Health Index
Herbal Medicine
Index
Bodyscan
Herbal medicine is the
most ancient form of health care known to humankind.
Herbs have been used in all
cultures throughout history. Extensive scientific documentation now exists concerning
their use for health conditions, including premenstrual syndrome,
indigestion, insomnia, heart disease, cancer, and HIV.
Herbs have always been
integral to the practice of medicine.
The word drug comes from the
old Dutch word drogge meaning “to dry”, as pharmacists,
physicians, and ancient healers often dried plants for use as medicines. Today
approximately 25 percent of all prescription drugs are still derived from trees, shrubs, or herbs.
Some are made from plant extracts;
others are synthesized to mimic a natural plant compound.
The
World Health Organization notes that of 119 plant-derived pharmaceutical medicines, about 74 percent are used in modern
medicine in ways that correlated directly with their traditional uses as plant medicines by native cultures.
Yet, for the
most part, modern medicine has veered from the use of pure herbs in its treatment of disease and other health disorders.
One of the reasons for this is economic. Herbs, by their very nature, cannot be patented. Since herbs cannot be
patented and drug companies cannot hold the exclusive right to sell a particular herb, they are not motivated to invest any money in
that herb’s testing or promotion. The collection and preparation of herbal medicine cannot be easily controlled as a manufacture of synthetic drugs, making its profits less dependable. In addition, many of these medicinal plants grow only in the Amazonian rain forest or other politically and economically unstable places, which also affects the supply of the herb. Most importantly, the demand for herbal medicine has decreased in the United States because Americans have been conditioned to rely on synthetic, commercial drugs to provide quick relief, regardless of side effects.
Yet the current viewpoint seems to be changing.
“The revival of interest in herbal medicine is a worldwide phenomenon,” says Mark Elemental, Executive Director of the American Botanical Council. This renaissance is due to the growing concern of the general public about the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, the impersonal and often demeaning experience of modern health care practices, as well as a renewed recognition of the unique medicinal value of herbal
medicine.
“The scope of herbal
medicine ranges from mild-acting plant medicines such as chamomile and peppermint, to very potent ones such as foxglove (from which the pharmaceutical drug digitalis is derived). In between these two poles lies a wide spectrum of plant
medicine with significant medical applications, “ says Donald Brown, N.D., of Bastyr College, in Seattle, Washington and an educator in herbal medicine. “One need only go to the United States Pharmacopoeia to see the central role that plant medicine has played in American
medicine.
What Is An
Herb?
The word herb as used in herbal medicine (also known as botanical medicine or, in Europe, as phytotherapy or phytomedicine), means a plant or plant
part that is used to make medicine, food flavors (spices), or aromatic oils for soaps and fragrances.
An herb can be a leaf, a flower, a stem, a seed, a root, a fruit, bark, or any other plant part used for its medicinal, food flavoring, or fragrant property.
Herbs have provided humankind with medicine from
the earliest beginnings of civilization. Throughout history, various cultures have handed down their accumulated knowledge of the medicinal use of herbs to successive generations. This vast body of information serves as the basis for much of traditional medicine today.
There are an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 plants on the earth today (the number varies depending on whether subspecies are included). Only about 5,000 of these have been extensively studied for their medicinal applications. “This illustrates the need for modern medicine and science to turn its attention to the plant world once again to find new medicine that might cure cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and many other diseases and conditions,” says Norman R. Farnsworth, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Considering that 121 prescription drugs come from only ninety species of plants, and that 74 percent of these were discovered following up native folklore claims,” says Dr. Farnsworth, “a logical person would have
to say that there may still be more jackpots out there.”
