Herbalism A Tradition of Healing

1. HerbalismA Tradition of Healing Linda Diane Feldt RPP, NCTMB, NC, CPE Holistic health Practitioner

2. Outline of this presentation • Overview of CAM and alternative healing • The practice of herbalism • Herbal training and education • Concerns and challenges • Herbal companies and certification • Using local herbs • Nourishing and medicinal herbs • A few local herbs and how they are used • Case studies • Next steps

3. Major Categories of Alternative Healing • Integrated healing systems • Hands on techniques • Biological substances • Energy based healing • Mind/body spirit awareness Adapted from NIH categories

4. My Practice • Student of the healing arts since 1973 • Full time private practice since 1981 (10-20 per week) • Primarily use Herbs, Cranialsacral therapy, Polarity therapy, and massage. • Sliding scale • Diverse population • Pain, injury, lifestyle, prevention, with or without conventional medicine • Age range prenatal to 104 • Also teach, write, volunteer

5. What makes a professional practice • Standards for practice • Scope of practice • Continuing education • Code of ethics • Association membership • Able to refer, available for referrals

6. Herbalism • Traditional Healers • Native American, Ayurvedic, Tibb, Unani, Tibetan, etc • Traditional Chinese • Western Folkloric • Western Scientific • Earth-centered • Ethno-botanical example categories from the American Herbalist Guild

8. Herbalism Training and Education • College and University courses • Electives within schools that teach wellness, holistic health, bodywork or somatic practices • Apprenticeship programs both formal and informal • Correspondence courses

9. Herbalism Training and Education (cont.) • Traditional initiation and training often combined with religious/spiritual practices • Self taught • Promotional material and workshops provided by manufacturers • Multi level marketing materials • Certification provided by herb manufacturers

10. Western Folkloric Tradition • promotes ethical harvesting of plants • uses the whole parts of the plant, in season • encourages consumer involvement • emphasis is on nutritive aspects of herbs • primarily uses plants that grow locally, and encourages direct involvement with the plants by growing and wildcrafting

11. Western Folkloric Tradition (cont.) • uses a holistic approach to support body systems & the individual • encourages sharing of information, stories and experience with others • can work in a supportive role with conventional Western Medicine

12. Concerns and Challenges • Herbalism is a very broad term that describes a profession many thousands of years old. • Herbalists and the scientific community have only recently begun to forge mutual respect, goals, and to determine ways of working together. • Herbalists must proactively respond to unprecedented consumer interest.

13. Concerns and Challenges • Protecting consumers, supporting scientific research, and preserving herbal traditions are intriguing challenges for this profession. • Consumers and health care providers may have difficulty determining who is qualified as an herbalist. • Herbal use is now being driven primarily by advertising and manufacturers, not by health care providers and traditional sources of information.

14. Reputable companies • Harvest ethically • Employ herbalists and support professional associations • Access to information on • where plants are harvested - avoid non US unless using TCM • company philosophy - focus on herbs or marketing? • control of product - don’t just repackage or rebottle from suppliers • Multi-level marketing deserves special scrutiny

15. HerbPharm Frontier Pacific Botanicals Trout Lake Botanicals Scientific Botanicals Phytopharmica Naturopathic Formulary Thorne Research Eclectic Institute MediHerb Bezweken Women's Transition Wise Women Herbals And ?? Examples of companies

16. The bad Prone to consumer confusion Does not ensure potency Does not address processing or preparation Does not address safety of the herb Expense may prohibit good companies from using certification The good Helpful to ensure WYSIWYG Raising awareness of importance of herbal quality Important to ensure Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)are used Can address the real problem of contaminate Herbal certification

17. Using Herbs From Your Landscape

18. The Foundations of Herbalism For thousands of years all herbs used were: • Local • Common • Harvested by practitioner or user • Prepared at time of use or preserved for off-season • Special non-local herbs were available by trade

19. Current Practice This type of use is still relevant today.

20. Advantages • Low or no cost • No fear of adulteration • Know plant part and if picked at best time • Fresh • Gets you out in nature • Personal/spiritual experience with plant(s)

21. Medicine or Food? • In traditional herbalism plants are used for both • Substantial healing can occur by nourishing the body or systems of the body • Many herbs occupy both roles • The nourishing herbs are far less likely to have unwanted side effects • Weeds in Michigan are often higher in available nutrients than conventional foods

23. Nourishing herbs • Nutrient rich • Bio-available • Generally considered safe, side effects uncommon • Dosage and strength less important • Tend to be local, whole, and common • Large amounts used, in contrast to medicinal plants • Includes tonics • Supportive to body systems • Long term use is usually beneficial

24. Nourishing Herbs cont. • Internal use • Infusions • Water based • Vinegar based • Whole plant • Cooked • Raw (salad) • External use • Compress • Poultice • Salve

