Herbal Medicine – Part I – Philosophical and historical Background
History
Herbal medicine has long been around since before recorded history. Cave paintings in France, radiocarbon dated to before 13,000 BC, present the use of plants as healing agents. Herbalism was intimately connected to religious practices, and was frequently the jealously-guarded preserve of shamans, or maybe “witch doctors”. The use of natural herbs as medicine pervades all cultures.
The earliest written records date back more than 5000 years in Western society on to the Sumerian civilization. In the East, the Siddha, Unani and Ayurvedic devices from India arose long before the Christian era, and tend to be nevertheless practiced today. And standard Chinese herbology is still thriving also.
Africa has a long history of herbal remedies, clearly influenced by the links of its with trading partners from both West and east. Indigenous Americans hold on the perception that illness is the result of a disturbance in one’s sense of balance with nature, and can be cured by rituals that often add the usage of herbal medicines.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 % of the world’s population makes use of herbal medicine for some area of primary health care. Many pharaceuticals being made use of today by physicians were initially used as herbal cures, including aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. In recent years, researchers have been searching all over the world for healthy sources of phytochemicals which might be developed into treatments for various illnesses. The WHO estimates that 25 % of medicines currently in use in the U.S. had been produced from plants.
Philosophy
Philosophy
Regardless of the point that herbal medicines have a lengthy history of use, the point that in many cases their effectiveness hasn’t been scientifically proven has led to a controversy between herbalists and mainstream medicine. In Western culture, the rise of modern healthcare procedure brought with it a decline in the usage of herbal medicines. This gave rise to the idea that such cures happened to be nothing more than “old wives tales.” Recently, however, herbalism has become recognized by many as an alternative, or sometimes complementary approach to therapy.
In my research because of this article, I discovered that there are essentially 4 groups, american shaman delta 8 near me (Related Web Page) each espousing varying points of view regarding the usage of herbal remedies: one) herbalists, two) pharaceutical manufacturers, often aided by physicians, 3) vitamin and mineral supplement companies, with some assistance from herbalists, and 4) governmental institutions.
To be continued…