How Herbal Medicine
Works
In general, herbal medicines work in much the same way as do conventional
pharmaceutical drugs, i.e., via their chemical makeup. Herbs contain a large number of naturally occurring chemicals that have
biological activity. In the past 150 years, chemists and pharmacists have been isolating and purifying the “active” compounds from plants in an attempt to produce reliable pharmaceutical drugs. Examples include such drugs like digoxin (from foxglove [Digitalis purpurea], reserpine (from Indian snakeroot [Rauwolfia serpentina]), colchicines (from autumn crocus [Colchicum
autumnale]), morphine (from the opium poppy [Papaver somniafera]), and many more. According to Andrew Weil, M.D., of Tucson, Arizona, because herbs and plants use an indirect route to the bloodstream and target organs, their effects are usually slower in onset and less dramatic than those of purified drugs administered by more direct routes. “Doctors and patients accustomed to the rapid,
intense effects of synthetic medicines may become impatient with botanicals for this reason,” Dr. Weil states.
Herbal medicine has most to offer when used to facilitate healing in chronic ongoing problems. By skillful selection of herbs for the patient, a profound transformation in health can be effected with less danger of the side effects inherent in drug-based medicine. However, the common assumption that herbs act slowly and mildly is not necessarily true. Adverse effects can occur if
an inadequate dose, a low-quality herb, or the wrong herb is prescribed for the patient.
The Action of Herbs
A great deal of pharmaceutical research has gone into analyzing the active ingredients of herbs to find out how and why
they work. This effect is referred to as the herb’s action.
Herbal actions describe the ways in which the remedy affects human physiology.
In some cases the action is due to a specific chemical present in the herb (as in the
antiasthmatic effects of ma-huang) or it may be due to a complex synergistic interaction between various constituents of the plant
(the sedative valerian is an example). A much older, and far more
relevant approach is to categorize herbs by looking at what kinds of problems can be treated with their help.
Plants have a direct impact on physiological activity and by knowing what body process one wants to help or heal, the appropriate action can be selected. The qualities of herbs which make them beneficial in treating the human body, include:
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- Adaptogenic:
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Adaptogenic herbs increase resistance and resilience to stress, enabling the body to adapt around the problem and avoid reaching collapse.
- Adaptogens work by supporting the adrenal glands.
- Alterative:
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Herbs that gradually restore proper functioning of the body, increasing
health and vitality.
- Anthelminitic:
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Herbs that destroy or expel intestinal worms.
- Anti-inflammatory:
- Herbs that soothe inflammations or reduce the inflammatory response of the tissue directly.
- They work in a number of
different ways, but rarely inhibit the natural inflammatory reaction as such.
- Antimicrobial:
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Antimicrobials help the body destroy or resist pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms.
- Herbs help the body strengthen its own resistance to infective organisms and throw off illness.
- While some contain
chemicals that are antiseptic or poisonous to certain organisms, in general they aid the body’s natural immunity.
- Antispasmodic:
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Antispasmodics ease cramps in smooth and skeletal muscles.
-
They alleviate muscular tension and can ease psychological tension as well.
- Astringent:
- Astringents have a binding action on mucous membranes, skin, and other tissue.
- They have the effect of reducing irritation and inflammation, and creating a barrier against infection that is helpful to wounds and burns.
- Bitter:
- Herbs with a bitter taste have a special role in preventative medicine.
- The taste triggers a sensory response in the central nervous system leading to a range of responses, including:
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stimulating appetite and the flow of digestive juices; aiding the liver’s detoxification work; increasing bile flow, and motivating gut self-repair mechanisms.
- Carminative:
- Plants that are rich in aromatic volatile oils stimulate the digestive system to work properly and with ease.
- They soothe gut wall;
reduce any inflammation that might be present; and ease griping pains and help with the removal of gas from the digestive tract.
- Demulcent:
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Demulcent herbs are rich in mucilage and soothe and protect irritated or inflamed tissue.
- They reduce irritation
down the whole length of the bowel, reduce sensitivity to potentially corrosive gastric acids, help prevent diarrhea, and reduce the muscle spasms that cause colic.
- Diuretic:
- Diuretics increase the production and elimination of
urine.
