Hi Ben,

Well, why am I not too surprised....

Ben Odom wrote:

> Whether or not they get sucked into selling them, I believe that the
> processed herbal supplements are quite inferior to whole dried herbs or
> fresh, raw herbs.  The practitioner I met more or less admitted this to me,
> but only after a few months of arguing that there was "no difference."

There are three type of herbal remedies that I normally use.  I think
the best is generally fresh.  So one type I use is fresh herbs, but only
a few are readily available for healing purposes and you'd have to have
a garden for best results.  These are best consumed, as part of your
food.  I do this myself and have a garden with fresh herbs and spices.
Fresh herbs are delicious, either eaten instincto-style or blended into
salads and/or dressings.

The second is a dried herb using the useful part of the plant in
question.  It can be soaked or boiled or cooked in soup and then the
herb is eaten.  I have a few recipes I developed that helps my patients
with a myriad of health issues.  This is my second choice.

The third is an herb or a blend of herbs, either dried or fresh that is
decocted into a tea in the traditional chinese medicinal fashion, and
the tea is taken.  Alternatively if a person really isn't very well, the
tea can be made into a highly concentrated form (similar to freeze dried
coffee) and the granules can be consumed in a variety of ways, including
made into capsules.  While this latter method yields three different
forms (<1>tea-decoction, <2>granules or <3>capsules [of granules] ) they
are unique in that the herb itself is prepared prior to consumption.

This latter method of decoction was developed in China when herbal
medicine was developed hundreds of years agoand there was no modern
means of transportation, preparation or other contemporary
conveniences.  So it was a way to use an herb and transport it to a sick
patient when fresh couldn't be obtained.

In recent years, the decoctions have been freeze dried to make them
concentrated and easily encapsulated, since the modern western standard
for a remedy is a pill. I think this is fine as long as the source is
pure, it is from an originally whole plant and a clean lab that has good
operating procedure.  But most of the mainland Chinese herbal processing
plants do NOT adhere to acceptable standards however, and contaminants
wind up in the remedies.  Sun-Ten (Taiwan), Kanpo (Japan) and Plum
Flower (mainland China) are the three major brands I am familiar with
that have been made with high standards that I just outlined.

I most frequently use dried whole herbs and granule concentrates.  Those
are the three methods of preparation that I consider relatively natural,
yielding safe herbal mixtures that contain the properties of the
original plant item.  Other methods of grinding, or exatracts are
inferior.  Well, inferior IMO because I've tried them and they don't
work so well.

Sometimes, all too frequently I have to take new patients OFF herbal
remedies that they have either self prescribed or prescribed by a poorly
trained herbalist, and they wind up seeing me because they have
unknowingly injured themselves further.

> And now we are at the root of what I was talking about.  I don't honestly
> believe that the majority of practitioners are "preying" on their patients,
> but I do believe these two things:

> 1) you are right! people in general don't want the "truth" about their
> health.  Most ppl don't want to hear that they need to "eat better," they
> just want a pill to pop or a treatment to fix them.  I see this trend with
> the majority of my friends with health problems.

> 2) because of this, many practitioners seem ever-ready to supply them with
> processed, expensive herbals supplements, even more expensive magnetics, et
> cetera, et cetera.

Well, right, these practioners operate this way because that is what
patients want.  Patients demand a quick fix pill for all ills, and I
really do mean demand. This year I was invited to lecture to two groups
of arthritis patients. The first group wanted to hear that acupuncture
would cure them.  It can help, but specific exercises (one is swimming)
and special diets are the "cures" that seem to help most of my arthritis
patients.  Out of several dozen attending, not one of these came in for
treatment with me.  The second group I turned down, because the person
who invited me said they have the same mentality:  they want a magic
herb pill, and wouldn't be interested in my qi-gong class or my natural
foods diets.  I could offer them an herbal pill type remedy, but I don't
think it will work as a long term cure unless the right life changes are
made. I don't ever refuse to treat people, but the ones who really
become and stay well are often the ones who change their lifestyle.

regards

roberta