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I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I'm wondering, what is the best method of healing for a person? Mentally, emotionally and physically? And why do you think that way is best? I personally think Herbal is the better way for physical healing in the long run. They've been around for centuries and long before Medical healing was even conceived. And the methods that worked back then still work today, unlike medicines of yore. What do the rest of you think?

I think this is a loaded question. Healing is a very individual thing- especially emotional, or mental. Physically, I believe it's dependent on the person as a whole. My opinion is that holistic healing, however it takes place, is best. If that means changing your diet and taking a modern medication while supplementing with an herbal formula, then so be it. Or, if your body and mind react better to using a strictly herbal formula combined with theraputic mental training, then that's best as well. The best way to heal someone is by taking their entire self into account- their mind, their opinions on various things, and their lifestyle, and creating a customized plan for wellness. For instance, someone may prefer using crystals and meditation combined with an herbal remedy to combat depression. I chose to go to therapy, and combined herbs with the modern drug Paxil. My father chose to use exercise and herbs to combat his depression, while my mom uses strictly the Paxil. Each of us has our reasons for what we chose- and it works best for us at this time. The best way to heal someone is a flexible plan that encompasses the entire person.

Personally, I'd say that herbs and holistic medicine are best used to maintain health and prevent problems from happening. As far as mental er... imbalances I guess, I'd say herbal is the way to go for sure, and to help stress. But as far as serious problems go... I'd feel most comfortable being in a hospital. Knowing that there are like a gazillion doctors and nurses there to watch over me to make sure I'm not going to die is reassuring. For example, when I have my baby it is soooo going to be in a hospital, and when I have an allergic reaction, I want to see a regular doctor. I know it's bad to depress your immune system but I have to say, when I was having my freaky allergy/pnemonia thing, I couldn't have lived without prednisone. I don't think an herb could have helped me much during that time. Although, if I'd seen a holistic doctor before I really started to get sick then I doubt I would have gotten so sick in the first place. The regular doctor assumed I was scamming to get out of training, took an x-ray to make sure I didn't actually have something "really" serious, then told me that there was no reason I shouldn't keep doing training in the cold, damp weather, and gave me some antibiotics and some cough medicine that, if I recall, made me feel so bad after taking it the first time that I couldn't take it any more and I went back a week or less later because my chest still hurt. It was one of those ones with the warning label that says "narcotic substance blah blah blah" and I guess I just don't react well to that stuff. But anyways, you get my point. I think herbal medicine is for not getting sick in the first place, but after you've really abused your body for a while, no amount of herbs will make it better. From what the doctor told me, if I hadn't had pnemonia (or maybe even just a serious upper respiratory infection) when I took the medicine I was allergic to, I might not have had that bad of a reaction at all. And if the doctors had identified the resp. infection right away, I probably never would have gotten pnemonia. I guess it also comes to trusting your doctor, whatever they practice. No one likes the first doctor I saw, he always thinks they're faking. But the guy who finally fixed me was genuinely caring and knew how to do his job, and when he didn't, he consulted another doctor with more experience. I'm sure there are probably good and bad holistic doctors, but I guess part of the difference is that holistic doctors are taught to consider the emotional and mental along with the physical, while with ordinary doctors, you have to find a caring one for them to really consider your emotional and mental state and actually treat you as a person instead of just treating a disease. Well, I've gone on long enough. Hehe. I'll finish this now. heart

Ma-chan, have you found a naturopathic doc in your area? They combine the best of both worlds, ideally.

Awu! That bites. We have a fairly small town (population beats me. XD) but we are also fairly big with the yuppies, so we have a lot of stuff most small towns don't have.

Proper nutrition and exercise and supportive friends are what are going to keep you generally healthy and prevent many illnesses, rather than herbs or medicines. It doesn't make any sense to me that we would need a medicine (or herb) to keep us generally healthy. Children don't spontaneously become sick, and adults don't either, though sometimes we think we do. General unhealthyness is usually caused by an unhealthy environment (diet, physical activity, relationships), not by a need for some medicine (or herb).

As a side note, this is true for gardening too. Most gardening problems are from an environment that doesn't suit the plant (wrong siting of the plant, wrong watering pattern, wrong soil, wrong expectations, etc.), rather than a bug or disease, and yet people usually first reach for a spray rather than actually trying to fullfill the basic needs of the plant.

Mild acute illnesses can be self treated by the safer herbs and medicines, but for a more major problem, I would go to a doctor, or two or three. No-one should trust any one medical or herbal professional, because no one person knows everything and you should ALWAYS get a second opinion and do research on your own. It's easy to research things yourself now with the internet.

Herbs are just as dangerous as modern medicine, if not more, because even though they've been used longer, they have not been scientifically tested nearly as much. Humans can believe all sorts of things, and continue to in the face of strong evidence to the contrary, and there are many erroneous beliefs about herbs that have been disproved, or need to be tested, yet people still believe those things and use herbs accordingly. Herbs are not safer than medicines, just look at all the deadly herbs out there: digitalis, ephedra, etc. Plus organ damage from comfrey and kava kava, as well as carcinogenic plants that are not reflected in traditional knowledge at all because of the longterm effects. Angelica, which is used in candies, is carcinogenic, for instance.

At least medicines are required to go through testing before even appearing on the market, and when some new side effect comes up, they are taken off the market. They are very highly regulated.

On the other hand, herbs are very unregulated. They require no testing at all, or any assurance or regulation of their contents. The claims on the bottles aren't even regulated at all! They can say ANYTHING they want as long as they have a little disclaimer that says it's not a medicine. Many are adulturated with ingredients that aren't listed on the label - so you don't know for sure what you're taking. Some of those adulturants have been implicated in poisonings of people. When things are taken off the market, it is spotty and difficult to do. Look how long it took to take ephedra off the market for weight control. More than 100 people died before it was removed. The regulation of herbs in the US is simply horrendous. I wish we had a system more like the german one, where things are regulated and tested before being put on the market.

Herbs have great potential, but they need to be much better tested and regulated in this country.