This was an answer to a friend of mine who commented on an herbal medicine post I made:
I am sharing some things below not so much for you, but for those reading along. I get so many texts and messages on things like this.
You are right, they will not do the studies on the whole plant because they can't patent a natural substance. No money, no incentive to research. Medical care, generally speaking, is about money not about helping people.
"Drugs derived from the natural world" is different than herbal medicine which directly uses plants. A good portion of pharmaceuticals are derived from natural plants but they isolate the chemicals and often strengthen them. That is why they have a lot of side effects.
Herbal medicine, meaning the direct use of plants as medicine, is gentler because there are often protective benefits from other chemical compounds within the plant. If a lab isolates one chemical to market in the drug industry, it loses the benefits of the other chemicals in the plant. I have seen people get very angry when they are paying very high prices for Rx when an effective and safe answer was right outside their door free for the picking...and it worked better!!
If you are working with a skilled herbalist, there are plenty of things perfectly safe for a pregnant and nursing mother. I have taken scores of herbs as medicine while pregnant and nursing to strengthen and tone the uterus, help with the severe hyperemeis gravidarum, give me energy, as vitamins and minerals, to increase my milk flow, help with restless leg, etc. I have also used herbs with my newborns. Susan Weed, Shonda Parker, and others have written books on herbs safe for pregnancy, nursing, and babies. I think Ody is another author's last name.
My own OB told me he could see the herbs were working to curb the severe hyperemesis gravidarum and that they were doing an amazing job. Then came the big BUT....he didn't want to know about them because herbal medicine scared him silly. We are afraid of what we do not know. The Rxs he had given me did not help me at all, so I researched and wrote to doctors (and bought a medical book from them) outside our country to gain knowledge to help myself.
Most people I know are terrified of pokeweed leaves (poke sallet) and pokeweed berries. I was taught as a child that all parts were "deadly poison. Don't touch it!!!" I learned about pokeweed from a master herbalist. I know when and how to use it and what the different parts can do for the body. I use it without fear or problems.
I know a lot of people are freaking out now after those pokeweed statements, so I'll add this for them to ponder: We bring many things into our homes that are toxic in the wrong dose or when used in the wrong manner. Aspirin, acetaminophen, household chemicals, and most Rx medicines. If you ingest all of your Rx meds at one time, what will happen? Yet you still use it. Why? Knowledge is power. Tiny doses of most medicine (allopathic and natural) are beneficial while large doses can land one in an emergency room or worse. If you can learn how to use meds from your doctor, you can learn from someone knowledgeable about how to use plants for medicine. "There are no toxic plants, only toxic doses."
Contraindications: A knowledgeable herbalist in a practice will (or at least SHOULD) ask for a complete medical history, lifestyle (what you eat, how you sleep, stress in your life, etc), find out what you are already taking, do a physical exam, etc. The forms are extensive. As part of my education (which at that time could be used to start a business or counted as part of an ND degree), I was given sets of forms and had to fill them out for detailed fictional patients and for real life (family/friends) "practice patients." It is far more info than conventional medical care requires of a new patient. It was a lengthy process to gain all of the information to even begin to help someone. If you are paying them to treat you and they are not doing this, RUN!
I am glad you can see the fear tactics. With the knowledge I have gained in the 30+ years I've been studying, I can not emphasize enough that the fear tactics are intentional. So is the frequently conflicting and confusing information. For my friends who like a good C-theory go research the long list (over 60) of herbalists/naturopaths who "suddenly died" in a short time-period of each other. Find out what they were researching/learning. Who and what would it benefit them to keep that info secret?
