Hooray for Herbalism! (Herbalism)

Name: kes33

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Product:	Herbalism
Date:	14/12/01 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More than people imagine

Disadvantages: Pricey

I was never a great believer in alternative therapies when I was younger, I regarded most people who did as 'a bit odd' or worse, hippies. But in the last seven or eight years, I have had the opportunity to learn about it and it has changed my opinion of a lot of therapies, though not all.

Almost ten years ago my mum (to whom I am very close) decided to study to become a medical herbalist. She felt that she wanted to help people and had always leaned towards 'that kind of thing', as I thought of it. I listened to her struggle with the lessons in physology, psychology and case studies; I helped her with her revision for various exams at various stages and I waved her away to conferences, practical workshops and various things that cost lots of money and took an awful lot of time and study.

I was, and still am imppressed by the amount of work that she had to put in. The training is on a par with the training that doctors get, my mum's background is in hairdressing and to watch her sweat blood to get the work done made me feel a little like a proud parent. I was still sceptical about the whole alternative thing though and when mum tried to help me with various ailments, I tended to resist quite strongly.

The year before last, she finally qualified and is now a member of the international register of consultant herbalists and has letters after her name. Since then I have watched her confidence and list of patients grow and she continues to have success after success with helping people who have health problems both serious and not.

Her knowledge is very wide-ranged and she will take a patients full medical history at the first consultation along with whatever prescription drugs they may be taking before prescribing them a tincture or some capsules tailored to the individual patient. The prescription for two people with the same condition may be completely different because it is tailored to them.

In the s
ummer, I had some serious problems with stress and I became depressed. I did the thing most of us do; went to the doctor. He was sympathetic and prescribed me anti-depressants and set me up to see a counseller. He didn't really listen to me, I barely got a chance to tell him how I felt, he watched me blub in his office, gave me the pills and sent me home. I started taking the pills and very soon felt even worse, I had dizzy spells and hot sweats and couldn't even look at food. As I had already lost a stone in under a month, this last fact worried me greatly as I only weigh around seven and a half stone normally, so I stopped taking them and phoned my mum.

Considering she knows me well and knows the problems which led to my problem, she switched to pro-mode and questioned me carefully. The next day, she brought a bottle of medicine with instructions how to take, advised me to supplement my b vitimins and within a week I felt so much stronger that I felt ashamed of myself for not going to her in the first place. I'm fine now, but I keep a little of her 'stress' tincture in for those times I feel extra stressed.

Qualified Herbalists are easy to find if you contact the register and find a good one. The industry is becoming more regulated and 'quacks' are fading, though they still exist. A good herbalist will spend an hour with you on the initial consultation and will work with you and your doctor to ensure you are receiving the correct care. Over the counter remedies have caused all sorts of scares concerning herbs but then they rely on self-diagnosis as well as no advise on how to take, what to avoid etc. I wouldn't take any medicines without consulting an expert, why do people assume that natural medicines are so different?

If herbs weren't powerful, they wouldn't be effective. Taken at the wrong time, some herbs can cause miscarriage and all sorts of other problems. Medical Herbalists study these herb
s as well as the human body and know what herbs and dosages are safe. Consulting a medical herbalist can be expensive, most seem to charge around £15 for initial consultation and I wouldn't personally use them for the odd cold; but if you have an on-going problem such as psoriasis, asthma or feel that conventional medicine can't help you, I think it would definately be worth it. If you can afford to go private, use these people too......it makes sense to me.

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