As caregivers for our animals, we can look to them as our guides as we become more and more familiar with using herbal medicine. Even though the past century has muted humans symbiotic relationship with nature, for animals, that relationship remains intact and innate. Animals and plants have coexisted for a millennia and whole plant medicine is the simplest way to achieve effective healing for the many aliments that effect our animals each day with little or no side effects.
Plants cleanse, regulate and nourish the body through an unspoken intelligence. All living creatures have a predisposition for whole plant medicine. Think of it as a type of genetic memory. I know for some, especially those practicing allopathic Western medicine, it
…show more content…
is hard to imagine that plants are intelligent beings. However, when you look at their ability to enter the body and seek out imbalances, changing internal environments to bring about healing, how can anyone have any doubt? While this idea of intelligence may be deemed as unscientific, by no means can it be proven false. Prior to 1930, Western herbalism and homeopathic medicine were at the forefront of modern medicine. Plant identification, knowledge of use and intuition was a skill utilized by caregivers, mothers, traveling doctors, vets as well as community healers. After World War II, the convenience of pills and evidence based medicine became popular with the rise of antibiotics and new standards for Western medical doctors. The vet industry has also followed this pattern creating the evidence based healing model with the support of big pharma. Today, the veterinary industry is plagued with chemical based medicine instead of putting their efforts towards preventing disease. Luckily we are seeing a resurgence of interest in the use of natural medicine and the use of herbs in one form or another. What I find troubling is that for many, using plants for healing has once again taken the form of the familiar; standardized herbal extracts in the form of a pill. I have consulted with many a dog who had their Monday thru Sunday pill box. When plants are used in their natural state, it does not include the use of standardized extracts and plant derived pharmaceuticals. These medicines do not resemble their plant of origin because they are only providing one or two active ingredients. Sadly, they are void of the other thousand or so chemicals that help keep the plant in check and balance its negative effects so it can more effectively heal and nourish the body. An excellent example of isolating one ingredient of a plant at the expense of another is milk thistle (silybum marianum).
Milk thistle is an herb that I use consistently in my practice. Not only is it a wonderful liver regenerator, it also protects the liver from toxins during allopathic drug therapy. The “active ingredient” in milk thistle is silymarin. When given as an isolated chemical, silymarin can interfere with the liver’s ability to metabolize prescription drugs. This is the opposite effect that silymarin has when administered as whole plant medicine. When used as either a tincture or powdered supplement, silymarin is accompanied by all of the plant’s constituents. This allows the plant to support the liver by assisting it with detoxification instead of interfering with it.
The effectiveness of any plant is not due to the action of any one chemical as modern science would have you believe. When plants are synthesized in a lab, they are analyzed to find their most potent and active components. The rest of the plant is left behind. What science is forgetting is that each leaf, stem, flower and root work in their own unique way to deliver what is need to the body.
The synergy of plants is the foundation of herbal medicine because fresh plant material provides living medicine for all of us, including our pets. This synergistic quality has always baffled scientists because some things can not be broken down and understood at a molecular level. It is often the in-between
…show more content…
and the unknown of life where the miracles happen. Good Intentions But At What Cost? Standardization was created with the hope and promise of uniformity. Guaranteeing the consumer that a specific amount of a plants “active ingredients” are contained within. Standardized dosage also allows for more accurate measurability. This format enables plant extracts to be used in clinical trials as well as marketed as “proven” and “effective”. Gravitating towards the familiar and the consistent (the backbone of good marketing) many good intentioned people choose evidence based herbal medicine in order to feel secure. But at what cost? Knowing how and from what quality of plant sources your medicines come from is important. I can go out and harvest enough plant material to make a tincture knowing what solvents I have used and if my plants are either wild, grown myself, or purchased from a small herbal company that I can trust. Focusing on quality medicines is always an essential factor in whole plant medicine. Unfortunately, like essential oils, standardized extracts call for large amounts of plant material and focusing on growing conditions that provide for quantity or quality. Quantity over quality can also involve the use of toxic solvents in the production of extracts. Just as herbalists use grain alcohol and glycerine, large manufacturers sometimes use solvents like hexane, acetone, and ethanol. All of these chemicals leave behind residues that can also attribute to side effects. Standardized extracts and plant-based pharmaceuticals are not part of any natural healing cycle. The synthesizing of specific plant constituents to make a standardized dose changes the structure of the plant’s medicine as well as separating it from its intended purpose and synergistic intelligence. Using plants to create more refined extracts and medications has its place in modern medicine.
I an not saying that standardized extracts cannot be effectively utilized in self-care but when it comes to using plants for everyday medicine, long-term healing and prolonged health, it is best to use plants in their natural state.
The Franciscan friar, William of Ockham who has been attributed to the principle known as Occam’s Razor which basically states that “when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better”. I could not agree more and when it comes to using plants as medicine, the simplicity of whole plant medicine cannot be replicated.