- They help the
body eliminate waste and support the whole process of inner cleansing.
- Emmenagogue:
-
Emmenagogues stimulate menstrual flow and activity.
-
With most herbs, however, the term is used in the wider sense for a remedy that affects the
female reproductive system.
- Expectorants:
- Herbs that stimulate removal of mucous from the lungs.
- Stimulating expectorants “irritate” the bronchioles (a subdivision of the bronchial tubes) causing expulsion of material.
- Relaxing expectorants soothe bronchial spasm and loosen mucous secretions, helping in dry, irritating coughs.
- Hepatics:
-
Hepatics air the liver.
-
They tone and strengthen the liver and in some cases increase the flow of bile.
- In a broad holistic
approach to health they are of great importance because of the fundamental role of the liver in maintaining health by not only
facilitating digestion but by removing toxins from the body.
- Hypotensive:
- Hypotensives are plant remedies that lower abnormally elevated blood pressure.
- Laxative:
- These
are plants that promote bowel movement.
-
They are divided into those that work by providing bulk, those that stimulate the
production of bile in the liver and its release from the gallbladder, and those that directly trigger peristalsis (wavelike
contractions of the smooth muscles of the digestive tract).
- Nervine:
-
Nervines help the nervous system and can be subdivided into three groups.
-
Nervine tonics strengthen and restore effective balance of the nervous system. As herbal medicines go, Highway of All Longevity would automatically assign high value to nervine tonics, provided that QRA testing is done on any product or substance or supplement, herbal or otherwise, before ingesting it.
NOTE: Highway of All Longevity viewpoint on medicines applies just as well: No product or substance, no supplement or medicine or pharmaceutical or home-made remedy can seem to deliver any nutrifying benefit to the body if it does not test strong via BDORT or QRA. Contact Reflex Analysis is another highly accurate and rapid modality for testing energetic strengths and weaknesses in herbal medicines and prescriptions alike. Further clinical research is amply justified by the empirical evidence existing already.
Intrinsic curiosity of Highway of All Longevity mindset suggests with no modest vigor of discourse that further development will engage saving of many billions of dollars worth of annual medical expense.... in the first year or two of the widespread dissemination and promotion of QRA. Test, test, test!
- Nervine relaxants ease
anxiety and tension by soothing both body and mind.
-
Nervine stimulants directly stimulate nerve activity.
- Stimulating:
- Stimulants quicken and invigorate
- the physiological and metabolic activity of the body.
- Tonic:
- Tonics nurture and enliven.
- They are used frequently in Traditional Chinese Medicine
and Ayurvedic Medicine, often as a preventative measure.
-
Tonic herbs like ginseng build vital energy, or qi.
Herbal Medicine Has Route of Natural Health Support As Its Natural
Herbal medicine is, can be considered a strange phrase, not least because the overweaning majority of all herbal medicine is little more and little less than the foods that grow naturally around the earth.
A prime cornerstone of the Route of Natural Health is that a diet of greens is the primary food, and everything else is mostly chatter, mere empty blatherskite and jaw-jacking. No human can expect to perform at more than a fraction of both physical and mental activity without a diet primarily made of greens.
Route of Natural Health Reminder To Remember The Basics! ... It makes teaching it to others a bit easier
Herbal medicines are, as often as not, perhaps a distinct majority of... you guess it, greens that grow in the ground, storing solar energy. The medicinal components within each of those plants require energizing directly from the sun simply because the sun, at least until MisterShortcut invented supercharging, megacharging, hypercharging, has always been the sole source of frequencies that resonate with specific cells in the human body, or any mammalian body. If the food does not have solar energy stored that it can deposit into your intestine, then it's erroneous and misleading to call it food, because it's not food.
