Herbal Medicine
Medical Herbalism
Anthropology of Herbalism
Herbs in History
Role of Herbal Medicine in Modern Human Society
Apothecary
Medical Herbalism
Jennifer Weekes maintains a vast herbal apothecary of high grade concentrated herbal extracts. She prefers the Herbal Extract Company's cold extraction system 1:1 concentration and commitment to quality and testing for purity and accuracy of monogramming. Jennifer's dispensery also includes Mediherb liquid extractions as well as tablets for those who cannot handle the liquids. She includes kids-friendly Nutrition Care alcohol-free herbal extracts that are flavoured with pear juice. Although less concentrated in a 1:2 extraction, they are safe for children and proving highly efficacious .
Jennifer combines herbs to suit the patient's condition, usually an adult 230ml formula containing 4approximately 45 measures will last 2 - 3 weeks depending on dosage. Usually a mixture will contain about six different herbs. If too many herbs are added, the dilution of active ingredients is below a therapeutic level, so herbs must be carefully selected and matched for symptoms and any contraindications such as prescription drugs or allergies to food or aspirin etc.
Childrens liquid formulas are made up as either 50 or 100ml bottles in alcohol-free formulas that are well tolerated. Jennifer takes great care to work out safe dosages for children using the Young's method of calculation (weight x age) for safe paediatric prescribing.
Jennifer also makes up therapeutic cream formulas, throat gargles, eye baths and oil-based ear drops containing herbs. She has a well tolerated gut and liver detox powdered formula that has proven safe and well tolerated as well as therapeutically beneficial. The formula is in high demand and mail order requests are regular, due to it's efficaceous effects.
Many people complain of the unpleasant taste of the liquid herbs, and substituting with tablets is often more convenient and ensures cpatient compliance. However, Liquid herbs are really better assimilated, and ironically it is the bitter, pungent, sweet or sour taste of the plant extracts that are partly responsible for the faster results. We have receptors in the mouth that respond to various physiological effects within our bodies. An example is the bitter herbs such as gentian that trigger receptors in the mouth to send a reflex response to the liver via the brain to secrete bile. That is why bitters are always prescribed for indigestion and abdominal bloating. The bile is necessary to break down fats, and a sluggish liver is the culprit. You have all heard of the old "Spring Tonics" grandma used to dish out. Our northern ancestors used to hybernate during winter freeze, and due to the lethargy, their livers became sluggish. A spring tonic was the solution and was made up of bitter herbs to purge the body of toxin build up and cleanse the bowels. Bile also transports toxins from the body via the stool and acts as a mild laxative.
For a fever, traditional herbal medicine utilised diaphoretic herbs to promote perspiration and reduce the body temperature without suppressing the immune system. Western medicine works in the opposite way by prescribing pracetamol to reduce the temperature. Unfortunately the immune system is active only when the temperature is elevated. Thats why cold and flu drugs cause such a lowered immune system long term. However, pyrexia (temperatureabovr 39 C) must be checked by a physician to ensure there is nothing more serious going on. Check Jennifer's blog page for more medical information on this subject.
Traditional herbal medicine has a long history of therapeutic benefits to mankind, and ancient civilisations relied on plants to offer them relief from illness and injury. Ancient records of herbal medicine are often consistent with modern day usage.
The first official "drug" was in fact a medicinal herb. Many drugs are derived from plants, but involve the extraction of a single phyto-chemical. An example is aspirin that is salicylic acid derived from willow-bark, that is commonly prescribed as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug. Willow-bark herbal extract is equally anti-inflammatory and analgesic, containing a synergistic range of phyto-chemicals that relieve symptoms gradually without gastric irritation, due to diluted levels of salicylates. The philosophy of herbalism states "the sum of all is equal to the part of one". That is how nature intended us to use plants for healing, but modern drugs have a more rapid responce in emergency situations. However, long term effects of any drug can lead to adverse reactions and toxicity that is not usually a problem with safe dosages of appropriately prescribed plant extracts.
Mainstream medicine does not recognise traditional medicine based on historical data or "old wives tales" and demands scientific evidence of therapeutic benefits. A great deal of double blind, placebo controlled studies into the therapeutic effects of many herbs have received international peer reviews over the past twenty years. Some negative as well as positive results have been published, however many of the studies have proven to be biased and results inaccurate. However, it is comforting to see that many historical records from Oriental and Western cultures are being vindicated because modern research is becoming increasingly accepting some of the wisdom of Hippocrates, Galen, Thomas Culpepper, Samuel Thompson and Ancient Chinese healers.
Common complaints that benefit from medicinal herbs include the common cold, gastric upsets,arthritis, depression, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, menstrual problems, and skin disorders.
To read Jennifer's research study into Doctor's attitude to Natural Therapies, visit Jennifers Blog from the menu bar and select Research Project
Bribie Health Clinic provides access to HICAPs from private health funds which are affiliated with the scheme. HICAPs takes all the paper work out of private health fund rebates. The card is swiped and the patient pays the gap. Herbal medicine is often covered under naturopathy, so rebates can be claimed either ways
Diploma of Herbal Medicine with High Distinction
Anthropology of Herbalism
People on all continents have used hundreds to thousands of indigenous plants for treatment of ailments since prehistoric times.The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents was depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon-dated to between 13,000-25,000 BC. Medicinal herbs were found in the personal effects of an "ice man", whose body was frozen in the Swiss Alps for more than 5,300 years. These herbs appear to have been used to treat the parasites found in his intestines. Anthropology or anthropologists theorize that animals evolved a tendency to seek out bitter plant parts in response to illness.
