Herbal Medicine

If you have never been to a naturopath, or are new to the naturopathic world, you may be unfamiliar with how we treat.  The main modalities I practice are Herbal medicine, and Nutrition.  Both are wonderful and effective entities in themselves, but when used therapeutically together, they can be outstanding in their effect on people, helping them to become well.



Herbal medicine is under utilised by our largely Western society in Australia.  However, from a world-wide point of view, the majority of medicine taken around the world are herbal remedies.  Herbal medicine is not a primitive form of treating that has been superseded by modern medicine.  It still has relevance and so much to offer to people in the 21st century.  It is my wish that more people are going to learn about and turn to herb medicine.  The 'world of the weed' has so much to offer!


Some of the herbs I use in my dispensary would have been familiar to, and used by the Greeks and Chinese 3000 years ago.  This is exciting.  Remedies would not be handed down over thousands of years if they weren't effective.  Our ancestors had a different concept of illness than today's modern medicine.  Back then they viewed diseases as imbalances to be corrected, rather than invasions to be attacked.  Herbal remedies were used to adjust patterns of disorder, and gently nudge a body back to health.


One of the most wonderful things about the herbal world is that herbs behave as more than just an assembly of chemicals.  Whereas many drugs are used for only one action on a specific disease state, many herbs can be used across different body systems, and have multiple actions.  I may be a bit biased, but I think that's tremendously exciting.

I am going to run an occasional series on some of the more common herbs that I have in my dispensary, so that you can get a sense of just how amazing these common plants, or weeds are.

Hayfever

This Spring in Melbourne has seen many people suffering with hay fever.  Even people who have never had hay fever before are experiencing symptoms.  So, what exactly is hay fever?

 It's correct name is seasonal allergic rhinitis, and it is the result of the body mounting an allergic response to pollens and grasses that are present at certain times of the year - particularly late winter and spring.  Symptoms may include sneezing, runny nose, irritated eyes and itchy ears or mouth.  The exhaustion that many people experience is a result of the immune response that the body mounts in response to the pollen.  The body views the pollen as an invader, and releases cascades of inflammatory chemicals.

There are many things you can do apart from taking anti-histamine medication, to reduce your symptoms.  They include:

Vitamins
Take a good quality vitamin C tablet or powder regularly during the day.  Up to  3g of Vitamin C over a day should be fine.  Vitamin C in conjunction with the bioflavonoid quercetin works best, as quercetin is a natural anti-histamine.

Herbs

Nettle

Elderflower tea can be very effective, especially for nasal symptoms.  Choose an organic, loose leaf tea, and drink several cups throughout the day.  Nettle tea is also very useful.  You can make it with either fresh nettle leaves (use gloves!), or buy it as a dried organic tea.      


Liquid herbs
One of my favourite things as a naturopath is being able to create individualised herbal tonics for people.  Herbal tonics can be formulated to be anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory and immune modulating so are great for helping the body reduce its immune response to pollens.

Diet
If hay fever symptoms are still getting you down, it may be a good time to review your diet.  To decrease the load on your immune system, reduce any foods that could be potential allergens.  This could involve avoiding or reducing wheat products such as bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits, pastries, etc.  Dairy products may also be increasing the allergenic load on your body so need to be reduced.  Food additives such as the sulphur that is in non-organic dried fruit, and wine can worsen or trigger hay fever symptoms, so are best avoided.

Preparation
The best results are achieved by preparing your body for hay fever season a good 6 weeks before you expect symptoms to start.  However, if it is already upon you, taking good quality herbal and nutritional supplements will still greatly decrease your symptoms.

Naturopathic Wisdom

Last night I went to a talk given by a woman who was one of my lecturers during my Naturopathy degree.  I hadn't heard this woman speak for many years, and it was a wonderful experience to sit and listen to her wise words again.  She trained as a naturopath in the 'old' days, over 30 years ago.  Back then Naturopathy hadn't been complicated by the need to be evidenced based and scientifically valid, which is now the case.  Most courses now only teach evidence based treatments.  It is considered progressive and more desirable to make naturopathy more scientifically accountable.  Prior to the last 10 -15 years, there was a strong emphasis on teaching students naturopathic philosophy.  Naturopathic philosophy hasn't changed for the last couple of hundred years, but is at risk of being forgotten, or over-shadowed, by evidence based treatments, and dare I say it, a need or desire to sell lots of products or supplements. 



If naturopaths are focused on prescribing products to their patients, they may not be focused on understanding their patient, and viewing their disease or condition through a naturopathic paradigm.  In this instance there is little to distinguish a naturopath from a medical practitioner.  The only difference will be in the prescription - drugs versus herbal and nutritional supplements.



A naturopath that remains true to naturopathic philosophy will not sell you a product to treat each symptom that you present with.  Naturopathy has so much more to offer.  A good naturopath will investigate how the condition or illness you present with is being experienced in your body. The basis of naturopathic philosophy is that the body is self healing.  Therefore, what processes have occurred or not occurred to allow this condition to take hold in your body?  How do you operate energetically, metabolically, and emotionally?  It is the job of the naturopath to determine how healing has failed for their patient, and what processes are not functioning well to allow the disease process to take hold.

This is the strength of naturopathy.  We are able to do this through having a longer consultation time with people, and asking many questions, and also through using Iridology.  Sometimes a thorough case history may provide all the information, and sometimes Iridology can be used to understand a person and what is happening in their body more deeply. 

Knowledge of scientific research and evidence based treatments is necessary, but allowing naturopathic philosophy to determine a patient's treatment protocol is essential to provide good naturopathic care.