PRINCIPLES OF MEDICINE

The essential nature of herbal medicine is the treatment of people as whole, unique individuals rather than merely as ‘cases’ of some disease. Although medical herbalists undergo rigorous training to distinguish between symptom patterns when diagnosing illness, they are primarily concerned with establishing the causes of ill-health for each person. Therefore, to make an assessment of the nature and degree of dysfunction of all the systems in the body, herbalists have to look at areas such as lifestyle, diet, exercise, stress factors, etc. in order to gain an overall picture of an individual’s health imbalances.
Far from the idea of ‘a pill for every ill’, herbal medicine can thus involve a good deal of re-education and advice, encouraging people to take greater responsibility for their health to adopt preventive measures to ensure long term vitality. This is, of course, a wider and more positive view of health than the rather limited aim of symptom relief. Herbal medicine seeks to restore true harmony and wholeness, and it is not surprising, therefore, that one of the commonest phrases a practitioner hears from a patient after treatment is ‘I feel so much better in myself’.
Together with advice, the patient receives individually dispensed herbal medication. There is no such thing as a remedy for an illness, each prescription is unique to the person concerned and subsequent prescriptions may well be altered to adapt to changes in the condition.
The aim of the medicine is to assist in the patient’s own efforts to regain health. Herein lies another key principle of herbal medicine, the encouragement from the healing processes that are our natural responses to illness. Symptoms are indication of such responses and are certainly not to be suppressed (except¬¬¬ when sometimes they are overwhelm our vitality and, even then, only to reduce such excessive reactions).
The medicines used are prepared solely from planet material. In so doing, the medical herbalist rejects the notion of isolating the so-called ‘active constituents’, compounds and effects which nature provides. Time and again such isolated constituents and their synthetic ‘equivalents’ create drug products with little positive effects or dangerous side effects.
The common drug aspirin well demonstrates this principle. Originally derived from plants rich in salicylate compounds, like willow and meadowsweet (after whose Latin name Spiraea the drug was named), aspirin and similar drugs are now well know to damage the lining of the stomach. Bleeding and even ulceration are not uncommon in long term use. By contract, meadowsweet’s balance of ingredients enable it to be of great value in gastric problems, such as excess acidity and heartburn.
There are many other similar examples on record, which suggest that the very complexity and nature of herbal medicines, provide a relatively high degree of safety which in itself is, of course, one of the attractions of this system of healing. The more rounded, and often multiple benefits, to be derived from plants are a vital part of the herbal approach, quite different from the ‘magic bullet’ concept which even orthodox medicine has largely discarded.
‘whole plants for whole people’ might be a suitable slogan to advertise the principles and practice of Medical Herbalism.
In summary, herbal medicine:
1. Treats people rather than diseases, causes rather than symptoms, individuals rather than stereotypes.
2. Use medication and advice to support the patient’s own vital energy and self healing potential.
3. Prescribes essentially non toxic herbal treatment derived from the whole plant and not from isolated or synthetic ingredients.