The Medical Herbalist’s holistic approach is keeping abreast of scientific research with its most recent global clinical trials and blending systematic review findings with ancient traditional and less widely published local herbal manuals and books. Such combination of skills blends scientific rigour with artistic flair.
Western Medical Herbalism entails both modern medical and holistic diagnoses from the Greek, Ayurvedic and Oriental Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Taoist traditions into one eclectic style.
In the UK, there are degree level courses teaching Western Medical Herbalism, differential diagnosis, clinical nutrition, phytochemistry, pharmacognosy, botany, pathophysiology and how to evaluate clinical studies. In Europe, standard medicine courses do not generally include any of the subjects, which are essential in Phyto-Therapy or Myco-Therapy: Botany, Phytochemistry and Pharmacognosy and these subjects are infrequently included in degrees dedicated to Agriculture and Pharmacy. Despite the fact that traditional Herbalism is underestimated by the medical academic Western world, it remains the most economic, sustainable and naturally available provision of medicines worldwide.
Traditional medicine includes a wide variety of modalities of treatment, amongst which first and foremost, prayer, which has always been and still is the most common demonstration of the awareness of connection of the human body with the mind and the spirit. A clear example of the power of the mind and spirit over the body is clearly recognizable in clinical hypnosis, which is conducted under surgery instead of anaesthetics, although its efficacy takes an almost magically skilled and lucid Practitioner and ordinary patients do usually expect to find such high levels of hypnosis or mind techniques or place their trust in such options.
The second most widely spread modality of healing is chicken broth, due to its low-cost antiviral activity but of limited value when compared, for example to the activities of herbs such as Echinacea (Angustifolia / purpurea species), Elderberry (Sambucs nigra), Ginger (Zingiber officinale) or many distilled essential oil concentrations or medicinal mushrooms.
Medicinal mushrooms possess pharmacokinetics, which have been classified as analogue to Biological Response Modifiers (BRM) in modulating the innate immune system. Food grade medicinal mushrooms contribute to significant digestive prebiotic nourishment of the intestinal microbiota as well as to modulation of both acute and chronic microbial infections, of the inflammatory response and to restoration of homeostasis to the cellular life cycle .
The third most widespread traditional medical cure is, therefore, Medical Herbalism, which is also the most complete form of traditional medicine, not just a way of healing the body, mind and spirit, such as a prayer or one single remedy, such as chicken broth, but which comprises virtually infinite cures within.
Medical Herbalism has always been ubiquitous worldwide from East to West with its diverse cultural inspirations and has always included mushrooms as medicines, although fungi belong to their own very kingdom. All fungi are heterotroph, as they cannot produce their own food like plants do by producing chlorophyll, rather, mushrooms must feed on other types of organisms, similarly to human beings and to animals.
Today, just 600 million out of 7 billion people worldwide can afford synthetic drugs, while the rest of peoples have almost always ever only used traditional plants and mushrooms rather than expensively patented drugs. For these reasons, plant and mushroom medicines ought not be regarded as alternative when compared to modern and innovative therapeutic modalities.
Medical Herbalism continues throughout the ages until now to be economically accessible and to provide suistainable medicines for most countries on the planet, whilst patenting its genetic wealth remains controversial.
@ 2007 All Rights Reserved by Elena Renier, Medical Herbalist
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