Using
Taste
Before the advent of modern phytochemical research, armed with nothing except their five senses, intuition and careful observational skills, herbalists were able to identify and develop sophisticated uses for thousands of medicinal plants. Although plant chemistry has certainly added to the knowledge of herbalists, with a few exceptions like Gingko biloba, scientific research has contributed very little to the actual practice of herbal medicine.
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In Ayurveda, energy or ‘virya’ is the specific potency by which a herb or food acts on the body, based on the predominance of its cold or hot qualities. This concept borrows heavily from the ancient Vedic agni-somiya principle, the primordial division of heat (agni) and cold (soma), of light and darkness, and male and female.
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The term action refers to the specific therapeutic activity of a given food or herb, a concept that resonates in all traditional systems of herbal medicine. Called ‘karma’ in Ayurveda, the ‘action’ is a description of the specific effect that a food or herb has on the doshas, bodily tissues (dhatus) or wastes (malas).
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According to 19th century herbalist Samuel Thomson, whose practices would profoundly influence the later development of herbal medicine in North America and Britain, digestion is the foundation of health. Thomson conceived of a system whereby “heat” is synonymous with health and “cold” is the cause of disease. Please login or register to see the full articleHerbal Therapy and the Liver
Eliminative function has long been seen to be an important component to the maintenance of vitality in the body in the Western herbal tradition, for it is the accumulation of waste materials and toxins that actively impair the ability of the vital force to maintain homeostasis. Although the liver is but one of five major eliminative organ systems of the body, including the bowels, kidneys, lungs and skin, most wastes and toxins at some point enter into hepatic circulation via the blood, regardless of their origin, to be filtered, processed, and eliminated, either in the bile or passed along to the kidneys to be secreted as urine.
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Among the vital organs the lungs have some particularly unique challenges to overcome. While gas exchange in a fluid environment with relatively simple structures such as gills is a rather uncomplicated process, but when it comes to exchanging gases in the atmosphere with dissolved gases in the blood, the process is decidedly more complex.
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The conceptual framework of cardiovascular function elaborated by physiomedical practitioners such as Samuel Thomson and William Cook are based on the notion that blood represents the vitality of the body in a fluid, physical form. When these concepts were formed practitioners had very little understanding of the physical nature of the blood, apart from what were then relatively recent discoveries on the nature of circulation.
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In traditional medicine the kidneys and the lower back maintain an especial place in the conception of the human body, equated in both Ayurveda and Chinese medicine with being a repository of the vital energy. In TCM the Kidneys are the storehouse of jing, the vital essence that gives rise to the Yuan Qi that emanates from the Ming Men to vitalize the meridians and organs.
Please login or register to see the full articleHerbal Therapy and the Musculo-skeletal System
Herbal medicine has a wide range of application in the treatment and management of musculoskeletal disorders. It may be used in the treatment of acute musculoskeletal injury, bursitis, sciatica, neck and shoulder pain, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, transient joint inflammation, arthritis, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoporosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
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The nervous system is a focal point for treatment in herbal medicine, if for no other reason than it is one of the primary regulatory systems of the body. In Physiomedicalism the dynamics of the nervous are described in terms of irritation and depression, with irritation used to describe an over-reactive state, and depression to characterize an under-reactive state.
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The skin forms an important physical barrier to microbial infection, and also protects the tissues from the oxidizing effects of the atmosphere. The skin is the metabolically active organ in the body, and undergoes changes that are dependent upon the underlying factors that support its activities. Please login or register to see the full articleAdditional Information
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