26. Medicinal Herbs • Dosage and strength important or critical • Tend to utilize more toxic parts of plant • Stimulate or sedate • More likely to have side effects • Are often plants that are less common, or rare • Long term use is generally discouraged • More extensive knowledge is needed to use safely and effectively

27. Medicinal Herbs cont. • Internal Use • Tinctures • Extracts provided in capsules or other • Standardized components of plants • Drug preparations derived from plants • Injections of extracts • Capsules (not necessarily effective) • External Use • Poultice, compress, bolis • Salves

28. Michigan Herbal Allies In Michigan we are surrounded by herbal helpers. When you begin to learn them, it changes the experience of being outside and your ability to interact with nature. Help is all around you. It is a very powerful thing to experience regularly. Finding and making you own medicine creates independence, and provides other options to the conventional insurance/medical systems.

29. Just a few of the hundreds In your yard: plaintain, dandelion, motherwort, lamb’s quarters, echinacea, Groundsel, shepherd’s purse, chickweed, mallow, self heal Coming in from the woods: stinging nettle, cleavers, garlic mustard, poke, red raspberry From the surrounding countryside: mullein, yellow dock, burdock, chicory, red clover, St. John’s wort, yarrow

31. Plantain Plantago • Used in salads, for bites and skin irritations, soothes oral cuts and radiation burns • Leaves chewed, poultice, juiced or salve. Seeds of some species ground and used internally for diarrhea and constipation

32. Plantain (cont.) • Externally speeds healing, stops bleeding, draws out foreign matter, kills bacteria, decreases itching, decreases pain. • Grows in driveways, paths, near sidewalks, lawns.

33. Dandelion Taraxacum officinalis • Famous for liver support and nourishment, rich in vit. A, diuretic • Relieves gas and heartburn (20 drops tincture before meals) • All parts are edible

34. Dandelion (cont.) • Grows in lawns, fields, and where it is needed. • Used as tincture (leaves and root), eaten as green, steeped in vinegar, bitter infusion

35. Echinacea • A plains flower perennial, Ech. purpuria grows easily in Michigan gardens • Roots are harvested in fall of third or fourth year and tinctured fresh

36. Echinacea • Echinacea angusifolia harder to grow, roots can be dried. • Uses are commonly known, note that Echinacea can be used to stimulate or nourish the immune system. Anti-viral.

37. useful for a limited time useful when a fast result is required can have possible side effects useful for an unlimited time useful when a long term result is required especially indicated for recovery from long term or chronic illness side effects are unlikely EchinaceaTwo Actionsstimulate nourish

38. Lamb’s Quarter Chenopodium • Eaten for high calcium and carotenes • Available early spring through fall (if picked regularly) • Can be blanched and frozen for winter nourishment

39. Lamb’s Quarter (cont.) • Excellent green for making calcium rich vinegar • Grows in disturbed ground • Easy to identify by “chalky” appearance • Use in place of lettuce for salad base

41. Nettle Urtica • Leaves eaten for calcium, iron, protein, micronutrient content. Can also be made into infusion. • Tincture or infusion aids kidneys, adrenals • Salve or tea used for burns

42. Nettle (cont.) • May decrease insulin resistance • Infusions, soups, vinegars maximize nettle’s rich nutritional value that nourishes many body systems. • Grows near water and high nitrogen sources

43. Garlic Mustard Allaria petiolata • Seriously invasive plant. You are encouraged to pick it (roots and all) nearly anywhere you find it. • Save the top 1/3 and compost the rest.

44. Garlic Mustard (cont.) • Use fresh in salads, blanch and freeze as pot green, great in sauces and soups, use in place of garlic in many recipes. • Medicinal benefit unknown, but as nutritious as most greens.

45. Mullein Verbasci • Traditional use to stop smoking (substitute) • Leaves, infusion, and tincture nourishing for lungs • Oil from flowers used for earaches

46. Mullein (cont.) • Leaves used to help effectiveness of coughs, to reduce asthma, to calm lung inflammation • Found by roadsides, meadows, beginnings of paths and in gardens. • A startling plant in the second year, can grow 6-9 feet.

47. Yellow Dock Rumex crispus • Root used as tincture to promote iron absorption, nourish liver. • Root used as oil as wound healer (bruises, tissue damage, trauma)

48. Yellow Dock (cont.) • Leaves used as food (great as pesto) contain high amounts of easily absorbable iron. • Great plant for treating anemia (tincture of roots) • Will only grow in iron rich soil, fields and open land

49. Burdock Arctium lappa • Tincture of the root is used for skin diseases, anti-tumor, as a deep alterative • The root can be eaten (first year and spring of second year only). Used raw, in stir fries, or pickled • Found in pour quality disturbed ground, open fields

50. Burdock (cont.) • Root contains high levels of inulin, may help blood sugar stabilization • Leaves as poultice or compress used to heal burns (including from hot pepper oil) • Leaves as poultice quickly heal skin abrasions