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I just can't get the hang of this Step Aerobics! |
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Herbal Therapy
 What it is:
- Herbal therapy utilizes specific characteristics of a wide variety of plants to treat or prevent health imbalances. The herbs are taken orally, topically, or sometimes "up the other end". They can be ground into powders, formed into tablets, placed in capsules, blended into a poultice, and brewed into a tea.
What it is not:
- Unlike homeopathy or flower essences, herbal therapy uses an intact part of the plant rather than its oil, energetic fingerprint, or characteristic essence. It is not uncommon for the herbalist to hand you a bag of twigs and leaves with instructions on how to brew it into a tea.
The value of an herbal preparation varies due to the soil it grew in, how it was collected, how long ago it was collected, and how it was prepared for use. This means that all herbal preparations are not created equal.
Because the actual plant is used, herbs can have side effects much like modern drugs. For instance, willow bark is great for relieving arthritic pain but it can also cause digestive upsets. Chamomile usually is an aid for relaxation but some people develop an allergic asthmatic reaction. In some respects, one might say herb therapy is not as safe as other alternative therapies.
Positive results from herbal therapy are not always immediate. There are numerous situations where properly administered herbs have almost instantly corrected a condition that modern drugs had only made worse. As in regular medicine, this type of response should be considered the exception rather than the rule. Most failures in herbal therapy can be traced to either improper remedy preparation of insufficient time of usage.
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If it's so good, why haven't I heard of it?
- There is a good chance that you have. If you have ever seen an advertisement for Celestial Seasons teas, your were watching an ad for herbal therapy. Of course, it was not labeled as a medical prescription but the teas use the therapeutic properties of the herbs in each bag to achieve their effect.
Did you ever put a menthol compound in a vaporizer or a sink full of steaming water to reduce your sinus congestion? Maybe you have sucked on a Hall's mentholyptus lozenge to take advantage of its "vapor action". These are both instances of herbs at work.
True, your physician or veterinarian may not have decided, after a CAT scan, MRI, and numerous lab tests, that all you needed was a bag full of dried up roots and bark, but that was probably just an oversight on his/her part. The old adage, "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning" could just as easily have been stated "Chew two teaspoons of willow bark and call me in the morning". After all, that's the original source of aspirin.
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