This article summarizes the main differences between pharmaceutical drugs and medicinal herbs, and makes the case for using herbs as part of a holistic and integrative system of healthcare.
Introduction: Mother Nature and God’s Green Herbs
Of all the things in my life that have supported me, I would rank herbs and herbal medicine as far and away the best. Although I have found many other things in my life to be wonderful, and a source of solace, support and inspiration, nothing comes close to herbal medicine and God’s Green Herbs. Other things have helped me in many different ways, but when it comes to their practical benefit in healing and improving one’s overall health and quality of life, nothing comes close to God’s green herbs. Herbs and herbal medicine are a way of life for me, and they are also a spiritual path as well. Christians quote the Gospel of John in saying that “For God so loved the world that he sent his Only Begotten Son…” You could also just as well say, “For God so loved the world that he sent, or created healing herbs for the use of man.” I believe that the Prophet Mohammad once said that God did not create any disease for which he did not also create the cure (in medicinal herbs and other natural substances). I am so grateful to God for His medicinal herbs, which have healed and helped me on so many different occasions. And I am also grateful for the opportunities I have been given to heal others with medicinal herbs.
The idea for this blog posting kind of grew out of the last blog posting I did. Although I felt that I should have written about the main differences between pharmaceutical drugs and natural herbs in my last blog posting, it was not happening; I felt that I needed to finish up the blog posting for the sake of conciseness and brevity, and writing about the main differences between herbs and pharmaceutical drugs just did not fit into that blog posting as it developed. And so, in this blog posting, I will dwell mainly on those differences, and in doing so, my aim is also to write a kind of herbalist’s mission statement or manifesto, if you will.
We Work With Nature and Not Against It
When I was studying music as an undergraduate student in college, I was majoring in voice, and my voice teacher adhered to the old Italian Bel Canto school of voice teaching. I remember vividly one afternoon in my voice lesson when he was explaining how the voice grows naturally under his Bel Canto training, and during the course of that discourse, he said: “We work with Nature and not against it.” Although he was talking about how his vocal coaching methods bring out and cultivate the pupil’s natural singing voice, the same phrase could also be used as the herbalist’s guiding maxim: We work with Nature and not against it. My voice teacher in college, quite interestingly enough, was the one who first introduced me to medicinal herbs. We would sip on Fenugreek tea as we practiced our vocal scales and exercises, and Fenugreek seed, being an expectorant, would dislodge the phlegm in our nose and sinuses; and so, my voice teacher always kept a large box of Kleenex on the piano, and as we hit the high notes, the phlegm would be released. Interestingly and coincidentally enough, Fenugreek seed, also known as Greek Hay Seed, is an important herb in Greek Medicine; Hippocrates used it in many ways, including as a nutritive tonic to help those who were recovering from long and debilitating respiratory illnesses.
Hippocrates instructed all his students that the ideal physician must always work as a servant of Nature, helping Her whenever they could, and helping the human organism, or physis, do what it was trying to accomplish in the healing process. As a whole, most medicinal herbs also work with Nature and not against it, mainly by enhancing the power and efficiency of natural bodily functions like digestion, circulation, respiration, immunity and so on, and thereby helping the body to function better. On the other hand, many, if not most, pharmaceutical drugs work in a negative manner, by blocking some metabolic channel or receptor site in a cell membrane in order to achieve their effects. This working in a negative manner to achieve their various actions and effects can be seen as working against Nature, and not with it. In Life we are always taught to accentuate the positive and diminish or downplay the negative, so doesn’t it make sense that, whenever possible, we should be working with Nature by using medicinal herbs?
There are a few other important ways in which herbs work with Nature, and not against it, and to understand these ways, we must understand what Greek Medicine calls the Natural Faculty, which is the faculty that governs digestion and metabolism, nutrition and growth. In short, you could say that herbs work with the Natural Faculty, whereas most pharmaceutical drugs don’t. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of this is that most medicinal herbs are very friendly to the stomach, liver and other digestive organs of the Natural Faculty, whereas most pharmaceutical drugs aren’t and have to be taken with food in order to buffer their harsh or negative effects on the stomach and other digestive organs. With medicinal herbs, whether you take them with meals, or between meals on an empty stomach, usually depends more on what you are taking the herb or herbal medicine for. For cleansing and elimination, and to target the pelvic organs, it is usually better to take herbs or herbal medicines on an empty stomach, or between meals. For tonics and restoratives, it is usually best to take herbs or herbal medicines about an hour or two after eating, and for herbs that help with digestion, right after you eat.