Herbal medicines manufactured by humans have no significant history of success. To date, no manufacturer or other purveyor of herbal medicines has succeed at one one-thousandth (quite literally) than the herbal medicines produced by the planet. As it does so often, mastery of this subject requires at least a few minutes' experience with the one-second energy test. Those who don't know how to do the one-second energy test are missing out of the best parts of their health, energy, and the quality of their longevity. Those who do know how to do the one-second energy test get to leap past most or all of their peers, rapidly, with surprising improvements showing up in just the first few weeks and even days. Let's glimpse a great example.
People spend all that money on surgically removing bags and lines under the eyes. Why not do it yourself, no charge? Wet your face, then take only a few drops on each of two or four or even eight fingers, and rub them into the area beneath and around your eyes? Take a photo today, start doing it one to five times per day.
In 21 or 22 days, take photos again and see what 30 seconds per day can do WHEN YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT EVERYDAY. Let never-heated olive oil, or a good coconut oil, be YOUR herbal medicine for do-it-yourself facelifts.
Take 2 adults, each of whom are at or near forty years of age. Even if you cross out most all other factors, if one is massaging the skin under her eyes, giving it tension and relaxation, mostly every day for a dozen years, what do YOU think the difference is going to be? Having done this for a dozen years now, the results are seemingly impossible, and yet, the simplest of oils from the earth, from fruits that absorbed the energy that the sun provided, serves as Route of Natural Health herbal medicine when we use it appropriately.
Test after test proves identical results in all people tested. "Pattern" is not too strong a term here.
Most of all, learn more, that you might live more. If, for example, you have an issue of health that you're most concerned about, even if you're an idiot, you're capable of learning at least three new specific and USEFUL facts per day... wait, wait... about that specific issue alone. Focusing narrowly makes your brain-focus much stronger than it is in this moment, and if you knew better, you'd do better. Shh. Let us only imitate the people who repeatedly and routinely outperform everyone else.
By staying narrowly focused, and always or nearly always adding "herbal medicine" to the health issue you're working on, you're going to get more knowledgeable, at a speed you will find remarkable, meaning you'll be driven to mention it to others.
Keep in mind, both the Shortcut Zen of Mastery and Route of Natural Health are about YOU getting two and three and even five steps' worth of progress with most all of the steps you take in a forwards direction. In the instant case, you get more than just more knowledge stored in your brain: Your brain function itself increases in quantity and quality, very rapidly. Like any muscle, it gets, over time, exercised or else made stagnant. There are no other choices, we cannot coast downhill, and people are not know for getting younger as they age.
To beat the system that is designed and functioning to keep you sick long enough to suck your life's earnings and savings and more, you might want to recognize the power of having knowledge of herbal medicines in your life. After all, the life you save just might be your own. Make the Route of Natural Health state of mind work for you, in your favor, and in the favor of those you care for.
This next week or so, within some five-minute daily effort, let's get 3 new facts about herbal medicine into your brain ....... facts that specifically fall within the area of health that is of greatest interest to YOU right now at this point and moment in life. The greater our personal interest in a subject, the faster we gain facility with the associated tools, whether they're physical tools, or simply great knowledge.
Learn more, live more. Be your own Route of Natural Health, and you'll never need a refund. :-)
Herbal Medicine Has Route of Natural Health Support As Its Natural
Herbal medicine is, can be considered a strange phrase, not least because the overweaning majority of all herbal medicine is little more and little less than the foods that grow naturally around the earth.
A prime cornerstone of the Route of Natural Health is that a diet of greens is the primary food, and everything else is mostly chatter, mere empty blatherskite and jaw-jacking. No human can expect to perform at more than a fraction of both physical and mental activity without a diet primarily made of greens.
Route of Natural Health Reminder To Remember The Basics! ... It makes teaching it to others a bit easier
Herbal medicines are, as often as not, perhaps a distinct majority of... you guess it, greens that grow in the ground, storing solar energy. The medicinal components within each of those plants require energizing directly from the sun simply because the sun, at least until MisterShortcut invented supercharging, megacharging, hypercharging, has always been the sole source of frequencies that resonate with specific cells in the human body, or any mammalian body. If the food does not have solar energy stored that it can deposit into your intestine, then it's erroneous and misleading to call it food, because it's not food.
