How do you explain to people the difference..

[Taol]

Ive been wondering as of late how to tell people the difference between modern medicine and herbal medicine.

So far Ive come to that modern medicine intervenes with normal body functions to get a required result, whereas herbal medicine is more like you give something to support the natural body functions through which then the required result is obtained.

I think people whom come to alternative medicine are either fed up with the normal system, or have had good results in the past with herbs or follow their instinct and have a love for greens.

What are your opinions, or maybe better question, how would you explain this to someone?
And also to bring it somewhat convincingly.
To change the world requires knowledge and how to bring things (say them), and this requires studying and also practice.


Many plants have the active substance linked to a glycoside or something similar which then breaks down at the required place in the body.
Instead of treating every cell inside the body which is what modern medicine does.

I do not think that any factory made substance can be made to do this.

 

[ed8874]

I can tell you the one between traditional chinese medicine and western one.

Western medicine sees the body as a machine that has different parts and tries with their medicines to fix that one part that doesent work. (For example if you have gastritis they give u a specific medicine for that and don't look at where the problem comes from)

Tcm knows that the body parts are all connected so if you for example have gastritis it might mean that one of your organs isnt in harmony and unbalanced.

I am sure centralforce will give you a better answer, I think I read what I wrote from him.

 

[centralforce6661]

Herbal Medicine responds to body imbalances which are generally not isolated to one chemical pathway.

Often these imbalances are described energetically or in relation to their resemblance to natural phenomena.

Whilst Western medicine views each drug as applicable to all people with the same disease, herbal medicine is often applied differently to two people who have the same disease, as each person is in a different state of disharmony.

Many newer ideas of thought in Western herbalism have poisoned the art by using western disease names to diagnose and thus apply treatment which produces mixed results in terms of treatment success.

Herbal medicine is also polypharmic, meaning that often more than one herb should be used as many herbs have actions which are too strong to administer singularly and can cause greater harm than good.

A misconception about herbal medicine is that it is safe at all times - this is not correct.

Whilst many herbs are relatively mild and will not cause great problems if administered wrongly, they have the potential to change the energetic state of the body even in a permanent fashion.

Some herbs have compounds whose half lives in the human body extend over years and wrongly administering these can cause problems. There are also a number of herbal medicines which are highly toxic and overdose can cause death let alone the myriad of problems at lower doses of used incorrectly.

Herbal medicine requires a great deal of understanding, research and skill as well as a solid system of diagnosis and treatment application to underpin the practice of it, without which it becomes almost worthless.

I have chosen TCM as the underpinning method to apply this medicine however there is great merit to the Ayurvedic system and Western herbalism has its strong points too however much of it has been shifted to a Western medical paradigm as mentioned by others, where they focus solely on one active ingredient or apply herbs to Western disease names as though the herb is a drug.

Herbs are things which change the body's state by encouraging an action within the body, by moistening or purging or causing sweat (diaphoresis), heat can be added or drained away and energetic states can be harmonised by combinations of herbs with differing actions.

Some herbs are applied to treat the herbs themselves such as licorice which is applied in TCM purely as a moderator and harmoniser of the other herbs in a given formula, and not to achieve an effect necessarily of its own on the patient.

Different processing techniques also changes the property of herbs which enables one plant item to possess a few qualities based on how it is cooked or what it is mixed with when processed.

 

[Taol]

I wouldnt dare to otherwise. Herbalism is a practice quite directly connected with spirituality. The "monks" tried to preserve this art and grew herbs in their gardens, but one can only wonder how much has been lost and corrupted due to the xian faith.

Back in the days herbalists were persecuted just as much as any witches or pagans.

Also there are records of so called enhancing creams used by witches which basically involves the use of hallucinogenic herbs, a few others, some can be somewhat poisonous and they seem to be made on a base of animal fat.
I was not thinking of trying it, but this said to induce hallucinations, like flying, etc. This is done either to persecute crazy ladies and to discredit real paganism most likely.
Anyway these are my thoughts on it.


There are not yet a lot of things that I find important enough to do them to perfection, but peoples health shouldnt be messed around with and as a result Im kind of disgusted by the calendula promotors like it is a herb that can cure all. It may solve or help in a lot of things, but there are some indications that cant be solved by this herb due to a different background.