Speaking of nutrition and growth, herbs, being natural substances, often contain vital nutrients that pharmaceutical drugs lack. In fact, to the contrary, many, if not most, pharmaceutical drugs actually deplete one or more vital nutrients with their continued use. Many know that Statin drugs deplete the vital heart nutrient, coenzyme Q10, for example; and that Metformin, the diabetes drug, depletes vitamin B12. And so, most holistically minded physicians will tell their patients to take supplemental CoQ10 if they are taking Statin drugs, or B12 if they are taking Metformin. When I was a translator of books and magazine articles from Japanese into English regarding Kampo Yaku, which is what the Japanese call Chinese herbal medicine, they were in the habit of frequently translating medicinal herbs as “crude drugs”, a phrase that I felt carried significant negative baggage and connotations in English. Instead of “crude drugs”, I felt that “natural, unrefined drugs” was more positive and accurate. Many pharmaceutical drugs have been derived from “crude” herbal drugs, and usually by extracting and concentrating what was identified as the active ingredient to the exclusion of everything else that Nature put into the whole herb, which often has the net effect of making the body’s metabolism and use of that drug more balanced and wholesome, and often free of negative or debilitating side effects.
Food and Herbs: Natural Partners in the Healing Process
This discussion of the differences between herbs and pharmaceutical drugs when it comes to vital nutrients and their nutritive virtues brings me, of course to that most famous saying of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine: Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food. Herbalists are fond of saying that no pharmaceutical drug can build your body up – at least not directly – because they are devoid of vital nutrients, and often deplete them. In other words, Prozac might make you feel real good, but your body can never suffer from a Prozac deficiency, because Prozac is not a vital nutrient that your body actually needs. Many medicinal herbs are rich in vital nutrients that the body needs, and many of these herbs are often called tonics or restoratives, because they restore the vital and nutritional status of the human organism. In fact, herbs and herbal medicines can be seen on a polarity or continuum, as bridging the gap between food and medicine. On the bottom end of this spectrum are herbs that are quite strong or harsh in their medicinal effects, but whose vital or nutritive virtues are modest, or even lacking, whereas at the upper end of this spectrum are your tonic and restorative herbs, which are rich in vital nutrient substances. In Chinese herbal medicine, the former are called inferior quality medicines, whereas the latter are called superior quality medicines. With this perspective on, and prioritization of, herbs and herbal medicines, Chinese herbal medicine has distinguished itself as a therapeutic system that places great value on tonics and restoratives to strengthen both the nutritive status as well as the vital forces and recuperative powers of the organism.
What exactly is a tonic herb? To answer this question, we need to accept and acknowledge another key difference between medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical drugs, that the latter are refined, purified substances, often consisting of only a single molecule, whereas herbs are complex natural substances, usually consisting not only of substance(s) that have been identified as the active ingredient(s) but also other natural substances that help the body process or metabolize these active ingredients and utilize them in a more wholesome and balanced manner. Another way to look at this difference is that pharmaceutical drugs are essentially single chemical compounds that have been refined and extracted, or synthesized in a laboratory, to produce single, simple medicinal effects, usually targeting a single condition or medical disorder, whereas herbs, like people, usually have complex, multidimensional therapeutic profiles or personalities that can be helpful in treating multiple conditions, or in bringing multiple facets or aspects of the human organism back into balance. And so, many tonic herbs, as their name implies, are good at giving the body, or one or more of its organs or organ systems, a “tuneup” or adjustment, to bring the body back into alignment or balance.