Indigenous healers often claim to have learned by observing that sick animals change their food preferences to nibble at bitter herbs they would normally reject. Field biologists have provided corroborating evidence based on observation of diverse species, such as
chimpanzees, chickens, sheep and butterflies. Lowland gorillas take 90% of their diet from the fruits of Aframomum melegueta, a relative of the ginger plant, that is a potent antimicrobial and apparently keeps shigellosis and similar infections at bay. esearchers from Ohio Wesleyan University found that some birds select nesting material rich in antimicrobial agents which protect their young from harmful bacteria.[ Sick animals tend to forage plants rich in
secondary metabolites, such as tannins and alkaloids Since these phytochemicals often have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antihelminthic properties, a plausible case can be made for self-medication by animals in the wild Some animals have digestive systems especially adapted to cope with certain plant toxins. For example, the
koala can live on the leaves and shoots of the eucalyptus, a plant that is dangerous to most animals. A plant that is harmless to a particular animal may not be safe for humans to ingest.[ A reasonable conjecture is that these discoveries were traditionally collected by the medicine people of indigenous tribes, who then passed on safety information and cautions. The use of herbs and spices in cuisine developed in part as a response to the threat of food-born pathogens. Studies show that in tropical climates where pathogens are the most abundant, recipes are the most highly spiced. Further, the spices with the most potent antimicrobial activity tend to be selected.In all cultures vegetables are spiced less than meat, presumably because they are more resistant to spoilage.
Herbs in History
Borage from Project Gutenberg EBook of Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses, by M. G. Kains
In the written record, the study of herbs dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians, who described well-established medicinal uses for such plants as laurel, caraway, and thyme. Ancient Egyptian medicine of 1000 B.C. are known to have used garlic, opium, castor oil, coriander, mint, indigo, and other herbs for medicine and the Old Testament also mentions herb use and cultivation, including mandrake, vetch, caraway, wheat, barley, and rye.
Indian Ayurveda medicine has been using herbs such as turmeric possibly as early as 1900 B.C.[Many other herbs and minerals used in Ayurveda were later described by ancient Indian herbalists such as Charaka and Sushruta during the 1st millenium BC. The Sushruta Samhita attributed to Sushruta in the 6th century BC describes 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources, and 57 preparations based on animal sources.[13]
The first Chinese herbal book, the Shennong Bencao Jing, compiled during the Han Dynasty but dating back to a much earlier date, possibly 2700 B.C., lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses - including ma-Huang, the shrub that introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine. Succeeding generations augmented on the Shennong Bencao Jing, as in the Yaoxing Lun (Treatise on the Nature of Medicinal Herbs), a 7th century Tang Dynasty treatise on herbal medicine.
The ancient Greeks and Romans made medicinal use of plants. Greek and Roman medicinal practices, as preserved in the writings of Hippocrates and - especially - Galen, provided the patterns for later western medicine. Hippocrates advocated the use of a few simple herbal drugs - along with fresh air, rest, and proper diet. Galen, on the other hand, recommended large doses of drug mixtures - including plant, animal, and mineral ingredients. The Greek physician compiled the first European treatise on the properties and uses of medicinal plants, De Materia Medica. In the first century AD, Dioscorides wrote a compendium of more than 500 plants that remained an authoritative reference into the 17th century. Similarly important for herbalists and botanists of later centuries was the Greek book that founded the science of botany, Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum, written in the fourth century B.C.
Thyme from Project Gutenberg EBook of Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses, by M. G. Kains
Middle Ages
The uses of plants for medicine and other purposes changed little in early medieval Europe. Many Greek and Roman writings on medicine, as on other subjects, were preserved by hand copying of manuscripts in monasteries. The monasteries thus tended to become local centers of medical knowledge, and their herb gardens provided the raw materials for simple treatment of common disorders. At the same time, folk medicine in the home and village continues uninterrupted, supporting numerous wandering and settled herbalists. Among these were the “wise-women,” who prescribed herbal remedies often along with spells and enchantments. It was not until the late Middle Ages that women who were knowledgeable in herb lore became the targets of the witch hysteria. One of the most famous women in the herbal tradition was Hildegard of Bingen. A twelfth century Benedictine nun, she wrote a medical text called Causes and Cures.
