Herbal Medicine
What does the treatment involve?
Treatment from a herbalist will usually involve a detailed consultation to find out all your symptoms and indeed your constitutional make-up. Herbs will then be prescribed based on the diagnosis made by the herbalist and will usually involve a number of alcoholic herbal extracts or teas that will need to be taken at regular intervals over 4-6 weeks. The herbalist will usually review your clinical progress on a monthly basis. In general terms, you should begin to see some improvement in a long-term chronic problem within 4-6 months of taking herbal remedies.
Is it Safe?
The safety of herbal remedies has been the subject of much debate. Herbal medicines must be produced to good manufacturing practice and must be free from adulteration. Medications manufactured in the Westernised industrial nations or grown by herbalists themselves are almost certainly completely safe. Problems may occur with some patented medicines imported from Asia and the Far East, or sometimes with the pure herbal products which may not be always as pure as one might expect. There are case reports of fatal events occurring in consequence of herbal products taken inappropriately; an outbreak of kidney disease occurred after taking “Chinese herbs” prescribed by a slimming clinic in Belgium some 10 years ago. Herbs may also interact with conventional medication.
Reproduced with the kind permission of BMA Publications from Professor George Lewith's book, Understanding Complementary Medicine.
