Botanical Medicine Health Article

Description

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): This system of healing employs ancient techniques, developed over many thousands of years. For example, among TCM's techniques are acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal formulas to restore health. Moxibustion is a process that combines acupuncture with the traditional application of the herb mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, known as Ai ye or Hao-shu. This is a method of heating specific acupuncture points on the body to treat physical conditions, particularly chronic pain. When burnt, the mugwort produces a mild heat able to penetrate deeply into the muscle. TCM also employs specific herbal formulas to restore health and maintain a dynamic balance between two distinct forces known as yin and yang, particularly with regard to the qi. Qi is the vital energy flowing along the meridians or energy pathways of the body. The TCM practitioner is a skilled observer, who relies on diagnostic techniques, including measuring pulse rate from several positions, and noting the general appearance of the patient, such as complexion, eyes, nails, hair, tongue, and posture. The assessment not only includes consideration of the patient's symptomatic complaints, but of numerous personal characteristics including family history, lifestyle, emotional health, environment, diet, and exercise. The medicinal herbs prescribed are usually prepared as a formula based on the unique needs of each patient.

Ayurvedic medicine: This system of healing, literally meaning the science of life or longevity, has been practiced in India for more than 5,000 years. Ayurvedic medicine is concerned equally with the body, mind, and spirit of the person and combines natural therapies to restore balance and harmony. Ayurvedic physicians, like the practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, use educated observation in diagnosis. In Ayurvedic medicine, there are three basic doshas, or metabolic body types. The success of Ayurvedic treatment depends on the proper diagnosis of imbalances in these characteristic aspects. Ayurvedic medicine emphasizes self-care strategies such as a healthy diet, yoga, meditation, breathing, and exercises to restore the innate harmony of the body. Taste is an important indicator of the medicinal properties of an herb. Plants are categorized according to six plant essences: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. An understanding of how these plant essences act in the body is a necessary component in Ayurvedic medicine for prescribing herbal remedies.

Indigenous and shamanic medicine: These rely on extensive folk knowledge of botanical and animal medicine combined with ceremonial ritual in the treatment of disease. The particular form of indigenous medicine is unique to each tribe. The specific herbal remedies are primarily passed on through oral tradition.

Naturopathy: Naturopathic medicine was established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The naturopathic doctor, or naturopath, uses gentle methods to boost the body's healing, including nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, proper diet, and exercise to restore health. The doctor works with the patient to educate him or her on ways to restore and maintain a healthy balance in the internal environment that will prevent further illness. Licensed naturopathic doctors pass rational exams that include basic clinical botanical medicine competency, as well as homeopathy.

Homeopathy: Homeopathy was founded in the late eighteenth century by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Homeopathy embraces the philosophy of "like cures like." Homeopathy uses extremely dilute solutions of herbs, animal products, and chemicals that are believed to hold a "trace memory" or energetic imprint of the substance used. Sold as over-the-counter medicine, homeopathic remedies are exempt from government regulations applied to pharmaceuticals. Homeopathic remedies may be sold without proof of safety and efficacy as long as they are labeled with the directions for use and the level of dilution.

Flower essences: The use of flower essences attempts to address a more subtle energy beyond the physical symptoms, to treat the emotional and mental roots of disease. The English physician Edward Bach developed a method of extracting what he considered the essence of flowers with the ability to address a broad range of psychological conditions of the human spirit. This system became known as Bach flower remedies. This botanical therapy attempts to match the energetic essence of particular flowers with the same energy in the higher self of an individual, thus strengthening the higher energies and promoting self-realization and restoring health. Bach's theory was that the source of all illness could be found in the conflict between the demands of one's higher self, striving to realize its full potential, and the individual personality or ego with its limiting beliefs and actions that obstruct and block this self-realization. The remedies are believed to have a subtle, soul-healing effect based on an instinctual soul rapport with the particular herb.

Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy uses the essential oil of various herbs extracted by steam distillation or cold pressing of flower, leaf, stem, or root to treat various physical and emotional problems. Herbs have long been valued for their healing fragrance. In 1564 an alchemist named Giovanni Battista della Porta wrote about methods used to separate essential oils from the aromatic distilled waters that had been used in previous centuries. Modern-day aromatherapy was developed by the French chemist Réné-Maurice Gattefosse, in 1937. Aromatherapy identifies the distinct healing properties of various pure essential oils. The small size of the molecules in essential oils enables the chemicals to penetrate bodily tissue easily and to act rapidly on the limbic system which is believed to be the seat of emotions.