearly judge every piece of information you come across.  Information comes to us from diverse sources: magazine articles, books, friends, TV advertising, internet advertising, physicians, health care practitioners and health food store employees. Current herbal information available to consumers ranges from the most precise and accurate articles to outright falsehoods and deceptions. I am going to share my understanding of the ins and outs of this information with the hope that it will afford you some protection against misconceptions and common errors. ...

Reports in the media have spread the idea that the herbal medicine industry is completely unregulated. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates it very closely. The FDA reviews an herbal product's labels, manufacturing standards, and contents. It collects reports of adverse effects, issues warnings, and pulls products off the shelves if problems are reported. Regulation has been increasing over time. In addition, the National Nutritional Foods Association (the industry's largest trade association), has developed a program to examine the herbal products and factory conditions of its member companies and give them the right to display GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) seals of approval on their products ...

Guidelines for the Safe Use of Herbs ...

Each of the major traditions uses key concepts and words to describe how herbs work on the body. I am going to introduce some of these terms in this section. ...

The next thing you want to know is what the "best" herbs are for treating your particular health condition.  . . When you watch doctors from each of these systems at work, as I have, you notice very quickly that they choose certain "great" herbs most frequently, based on their high levels of safety and effectiveness.  Many of these herbs are already famous.  One cannot imagine TCM without ginseng root and astragalus root, TAM without ashwagandha root and guggul gum or Western herbalism without echinacea and dandelion root.  These are the herbs I will discuss.  ...

The key thing Nai-shing and I do every day is to formulate treatment protocols specific to the individual needs of the patients we see. In this section I want to show you how we go about putting our knowledge to use in the clinic. I want you to understand how herbalists throughout the world can solve real medical problems with scientific reliability ...

At Chrysalis Natural Medicine Clinic in Delaware, my wife Nai-shing and I keep over 1,000 herbs from all parts of ...

Note: Although this section lists specific methods of treatment for specific diseases, syndromes and patterns, it requires a qualified practitioner ...

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Comments on Dr. Tillotson's herbal medicine textbook The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook, released July, 2001 from Kensington Publishing, New York. "Alan ...

Links to valuable services for my readers and patients ...

References for the One Earth Herbal Sourcebook ...