Herbs

Herbs
Natural Healing

Imagine marinara sauce without garlic. Gingerbread without ginger. Baked potatoes without chives. No one who enjoys food would want to live in a world without herbs.

But herbs do more then add flavor to foods – for millions of people worldwide, herbs are the medicines they depend on to stay healthy.

Before the discovery of modern pharmaceuticals, both Europeans and Americans relied on herbs. Today many people in European nations use herbal medicines nearly every day.

Doctors are discovering that many herbs work as well as drugs for relieving common conditions, and for a very simple reasons – the active ingredients in herbs virtually identical to the chemicals found in drugs. When you take an aspirin, for example, you get benefit of a compound called acetylsalicylic acid, which eases pain, lowers fever, and reduces inflammation. But before there was aspirin, people made tea from willow bark. Willow contains a compound called salicin, which has many of the same effects as aspirin.

Its not only “simple” drugs that have herbal counterparts. Many prescription drugs also resemble (or are actually made from) herbs. The cancer drug etoposide, for example, is extracted from the root of the Mayapple plant, and the heart drug digitalis contains compounds similar to those found in purple foxglove.

Researchers today use sophisticated equipment and expensive tests to discover which herbs are most effective. For the original herbalists, however, “research” often meant watching animals in the wild to see which leaves, bark, or berries they turned to whenever they were ill. Over the years, herbalists (and some doctors) became pretty knowledgeable about which herbs were best – for easing a migraine, for example, or stopping an infection.

Today, of course, it’s much easier to find over-the-counter drugs than herbal remedies that do the same thing. But more and more people are putting drugs back on the shelves in favor of more natural way of healing.

One advantage of using herbs is that they tend to cause fewer side effects than modern drugs. Drugs are highly concentrated, which is why taking one tiny pill or capsule can have such dramatic effect. Since herbs are much less concentrated, you don’t get as much of the active ingredient in your body at one time, so you’re less likely to have uncomfortable reactions.

But the main reason that people using herbs such as garlic, Echinacea, feverfew, etc is that they work – which is why, in just one year German physicians wrote 5.4 million prescriptions for ginkgo, an herb that has been shown to improve blood flow to the brain. They also wrote 2 million prescriptions for Echinacea, an immune-boosting herb that’s often used for treating colds and flu.

Feverfew is an herb that received scientific attention because it help prevent migraines, Licorice root is a perfect example of an herb that work as well or even better than chemical counterparts for treating variety of woman’s hormonal problems. Ginkgo is very strong herb that helps prevent blood cloths, Milk thistle helps regulate liver function and control cholesterol.

When you used to opening a bottle and popping a pill into your mouth, getting used to herbs can take a little time. Apothecaries and natural food stores often stock hundreds of healing herbs – packed into capsules, dissolved in oils, or lying loose in covered glass jars. It’s not always easy to know which form to chose or how to prepare herbs once you get them home. Here a few tips for getting started:

Many herbal remedies come in three forms - as pills or capsules, as liquids (called extracts or tinctures), and in their natural form as leaves, bark, roots, and flowers. Each form provides healing benefits, but they act in slightly different ways.

When you sick and want fast relief, herbal extracts are usually best because they’re absorbed very quickly by the body. While they are not as convenient as taking a pill – you have to measure them, using a dropper or a teaspoon, into glass of water or juice – they go to work almost instantly.

When you’re using herbs for long-term protection – to strengthen the immune system, for example – it doesn’t matter how quickly they work. What does count is convenience, since you’re going to use them almost every day. Then it’s easier to take them in pill or capsule form.

You can also buy herbs in their natural form or grounded into a powder. These used for making teas. While herbal teas work somewhat more slowly than extracts, they absorbed by the body faster than pills or capsules and many people enjoy the taste of freshly brewed herbal teas.

Even though its convenient to buy in bulk, dried herbs won’t keep indefinitely. To get the most healing power, its better to buy herbs in small amounts to replenish the supply a bit more frequently.