Medical schools known as Bimaristan began to appear from the 9th century in the medieval Islamic world, which was generally more advanced than medieval Europe at the time. The Arabs venerated Greco-Roman culture and learning, and translated tens of thousands of texts into Arabic for further study. As a trading culture, the Arab travellers had access to plant material from distant places such as China and India. Herbals, medical texts and translations of the classics of antiquity filtered in from east and west. Muslim botanists and Muslim physicians significantly expanded on the earlier knowledge of materia medica. For example, al-Dinawari described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century, and Ibn al-Baitar described more than 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, over 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century. The experimental scientific method was introduced into the field of materia medica in the 13th century by the Andalusian-Arab botanist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, the teacher of Ibn al-Baitar. Al-Nabati introduced empirical techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and he separated unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations. This allowed the study of materia medica to evolve into the science of pharmacology.[18]
Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine is considered the first pharmacopoeia, and lists 800 tested drugs, plants and minerals. Book Two is devoted to a discussion of the healing properties of herbs, including nutmeg, senna, sandalwood, rhubarb, myrrh, cinammon, and rosewater. Baghdad was an important center for Arab herbalism, as was Al-Andalus between 800 and 1400. Abulcasis (936-1013) of Cordoba authored The Book of Simples, an important source for later European herbals, while Ibn al-Baitar (1197-1248) of Malaga authored the Corpus of Simples, the most complete Arab herbal which introduced 200 new healing herbs, including tamarind, aconite, and nux vomica. Other pharmacopoeia books include that written by Abu-Rayhan Biruni in the 11th century and Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century (and printed in 1491), The origins of clinical pharmacology also date back to the Middle Ages in Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine, Peter of Spain's Commentary on Isaac, and John of St Amand's Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas. In particular, the Canon introduced clinical trials, randomized controlled trials,[26][27] and efficacy tests.
Alongside the university system, folk medicine continued to thrive. The continuing importance of herbs for the centuries following the Middle Ages is indicated by the hundreds of herbals published after the invention of printing in the fifteenth century. Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum was one of the first books to be printed, but Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica, Avicenna's Canon of Medicine and Avenzoar's pharmacopoeia were not far behind.
Marjoram from Project Gutenberg EBook of Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses, by M. G. Kains
Modern era
The fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries were the great age of herbals, many of them available for the first time in English and other languages rather than Latin or Greek. The first herbal to be published in English was the anonymous Grete Herball of 1526. The two best-known herbals in English were The Herball or General History of Plants (1597) by John Gerard and The English Physician Enlarged (1653) by Nicholas Culpeper. Gerard’s text was basically a pirated translation of a book by the Belgian herbalist Dodoens and his illustrations came from a German botanical work. The original edition contained many errors due to faulty matching of the two parts. Culpeper’s blend of traditional medicine with astrology, magic, and folklore was ridiculed by the physicians of his day yet his book - like Gerard’s and other herbals - enjoyed phenomenal popularity. The Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange introduced new medicinal plants to Europe. The Badianus Manuscript was an illustrated Aztec herbal translated into Latin in the 16th century.
The second millennium, however, also saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the pre-eminent position held by plants as sources of therapeutic effects. This began with the introduction of the physician, the introduction of active chemical drugs (like arsenic, copper sulfate, iron, mercury, and sulfur), followed by the rapid development of chemistry and the other physical sciences, led increasingly to the dominance of chemotherapy - chemical medicine - as the orthodox system of the twentieth century.
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Role of Herbal Medicine in Modern Human Society
The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among non-industrialized societies A number of traditions came to dominate the practice of herbal medicine at the end of the twentieth century:
Many of the pharmaceuticals currently available to physicians have a long history of use as herbal remedies, including opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of the world's population presently uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Pharmaceuticals are prohibitively expensive for most of the world's population, half of which lives on less than $2 U.S. per day. In comparison, herbal medicines can be grown from seed or gathered from nature for little or no cost. Herbal medicine is a major component in all traditional medicine systems, and a common element in Siddha, Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional Chinese medicine, and Native American medicine.
The use of, and search for, drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and leads that could be developed for treatment of various diseases. In fact, according to the World Health Organisation, approximately 25% of modern drugs used in the United States have been derived from plants.
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Apothecary
Jennifer Weekes of Bribie Natural Health Clinic has a vast dispensary of Practioner Grade Herbal tinctures, Homeopathic remedies, Traditional Chinese Herbs, Vitamins and Nutritional supplements The dispensary is stocked with a vast range of quality concentrated herbal extracts, which are combined to suit the individual. Quality nutritional supplements including vitamins and minerals are prescribed where appropriate. The dispensary contains a broad range of exclusive practitioner-only products, which have proven efficacy that is far superior to commercially available products. Jennifer makes up her own gut detoxification powders using carefully researched and sourced products for rapid results.
Western and Chinese Herbal Tinctures - Jennifer Weekes is an experienced medical herbalist
87 varieties Traditional Chinese Herbs used with TCM diagnosis and Acupuncture
High quality practitioner quality Vitamins and nutritional supplements
Ampoules used with biopuncture, creams & oral formulas - Homeopathic Dispensary
Homeopathic pills and drops
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Jennifer Weekes is an experienced Homeopath
Bribie Natural Health Clinic supplies practitioner-only products from both Australian and New Zealand suppliers including the following ranges:
- Eagle Pharmaceuticals
- Bioceuticals
- Metagenics
- Sun Herbal
- Orthoplex
- Mediherb
- Nutrition Care
- Brauer Professionals
- Heel
- Cathay Herbal
- Vitaseach
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