In the Chinese view of things, tonic herbs are called Bu Yao, or “supplementing medicines”; this definition aligns most closely with the Western herbal concept of tonics as restoratives – as restoring vital substances or functions of the body that have become deficient or depleted. Most obviously, in this function, herbs and herbal medicines can be quite good at treating the chronic deficiency conditions and degenerative disorders that usually accompany the aging process. So – what’s the difference between tonic herbs or restoratives and vitamin supplements? The basic difference between the two is highlighted by anyone who has had the experience of taking their vitamin pills in the morning, only to have their vital nutrient substances excreted out of the body in the form of bright yellow urine at mid-day. Aw shucks – the nutrients in those vitamin pills had only a brief stay in the body, but hopefully, they did some good while they were in there! Tonic and restorative herbs, being natural, whole substances, have their vital nutrients and nutritive constituents being retained and assimilated by the body on a more stable and permanent basis. Many tonic or restorative herbs have become known as herbal superfoods and, being nutrient dense yet whole natural food substances, are assimilated and retained by the human organism in a more stable and permanent manner.
Although both foods and medicinal herbs have their vital nutrient constituents, it could be said that the nutritive properties and virtues of whole foods are more generalized and non-specific, broadly speaking, whereas the nutritive properties and virtues of herbs are more specifically focused on certain organs or organ systems of the body. In fact, one could draw a little diagram of the human body with arrows to certain organs and body parts, connected with the names of the different herbs that are tonic or restorative to those organs or body parts. Let me see: You have Hawthorn berries for the heart, Chamomile for the stomach, Milk Thistle for the liver, and Eyebright for the eyes, of course – and ladies, let’s not forget Rose petals to soften, moisturize and beautify the skin! Accordingly, Hawthorn berries would be classified as a Cardio-tonic, while Chamomile would be classified as a Stomachic, Milk Thistle as a Hepato-protector, and so on… In herbal medicine, it is recognized that medicinal herbs have definite affinities for certain parts, organs or organ systems of the human body, to strengthen and fortify them in the body’s fight against illness and infirmity.
Herbs and Biological Intelligence
Dr. Vasant Lad, one of America’s leading teachers and authorities on traditional Indian Ayurvedic Medicine, was fond of telling us that herbs have an inherent biological intelligence contained within them. In other words, medicinal herbs, being plants or living substances, have Prana, or the Life Force, inherent within them, and since living organisms display a phenomenal level of complexity in their structure and function, they have biological intelligence inherent within them, which generates this amazing complexity. Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, are essentially dead, lifeless chemical compounds that have no biological intelligence inherent within them – you might also call them “dumb medicines”; although many of them are very powerful and potent, they work in one direction only, and their selection and dosage must be carefully monitored by the prescribing physician in order to avoid a medical crisis or emergency, or even death.
As we have seen previously, herbs, as natural substances, are more friendly to the Natural Faculty – in other words, the digestive, metabolic and nutritive organs and functions of the body. And also, in contrast to pharmaceutical drugs, their therapeutic actions and effects tend to be more moderate and balanced, and therefore, often very useful in helping the human organism regain balance, or homeostasis. Of course, there are times when decisive, drastic and even life saving intervention in crisis situations is needed, but in many, if not most, non-crisis situations, the use of medicinal herbs and herbal medicines may be preferable to that of pharmaceutical drugs. This opposite yet complementary nature of herbs and herbal medicines versus pharmaceutical drugs emphasizes the vital need for a truly integrative approach to medicine and healthcare.
One very important way in which medicinal herbs display or manifest biological intelligence is that many herbs are bidirectional, or amphoteric, in nature, with a net effect of balancing or optimizing key bodily functions. For example, modern drugs to lower blood pressure, although quite powerful in doing so, work in one direction only – to lower blood pressure – and their selection and dosage must be monitored carefully by the physician in order to get the blood pressure just right, and to avoid the other extreme of low blood pressure, which can be just as dangerous. Garlic, on the other hand, is an herb that has an amphoteric or moderating / balancing effect on blood pressure, which tends to lower it if it is too high, and raise it moderately if it is too low. One of the most important areas in which the bidirectional or amphoteric healing properties of medicinal herbs come into play is in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Being brainwashed by all the ads for pharmaceutical drugs on TV, most people think that you have to sacrifice your immunity and your ability to fight infections in order to treat autoimmune diseases – with pharmaceutical drugs, this is definitely the case, since they work in one direction only, to lower or suppress a hyperactive immune response. But certain medicinal herbs are recognized as being immuno-modulatory, in that their net effect is to heal and balance the immune system by reducing negative allergic and autoimmune responses while benefiting and strengthening the natural, righteous immunity of the organism.
