The History of Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine is the traditional or folk medicine practice of using plants to treat illness and disease. Depending on the plant, and what it is used for; leaves, seeds, flowers, stems, and roots are all used.

Many plants naturally synthesize substances that have healing properties for humans and other animals when ingested. (It’s interesting to note that the first humans to discover the healing properties of plants probably did so by observing the behavior of sick animals in the wild.)

These naturally occurring substances are what chemists isolate in order to create most of the pharmaceuticals that are in use today. (More on this later.)

Stated simply, herbal medicine is the oldest form of medicine known to humans. Before humans even had a written language they were already well versed in the medicinal use of plants. People have been using thousands of medicinal plants on every continent for thousands of years. Here are some of the historical highlights.

“In the written record, the study of herbs dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians, who described well-established medicinal uses for such plants as laurel, caraway, and thyme.

“Ancient Egyptian medicine of 1000 B.C. are known to have used garlic, opium, castor oil, coriander, mint, indigo, and other herbs for medicine and the Old Testament also mentions herb use and cultivation, including mandrake, vetch, caraway, wheat, barley, and rye…

“Indian Ayurveda medicine has been using herbs such as turmeric and curcumin possibly as early as 1900 B.C…

“The first Chinese herbal book, the Shennong Bencao Jing compiled during the Han Dynasty but dating back to a much earlier date, possibly 2700 B.C., lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses…

“Hippocrates advocated the use of a few simple herbal drugs - along with fresh air, rest, and proper diet.”

This information was obtained from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. If you would like to learn more about the history of herbal medicine, please visit them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbalism

As we said before, herbal medicine is relatively easy to learn, simple to use, inexpensive, and safe. And while these are all good reasons, the main reason why we choose herbal medicine is that it allows us to be completely responsible for our own health and the health of our family on a day to day basis.

We Bio-Kinetically Test every day for the exact herbs that we can take to keep our immune systems strong, and make our bodies unwelcome places for all of the bacteria, viruses, parasites etc. that are out there looking for a home.

We also strongly believe that naturally occurring herbs are a much safer alternative to most man made pharmaceuticals.

“Most every drug sold today has a natural-based predecessor. Drug companies and medical doctors obfuscate this historical fact. They like patients to think that drugs are intuitively invented out of thin are. This helps foster the very profitable belief that drugs are the only option for health. Understanding that nutritional supplements guide drug development will allow you more choices in health care- inexpensive and safe ones…

“There are life-saving distinctions between a drug and its natural-based predecessor. A prescription drug is a single isolate. A nutritional supplement contains a multitude of active substances. This distinction makes drugs more dangerous and less effective than nutritional supplements.

“As a single isolate, a drug does not target the underlying cause of illness. It only masks symptoms. Further, a drug isolate has no ‘buffers’ to offset negative side-effects. In sharp contrast, nutritional supplements utilize an array of ingredients to attack the illness at its core while striving to mitigate negative side-effects.”

Shane Ellison, M.Sc www.healthmyths.net

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