Herbal medicines manufactured by humans have no significant history of success. To date, no manufacturer or other purveyor of herbal medicines has succeed at one one-thousandth (quite literally) than the herbal medicines produced by the planet. As it does so often, mastery of this subject requires at least a few minutes' experience with the one-second energy test. Those who don't know how to do the one-second energy test are missing out of the best parts of their health, energy, and the quality of their longevity. Those who do know how to do the one-second energy test get to leap past most or all of their peers, rapidly, with surprising improvements showing up in just the first few weeks and even days. Let's glimpse a great example.
People spend all that money on surgically removing bags and lines under the eyes. Why not do it yourself, no charge? Wet your face, then take only a few drops on each of two or four or even eight fingers, and rub them into the area beneath and around your eyes? Take a photo today, start doing it one to five times per day.
In 21 or 22 days, take photos again and see what 30 seconds per day can do WHEN YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT EVERYDAY. Let never-heated olive oil, or a good coconut oil, be YOUR herbal medicine for do-it-yourself facelifts.
Take 2 adults, each of whom are at or near forty years of age. Even if you cross out most all other factors, if one is massaging the skin under her eyes, giving it tension and relaxation, mostly every day for a dozen years, what do YOU think the difference is going to be? Having done this for a dozen years now, the results are seemingly impossible, and yet, the simplest of oils from the earth, from fruits that absorbed the energy that the sun provided, serves as Route of Natural Health herbal medicine when we use it appropriately.
Test after test proves identical results in all people tested. "Pattern" is not too strong a term here.
Most of all, learn more, that you might live more. If, for example, you have an issue of health that you're most concerned about, even if you're an idiot, you're capable of learning at least three new specific and USEFUL facts per day... wait, wait... about that specific issue alone. Focusing narrowly makes your brain-focus much stronger than it is in this moment, and if you knew better, you'd do better. Shh. Let us only imitate the people who repeatedly and routinely outperform everyone else.
By staying narrowly focused, and always or nearly always adding "herbal medicine" to the health issue you're working on, you're going to get more knowledgeable, at a speed you will find remarkable, meaning you'll be driven to mention it to others.
Keep in mind, both the Shortcut Zen of Mastery and Route of Natural Health are about YOU getting two and three and even five steps' worth of progress with most all of the steps you take in a forwards direction. In the instant case, you get more than just more knowledge stored in your brain: Your brain function itself increases in quantity and quality, very rapidly. Like any muscle, it gets, over time, exercised or else made stagnant. There are no other choices, we cannot coast downhill, and people are not know for getting younger as they age.
To beat the system that is designed and functioning to keep you sick long enough to suck your life's earnings and savings and more, you might want to recognize the power of having knowledge of herbal medicines in your life. After all, the life you save just might be your own. Make the Route of Natural Health state of mind work for you, in your favor, and in the favor of those you care for.
This next week or so, within some five-minute daily effort, let's get 3 new facts about herbal medicine into your brain ....... facts that specifically fall within the area of health that is of greatest interest to YOU right now at this point and moment in life. The greater our personal interest in a subject, the faster we gain facility with the associated tools, whether they're physical tools, or simply great knowledge.
Learn more, live more. Be your own Route of Natural Health, and you'll never need a refund. :-)
Herbal Medicine Has Route of Natural Health Support As Its Natural
Herbal medicine is, can be considered a strange phrase, not least because the overweaning majority of all herbal medicine is little more and little less than the foods that grow naturally around the earth.
A prime cornerstone of the Route of Natural Health is that a diet of greens is the primary food, and everything else is mostly chatter, mere empty blatherskite and jaw-jacking. No human can expect to perform at more than a fraction of both physical and mental activity without a diet primarily made of greens.