This is another HUGE benefit of medicinal herbs and herbal medicine that I want to shout from the rooftops: You don’t have to sacrifice your natural, God-given immunity to treat autoimmune diseases! You can heal and balance the immune system, and the immune response, naturally with medicinal herbs! Due to various extenuating factors in our modern environment, food supply and lifestyle, autoimmune diseases are definitely on the rise, and in a big way. Of course, modern medicine’s answer to autoimmune diseases is to suppress a hyperactive immune system with immunosuppressive or potent anti-inflammatory drugs like steroids, and then treat the infections that often arise with equally potent antibiotics, which throw the biological terrain of the organism even more out of whack. Doesn’t it really make a lot more sense to balance and heal the immune system naturally, with immunomodulatory medicinal herbs? Doing something in a balanced, natural way from the very outset can save a lot of collateral damage later on down the line, in my opinion.
When I worked as a consulting herbalist at an herb store in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, one of my specialties was treating chronic infections with Chinese herbs. A lot of my patients had taken so many antibiotics, and for such a long period of time, that antibiotics didn’t really work for them anymore – so they were looking for a better, more natural way. Yes, antibiotic use, and even abuse, is rampant in conventional medical practice, and of course, antibiotics are a very good example of modern “dumb medicines” that work in one direction only, and indiscriminately, to kill all bacteria – the good, protective probiotic bacteria as well as the pathogenic bacteria – which can lead to grave imbalances in the biological terrain of the human organism, of course. By contrast, many medicinal herbs have been shown to be biologically active at inhibiting the growth of many different pathogenic organisms – not just bacteria, but fungi, viruses and other organisms as well – without the down side of killing off the beneficial probiotic bacteria in the gut. Of course, due to their gentler, milder nature overall, you have to be quite persistent, and administer the herbs in large and frequent doses, if you are to be effective at treating infections with herbs; many times, a partial fast or a cleansing diet will also assist the antimicrobial and detoxifying action of the herbs used. This is one instance in which the Wheels of Nature grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly well – if one has the patience and persistence necessary to follow through with the herbal treatment.
Herbs and Herbal Superfoods as the Fifth Major Food Group
As we embark on the twenty-first century, it becomes increasingly apparent that the planet, and our natural environment, are in a sick and suffering state. The wholesomeness and integrity of our food supply are under assault as never before, and the old or traditional four major food groups may no longer be sufficient to give us adequate nutrition and fortification against illness and debility as they once did. And so, I am proposing that we adopt a new fifth major food group, which is medicinal herbs and herbal superfoods. It is an idea whose time has come, I feel. And so, I feel that the time is not too far off when a new healthcare specialty will emerge: that of the herbal nutritionist. Their job description will be to clinically assess the individual client in order to determine, based not only on an analysis of their constitutional nature and temperament but also any acquired conditions and nutritional deficiencies they may be suffering from, and guide them into choosing the herbs and herbal superfoods that are right for them.
A Final Caveat or Disclaimer
The information in this article is for educational purposes only, and is not meant to diagnose or treat any disease or medical condition. Herbal medicine is a complex and challenging healthcare specialty that can take many years to master. The clinical assessment of the patient or client and their medical history of how their various illnesses and conditions developed, and why, can often be quite complex and difficult to ascertain. For these reasons, when in doubt, and when one feels that self analysis and self medication with herbs are no longer sufficient to obtain adequate relief for the health problems and conditions one is suffering from, the personalized guidance of a qualified herbalist or herbal practitioner may become necessary. And if natural herbal healing measures prove to be inadequate to handle the condition or symptoms adequately and decisively, timely intervention with conventional medical therapies and protocols are advised. If you are unsatisfied with the healthcare help and guidance you are receiving, be it conventional or complementary and alternative, it is often helpful to seek a second opinion.