Secrets of the Medicine Man Thousand of years ago Man, and Beast lived in peace. Then Man grew hungry and decided to hunt beast. Beast grew angry and decided to send disease to man. Man grew weak and sick, and was close to death. Plant took pity upon Man and said, "Do not fear, for death will not visit you. For every disease that Beast sends you, you will find the cure in us." (Iroquois 34) This Iroquois folk-tale was used to explain the healing properties of plants. Plants have been used to cure all the aches and pains that have plagued mankind. There is a large body of research into herbal medicines. Great progress has been made in the isolation and identification of the constituents of medicinal plants using high pressure liquid chromatography and gas chromatography. Research to identify the main active components is carried out either in a search for new drugs or to enable claims to be made for proprietary herbal preparations. Medicinal plants have been generally shown to have not one but a combination of active principles. Once these principles are found, the next step is learning how to synthesize it The medical industry has been synthesizing medicine for years now. We have become so reliant on the industry, that the very notion of ingesting the plant matter has become sickening. People have even stopped eating balanced meals, in favor of neat multi-vitamins. Most of which have vitamins that cancel each other out. The problems with synthesizing medicine, out weighs the benefits. We should not continue to synthesize our medication. The first factor that one should consider is the cost of buying synthesizing medication versus taking the natural approach. According to Forbes Magazine consumers spent an estimated $3.5 billion on herbal supplements, almost twice the amount as in 1994. (Forbes 28) However Goldenseal now costs $100 a pound, up from $15 a pound a decade ago. When one considers the fact that it costs $1 billion, and requires 10 to 15 years of R&D to bring out a synthetic drug, one has to wonder why put up with it. The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), a small, non-profit organization, estimates that medicinal plants and microscopic organisms from the Third World contribute between US $30-60 billion a year to the US pharmaceutical industry alone.(Brace 14). On the other side of this discussion there are the United Plant Savers.
In Cherokee medicine, it is believed that councils of animals created diseases in order to avenge the loss of their families and living spaces. The plants, being sympathetic to humans, decided to each furnish a cure for these diseases. It is believed that the spirit of the plant will tell a sick person which one to use to cure his illness.
Each year, people spend billions of dollars on pharmaceutical drugs, but what if there was an option that was cheaper and natural? Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years and shows no sign of stopping. Many are familiar with Aloe Vera, a plant commonly used to treat burns, but it can also be used to speed the healing process of cuts. Herbal remedies have been around for a long time and have saved lives, like little Teddy’s life in No Witchcraft for Sale.
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
Many plants and plant derived products are used in cancer therapy as cytotoxic agents. Examples include Taxol that is used for breast cancer (which gets its active constituent from Pacific Yew tree) and the vinca alkaloids used for leukaemia (from the Madagascar ...
I intend to help readers question their healing practices and the state of today’s formal medicine—to influence thought, education of the reality and exploration of the natural medicine realm.
Lindberg, D. (n.d.). Herbal Medicine: MedlinePlus. U.S National Library of Medicine. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbal
It is estimated that around the world, 80% of people use herbal medicines as a primary health care through the World Health Organization("Herbal Medicine: MedlinePlus.").This makes sense, since some of the most populated places on earth are China and India which are third world nations that cannot afford and have not been modernized completely still sticking to ancient practice that are reliably for them.Even though the United States is a first world nation,Americans have a lower life expectancy and worse health care than all the other first world nations(Bland, DR. Jeffrey S). This fact is incredibly starling for the reason that the US has some most advanced treatments in the world.The problem is that contagious illness will not kill, but the chronic ones like heart disease and diabetes will kills society.“ Yet that is exactly the same medicine today as society face a tsunami of chronic disease that will cost on global economy 47 trillion dollars over the next 20 years and kill twice as many people around the world as infectious diseases(Bland, DR. Jeffrey S).”The truth is that treating the chronic disorders is not cheaper and is not realistic.The health care is like anything less it should be focused on preparing the problems the same as a someone would change the oil in their car so that it does not blow up the engine and the machining have to replace the whole thing.This is like what people are doing today, but unlike a car person cannot replace the engine when it is destroyed .Think about the numbers the facts is that if doctors were proving diseased that people could treat more people that more serious disease fully.Researcher could spend more time understanding the mind more and less threatening destroyed that still legitimately affects
The synergy of plants is the foundation of herbal medicine because fresh plant material provides living medicine for all of us, including our pets. This synergistic quality has always baffled scientists because some things can not be broken down and understood at a molecular level. It is often the in-between
Thus, herbal medicine is medicine made from different parts of plants. They have become very popular in modern times. Some of these herbal medicines can be helpful while others can be harmful.
Most kids always dream that one day, they will become a doctor. As they grow older, however, they realize exactly how much hard work is put into the job. The life of a surgeon is not easy, as it requires patience and dedication every single day. From standing on their feet for twelve or more hours at a time to the inconsistent sleep schedule, being a surgeon can be taxing in every aspect of life. However, surgeons gain the opportunity to help people from all over the country and make an impact in the medical world. The surgical field is definitely not for everyone, but for those who are willing to put in the hard work, perseverance, and dedication it takes to get through college, medical school, and other various exams, it will soon become a very rewarding job, getting the opportunity to make a permanent difference in peoples’ lives.
Traditional herbal medicine comes from many different areas of the world (Indian, Chinese, African, Western, Native American herbs, Ayurvedic and other indigenous medicines) and in most all of them they are still b...
So from last many thousands years the medicinal plant being used by humans for different therapeutic purpose and are changed to modern medicine like many modern drugs originated from plant source. Many of the life saving drug are isolated/extract from medicinal plant examples include Vincristine (Vinca), digoxin (Digitalis), quinine (cinchona bark), Atropine (Datura), Artimicine (Artimisia annua), morphine (from the opium poppy) (Vickers and Zollman, 1999). As per WHO the uses of herbal drug was increased day by day to two- three time more as compared to conventional drug in different form like nutraceuticals, ayurvedic drugs, traditional chinse medicine, Functional food etc (Evans, 1994).
For about thousands of years the mankind has been utilizing the rich sources of flora for various diseases and disorders . Written record shows the usage of plants dates back to at least 5000 years and archeological surveys indicates the usage of the medicinal plants even before that . Greek botanist, Pedanios Dioscorides described about 600 herbs in his book in 78 AD and this treaty remained as a major source of reference for about many centuries on the medicinal plants. The therapeutic action of numerous plants were identified by observations and experimentation and were transmitted from one generation to the other by the by the ancient peoples. Swiss physician - Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, in his “Theory of signatures” informs that the colour, shape, odour and flavor of plants will attribute towards their therapeutically properties and thus gives clues to their clinical importance.
When you are sick you take medicine, but there are many remedies for the same problems. The use of herbal remedies traces back to the Chinese in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well by a compiled book in China written back more than 2,000 years ago (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Modern medicine has roots that are more recent in the development and production of synthesize drugs (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). The old generations took herbal remedies to improve their health, but now as time and people, progressed modern medicine comes on top. Herbal and modern medicines have good and bad points, but one has qualities that are more effective.
Herbal products are medicinal agents obtained from the plants. It’s all started 100 years ago by ancient people. Since synthetic medicine are not yet invented by that time, ancient people had invented medicine out of the plants. Through generations the original herbal medicine had been modified due to the new knowledge discovered and technologies invented.