|
|
The
human body is much better suited to treatment with herbal
remedies than with isolated chemical medicines. We have
evolved side-by-side with plants over tens of thousands
of years, and our digestive system and physiology as
a whole are geared to digesting and utilizing plant-based
foods, which often have a medicinal value as well as
providing sustenance.
|
|
|
The dividing line between
"foods" and "medicines" may not
always be clear. Are lemons, papayas, onions, and
oats foods or medicines? The answer, very simply,
is that they are both. Lemon (Citrus limon) improves
resistance to infection; papaya (Carica papaya) is
taken in some parts of the world to expel worms; onion
(Allium cepa) relieves bronchial infections; and oats
(Avena sativa) support convalescence.
|
|
|
Although we might eat a bowl
of porridge oblivious to the medicinal benefits, it
will, nonetheless, increase stamina, help the nervous
system function correctly, provide a good supply of
B vitamins, and maintain regular bowel function. A
similar range of benefits is provided by many of the
other gentler-acting herbs.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The strategies that herbal
practitioners adopt to prevent illness or restore
health in their patients are different in the many
and varied herbal traditions across the planet, but
the effects that herbal medicines have within the
body to improve health do not vary. There are many
thousands of medicinal plants in use throughout the
world, with a tremendous range of actions and degrees
of potency. Most have a specific action on particular
body systems and are known to be suitable for treating
certain types of ailments.
|
|
|
| |
Improving the quality
of the diet is often an essential starting point in
sustaining or regaining good health. The saying "You
are what you eat" is by and large true, though
herbalists prefer to qualify it, saying "You
are what you absorb from what you eat." Herbal
medicines not only provide nutrients but when needed
they also strengthen and support the action of the
digestive system, speeding up the rate of processing
food and improving the absorption of nutrients.
|
|
| |
The body requires another
kind of "nutrient" to function — oxygen.
The lungs and respiratory system can be helped with
herbs that relax the bronchial muscles and stimulate
respiration. Once taken in by the body, nutrients
and medicines are carried to the body's estimated
three trillions cells. The circulatory system has
a remarkable ability to adapt to an endlessly shifting
pattern of demand. At rest, the flow of blood is mainly
toward the centre of the body; when active, the muscles
in the limbs make huge demands.
Herbal medicines work to encourage the circulation
in particular ways. Some, for example, encourage blood
to flow to the surface of the body; others stimulate
the heart to pump more efficiently, and others relax
the muscles of the arteries, lowering blood pressure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
