If you plan to use herbs regularly, find a brand or a distributor who offers consistent quality and buy each time from them. What you don’t want to do is to buy from hotdog_joe73 or zhangsherbs on eBay or some random Web site. Hot Dog Joe or Zhang may sell great herbs, but you have no way of telling. The material in the capsule may be the best herb you’ve ever used or it may be wallpaper paste.
Principle Number Four:
Never look solely at the common name for an herb. Always check the scientific name for an herb. Not only does one plant often look like another, the names of plants can be similar as well. For example, gotu kola (Centella asiatica) is not the same as kola (Cola acuminata). Gotu kola has adaptogenic and wound healing properties. Kola (kola nut or “cola”) is the stimulant found in colas. “Gardenia” in the United States is a pleasant ornamental (but not medicinal) flower, composed of several species in the Gardenia genus. In China, “gardenia” refers to Fructus Gardeniae, a medicinal herb.
Quite aside from the obvious possibilities for confusion between common names is the issue of which species are most potent. For example, some species of echinacea work better than others. Do the contents of your bottle of echinacea contain one of the better species or one of the cheaper, less effective species? The only way to know is to check the scientific name.
Principle Number Five:
Homeopathy is not herbalism. Creams and other products made using homeopathic methods will often have the same name as herbal creams. The two, however, are not interchangeable. For example, homeopathy uses arnica just as herbalism does. In fact, in the U.S. most arnica cream offered for sale in herb shops is homeopathic arnica, not an herbal preparation. The two are made using very different processes. Homeopathy leaves very little of the herb in question in the final product. It also uses the resulting preparation differently. Look for either the abbreviation HPUS, or a number followed by X, e.g. 10X. That means it’s a homeopathic formula, not an herbal one. It also means that this book says nothing about that particular formula, its use, or its potential effectiveness.
Principle Number Six:
If you diagnose yourself, you have only yourself to blame if you’re wrong. Just because you think you know what you’re treating doesn’t mean you’re right. Diagnosing yourself and treating yourself with herbs can delay a much-needed trip to the doctor.
That being said, we all do it. We all look at life’s injuries and ailments and say, “Nah, I don’t have to go in to the doctor. It’s just a ___.” Be aware, though, that treating symptoms can mask a larger, more serious underlying condition. Taking responsibility for your health means not just learning which herb to use when, but also when to put away the herbs and seek professional help.
Principle Number Seven:
An herb is more than just its component compounds. Just because the plant has been found to contain a compound that is helpful to you doesn’t mean the whole plant will be helpful. The great advantage, and the great problem, with herbs is their complexity. On the one hand, you have all kinds of chemicals and compounds working together to achieve effects that no single compound could achieve. On the other hand, just because a single helpful compound can be isolated in the lab, that doesn’t mean the herb taken in its entirety will behave like that single compound. An herb containing a known anti-inflammatory won’t necessarily behave like an anti-inflammatory if other compounds buffer that action.
What does that mean in practice? It means you should be cautious about taking an herb just because you know it contains something useful. Laboratory analysis of the active ingredients of an herb can give us some idea of its healing potential, but it is no substitute for long-term, human clinical trials. How do you know an herb is safe, reliable, and effective? You know that only if it’s been used on large numbers of people, studied and found to be so. Frankly, we aren’t there with most herbal supplements. Large-scale clinical trials cost money—pharmaceutical-company amounts of money, not small-scale-herb-grower amounts of money. In many cases we have to supplement clinical testing with traditional and anecdotal reports of an herb’s effectiveness. Sure, when researchers find a known active ingredient in an herb, that’s hopeful news. But with medicinal herbs especially, the part is not the whole.
Principle Number Eight:
When you take an herb, you aren’t treating just your condition but your whole body. Just because an herb is a common treatment for what ails you, that doesn’t mean it’s good for your overall health situation. For example, cayenne pepper can help you decongest if you have a cold, but in doing so it can also aggravate a case of high blood pressure. Herbs that work well for adults might be too strong for the young and the old. Look at herbal tests, and you’ll see very few tests on children and seniors. We really don’t know if herbs affect them differently or not. Many herbs are ill-advised for pregnant or nursing women. If you are taking prescription medicines, herbs might decrease their effectiveness or interact with them in a way that’s dangerous. Even the caffeine in your morning coffee can interact with some herbs.
What does that mean? If you are taking medication, if you have a preexisting health problem, or if you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, the herbal landscape changes for you. You need to talk to an herbalist, naturopath, or informed doctor or pharmacist before using herbs. If you are not fully grown or if you are over 65, you may need to adjust the dosage of herbs you take. Some herbs may be just too strong for you. In other words, experimenting with herbs demands prudence of healthy, young adults. If for some reason you don’t fit into that category, it demands even more prudence of you.
Principle Number Nine:
Just because it’s safe as a food doesn’t mean it’s safe in medicinal doses. Have you ever eaten cayenne pepper, peppermint, or licorice? They’re safe, just food, right? Well, yes and no. When you used cayenne, you probably didn’t steep it in alcohol first. When you used peppermint, you probably used a well-diluted extract made for cooking, not the highly concentrated essential oil. And the licorice? Well, the “licorice” you had may not have contained any actual licorice at all.
Culinary herbs are prepared to bring out the flavor. Medicinal herbs are prepared to bring out the active ingredients. They are much more potent. Even if you’re using them in a way that’s not more potent than you would for cooking (in other words, dried, not made into tinctures or essential oils), you’re probably still taking them in larger quantities. You may be taking them in capsules, which shields your mouth from any irritating properties but not your stomach. You’re probably taking them over a longer period of time. In short, medicinal doses have effects that culinary uses don’t.
And, by the way, did you know that cayenne, peppermint, and licorice can all put you in an emergency room if you use them irresponsibly?
Good Herbal Habits
Are you still reading, still thinking about trying herbs? Have you decided you’re willing to take responsibility for your own herb use? Then let’s look at how to build some good herbal habits, habits that will help keep you safe.
Begin with Professional Help If You Can
If you can find a good herbalist, Eastern or Western, begin with one. He or she can save you a lot of trial and error. Once you get past the “chamomile tea stage” of herb use, you’re looking at real medicine, and you can’t learn the subtleties of real medicine by reading a book or two. If you plan