Route of Natural Health Reminder To Remember The Basics! ... It makes teaching it to others a bit easier
Herbal medicines are, as often as not, perhaps a distinct majority of... you guess it, greens that grow in the ground, storing solar energy. The medicinal components within each of those plants require energizing directly from the sun simply because the sun, at least until MisterShortcut invented supercharging, megacharging, hypercharging, has always been the sole source of frequencies that resonate with specific cells in the human body, or any mammalian body. If the food does not have solar energy stored that it can deposit into your intestine, then it's erroneous and misleading to call it food, because it's not food.
Herbal medicines manufactured by humans have no significant history of success. To date, no manufacturer or other purveyor of herbal medicines has succeed at one one-thousandth (quite literally) than the herbal medicines produced by the planet. As it does so often, mastery of this subject requires at least a few minutes' experience with the one-second energy test. Those who don't know how to do the one-second energy test are missing out of the best parts of their health, energy, and the quality of their longevity. Those who do know how to do the one-second energy test get to leap past most or all of their peers, rapidly, with surprising improvements showing up in just the first few weeks and even days. Let's glimpse a great example.
People spend all that money on surgically removing bags and lines under the eyes. Why not do it yourself, no charge? Wet your face, then take only a few drops on each of two or four or even eight fingers, and rub them into the area beneath and around your eyes? Take a photo today, start doing it one to five times per day.
In 21 or 22 days, take photos again and see what 30 seconds per day can do WHEN YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT EVERYDAY. Let never-heated olive oil, or a good coconut oil, be YOUR herbal medicine for do-it-yourself facelifts.
Take 2 adults, each of whom are at or near forty years of age. Even if you cross out most all other factors, if one is massaging the skin under her eyes, giving it tension and relaxation, mostly every day for a dozen years, what do YOU think the difference is going to be? Having done this for a dozen years now, the results are seemingly impossible, and yet, the simplest of oils from the earth, from fruits that absorbed the energy that the sun provided, serves as Route of Natural Health herbal medicine when we use it appropriately.
Test after test proves identical results in all people tested. "Pattern" is not too strong a term here.
Most of all, learn more, that you might live more. If, for example, you have an issue of health that you're most concerned about, even if you're an idiot, you're capable of learning at least three new specific and USEFUL facts per day... wait, wait... about that specific issue alone. Focusing narrowly makes your brain-focus much stronger than it is in this moment, and if you knew better, you'd do better. Shh. Let us only imitate the people who repeatedly and routinely outperform everyone else.
By staying narrowly focused, and always or nearly always adding "herbal medicine" to the health issue you're working on, you're going to get more knowledgeable, at a speed you will find remarkable, meaning you'll be driven to mention it to others.
Keep in mind, both the Shortcut Zen of Mastery and Route of Natural Health are about YOU getting two and three and even five steps' worth of progress with most all of the steps you take in a forwards direction. In the instant case, you get more than just more knowledge stored in your brain: Your brain function itself increases in quantity and quality, very rapidly. Like any muscle, it gets, over time, exercised or else made stagnant. There are no other choices, we cannot coast downhill, and people are not know for getting younger as they age.
To beat the system that is designed and functioning to keep you sick long enough to suck your life's earnings and savings and more, you might want to recognize the power of having knowledge of herbal medicines in your life. After all, the life you save just might be your own. Make the Route of Natural Health state of mind work for you, in your favor, and in the favor of those you care for.
This next week or so, within some five-minute daily effort, let's get 3 new facts about herbal medicine into your brain ....... facts that specifically fall within the area of health that is of greatest interest to YOU right now at this point and moment in life. The greater our personal interest in a subject, the faster we gain facility with the associated tools, whether they're physical tools, or simply great knowledge.
Learn more, live more. Be your own Route of Natural Health, and you'll never need a refund. :-)
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