What is herbal therapy

Herbal therapy is a natural therapy system that relies on the traditional medical experience of various regions and uses the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds or secretions of natural plants to regulate physical discomfort and help improve health through oral administration, external application, inhalation, bathing and other methods. It can be found in the medical records of almost every ancient civilization.

I have been practicing naturopathic medicine for almost 6 years. The most common herbal therapy application I have encountered is the treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis. Many patients report that they always feel sleepy after taking antihistamines, which affects work and classes. We generally recommend grinding the prepared magnolia, Xanthium bark, and mint into fine powder in proportion, and put it in a small cloth bag to smell it. When the attack occurs, flush the nasal cavity with warm saline and apply a small amount of powder on the inside of the nasal cavity. Most patients will see obvious relief within a week or two without any side effects of drowsiness.

But to be honest, the controversy over herbal therapy in the circle has never stopped over the years. People who agree with it believe that it is the summary of experience that has been verified by human beings for thousands of years. It is more suitable for individual differences in regulating many chronic diseases and sub-health conditions than chemical drugs. For example, many people who have trouble sleeping dare not take sleeping pills. If they boil some warm jujube seeds and poria cocos water and drink it, most of them can sleep more peacefully and won't have a heavy hangover the next day. But the voices of doubt are completely valid: the active ingredients, metabolic pathways, and toxic and side effects of many herbs have not yet been clearly supported by modern medical research. In the past few years, Guanmutong, which was widely used in prescriptions for clearing fire, was later confirmed to contain aristolochic acid. Long-term use can cause irreversible kidney damage. There are also many people who follow the popular online folk remedies and use herbal medicines indiscriminately. News about acute liver and kidney damage can be seen every once in a while.

Nowadays, formal herbal therapy has actually jumped out of the stage of "relying on old experience and using it on the head." The active ingredients of many commonly used herbal medicines have been purified into commonly used clinical drugs. The Nobel Prize-winning artemisinin is extracted from Artemisia annua. Forsythin and honeysuckle extracts in many cold medicines we often take are also the result of the modern application of herbal therapy. It’s interesting to say, but now many people’s understanding of “herbs” is still stuck in the misunderstanding of “natural and harmless”. Last time, an aunt took fresh ginkgo leaves picked by the roadside and boiled water to open the blood vessels. I was so scared that I quickly stopped. The ginkgolic acid in fresh ginkgo leaves It is toxic and cannot be used without processing. If you really want to use herbal medicine to regulate your body, it is best to consult a qualified doctor or therapist. Especially for those who are taking Western medicine at the same time, you must not mix it by yourself to avoid drug interactions that may harm the body.