In part two of using whole plant medicine, I will discuss the different forms of whole plant medicines, making specific medicines for dogs, how to purchase herbs as well as resources for purchasing pre-made whole plant medicines and working with an herbalist. In the meantime, I highly recommend viewing the documentary Numen. It is a lovely account of the healing power of plants and our relationship to them. Numen can be viewed at
http://www.numenfilm.com
My grandmother grew up in Americus, GA, a rural town over 100 miles south of Atlanta. Her parents were of Cherokee descent, so I asked her about any herbal remedies passed down to her. She told me of several, but the one that she remembered with the most clarity was rabbit tobacco.
Since the beginning of the human race mankind has depended on the natural resources in their environment for survival. They utilized the available flora to nourish their body, heal their wounds, comfort their ailments and to create products to ease their daily lives. Many of the same plants utilized thousands of years ago by the indigenous people have been integrated into modern day medicines. The scientific interest and knowledge of plants for nourishment, healing, and practical uses is called ethnobotany.
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
The only part of the plant that is consumed is the flower or bud. The stem and leaves of the plant can be broken down to make other materials. From this plant we could create consumer textiles, industrial textiles, paper, building materials, food, industrial products, and hygiene product... ... middle of paper ... ... just over half of all drug arrested in the States.
Thus, herbal medicine is medicine made from different parts of plants. They have become very popular in modern times. Some of these herbal medicines can be helpful while others can be harmful.
Herbal Medicine: plant constructed goods that can be included as part of a personalized treatment plan. The majority of these products will be sourced and produced by synergistic-wellness for patients to conveniently fill prescriptions. These products may be prescribed as part of a personalized treatment
One of the major aspects of biodiversity is its assessment, which is nominated by its resources. Much concentration in drug plants was evinced during the early period of civilization. The use of plants for remedial purpose various human ailments and has prominently figured in ancient manuscripts such as ‘The Rigvedas’,‘The Bible’, ‘The Iliad’, ‘The Odyssey’, ‘The Sushrutsamhita’ and ‘The History of Herodotus’. The ancient Chinese were by means of drug plants more than six centuries ago. They were the pioneers in using plants as a valuable source of medicine.
...ave shown the effectiveness as weed, and they are known to lose their efficacy after time.
Objective: The objective of this paper is to identify the molecular structure of chemical constituents of commonly used botanicals and to investigate the relationship of botanical supplements to liver toxicity.
A herb-drug interaction is defined as any pharmacological modification caused by a herbal substance(s) to another exogenous-chemical (e.g. a prescription medication) in the diagnostic, therapeutic or other action of a drug in or on the body (Brazier and Levine, 2003). This relates to drug-drug interactions, herb-herb interaction or drug-food interaction. A herb can potentially mimic, magnify or reduce the effects of co-administered drugs and the consequences of these interactions can be beneficial, undesirable or harmful effects (Fugh and Ernst, 2001). It should be pointed out that both the putative active ingredient(s) and other constituents present in that herbal mixture have the potential to interact with various classes of drugs (Miller, 1998).
Herbal remedies’ qualities are widespread availability, lower cost, effective for chronic conditions. Herbal remedies are the use of plants or plant extract to treat a person’ overall health. Herbal treatments are prominent for developing countries for instance, “in Africa up to 90% and in India 70% of the population depend on traditional medicine to help meet their health care needs” (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011), due to their low cost and availability. Herbal remedies have gained attention in the past decades, and expanding their uses due to the increased interest of natural therapies (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Herbs used on the remedies grow in the wild throughout the world, therefore making it easy to
One of the oldest records of such medicinal recommendations is found in the writings of the Chinese scholar-emperor Shen Nung, who lived in 2735 BC He compiled a book about herbs, a forerunner of the medieval pharmacopoeias that listed all the then-known medications.
Over the past few years I have grown to be even fonder, through my volunteer work
So from last many thousands years the medicinal plant being used by humans for different therapeutic purpose and are changed to modern medicine like many modern drugs originated from plant source. Many of the life saving drug are isolated/extract from medicinal plant examples include Vincristine (Vinca), digoxin (Digitalis), quinine (cinchona bark), Atropine (Datura), Artimicine (Artimisia annua), morphine (from the opium poppy) (Vickers and Zollman, 1999). As per WHO the uses of herbal drug was increased day by day to two- three time more as compared to conventional drug in different form like nutraceuticals, ayurvedic drugs, traditional chinse medicine, Functional food etc (Evans, 1994).
As a summary, sick people should prefer alternative medicine instead of modern medicine. In this way, they all protect themselves from all the side effects of drugs and chemicals and they treat all the systems with most of the organs not only the disease and make their health better with taking advantage of psychological therapies. Traditional medicine applied on the patience centuries ago, so it is easy for people to trust this method. Also, if people do not have any allergies to any plant, it will be the more useful way because there are no side effects and chemicals which are harmful for the human bodies.