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Herbal Specifics: Choosing the Right Herb
I am often asked what may be the best herb to aid in a particular condition. Many herb books out there will list a condition, say arthritis, and list twenty different herbs for that "disease." It is difficult to approach herbs in this way, as each is a unique life force with many potential benefits for the body. In a more holistic approach to health, each person is unique as well, and naming a "disease" does not take into account each individual manifestation of a condition. The "disease" is just the general term for the general outward manifestation of various imbalances that may have different origins and different symtpoms in each individual.
When I run across one of these very general herb guides, and put myself in the place of someone who is just beginning to learn about herbs, I am often left with more questions than I started with. Taking the afore-mentioned arthritis for example: when being hit with a list of twenty different herbs, I wish to know what the herb does, which are the most effective in which case. Indeed, there are herbs that may aid in arthritis by aiding the kidneys or the liver in removing various toxins that may aggravate the condition. Some are anti-inflammatories; some increase circulation to the affected joints (internally or externally); another herb may address immune system imbalances if there is an auto-immune component. According to the case, an individual may find great relief with one or more of these approaches.
Even without knowing the exact scientific rationale for how an herb works, or the supposed active ingredient (usually an interplay of many plant constituents that have never been studied, especially in the whole herb); there has been much knowledge handed down through many cultures that can provide us with a good "picture" of the herb and what it can do in the body. A study of the Chinese energetic approach helps in providing a basis for diagnosis based on a train of symptoms that point to an imbalance in one or more body systems. This does not mean we would be prescribing for a symptom, although symptom relief is usually found, but are attempting to identify the basic imbalances that may lead towards a cure. A study of the Chinese approach is very valuable, yet can sometimes be too systematized; not allowing us to look or think beyond "the box," which we must often do, as modern conditions are often bewilderingly more complex than anything the Chinese had to deal with in ancient times.
There are both Oriental and Western approaches as well that attempt to look at the unique energy of each herb. Herbs have long been classified according to their heating and cooling, moistening and drying, relaxing and stimulating properties. The taste of an herb can be an indication of some of these properties. With such a basis one can soon learn that giving a hot stimulant in an acute inflammatory condition may aggravate symptoms. Giving a cooling, moistening herb when there is an abundance of mucus and much congestion may not help much. In the Western tradition herbs are also classified according to a number of other properties according to their action in the body: anti-spasmodic, diuretic, nervine, expectorant, etc.
The Eclectics were a group of American physicians whose heyday was in the last century. They, along with groups like the Homeopaths and Physio-medicalists, did much clinical research into the use of whole plant extracts. Their textbooks, a number of which have been reprinted, are a treasure-trove of clinical and theoretical herb knowledge. The Eclectics, through their empirical clinical studies of many cases, attempted to come up with a "symptom picture" which each herb might address.
A good example of using different approaches to gain insight into the "healing signature" of one herb can be gained by looking at the herb Pleurisy Root (Asclepias tuberosa).
This from an Eclectic M.D.: "...Expels wind, relieves pain, relaxes spasm, equalizes the circulation, calms the nervous system...It is of special service in the treatment of affections involving the serous membranes, as in pleuritis, peritonitis, etc."
John Scudder was an Eclectic who made it his goal to develop a series of "Specific Medicines" based on the actions of a single herb extract. His summary of cases indicating Pleurisy Root: "Pulse strong, vibratile, skin hot; pain acute and seemingly dependent on motion; vascular excitement marked in the area supplied by the bronchial arteries; inflammation of the serous tissues."
In Chinese terms, one of Pleurisy Root's main indications would be called "Lung Wind Heat: Feverishness, aches and pains, hot skin, dry cough, irritability."
Much more can be gained from these sources that paint an even clearer picture of its specific uses. The average herb book may go so far as to state it is good for cough; yet how much more versatile and direct can be our use of such an herb with a little more knowledge and a clearer picture of its unique "gestalt." With this knowledge we can see that Pleurisy Root is a remedy for fever; yet it is not so much due to being a cooling herb so much as due to its relaxing properties - "equalizing the circulation" while having a special affinity for the sweat glands, promoting mild perspiration. We can see that it should be brought to mind when there is pain from inflammation of the serous membranes, as in acute pleurisy. Here we see its specialty being in acute, hot and painful conditions.
In more chronic, relaxed conditions it is less called for, but can still have its place. Sticking, sharp pains in the chest in any condition may call for its use. Dry cough and some forms of asthma benefit. It does have tonic and expectorant actions on the lungs, but may have to combined with more stimulating lung and circulatory herbs in chronic congestion. Heart and lung fluid congestion in chronic heart conditions may find a use for this herb. To more or less complete our picture of Pleurisy Root we find that its relaxing effects have been used in intestinal spasm. Its effects on serous membranes can extend to the bursa of shoulder and knee (combined with herbs for tissue repair and circulation).
In their herb use, many people tend to look for the herb or herbs that they can take continuously that will aid all their problems; yet the body is not a static system, and as it goes through changes, herbs may have to be changed as well. For instance, after an acute bout with pleurisy, a person may need to switch to more tonic herbs to build their system back. An herb like Pleurisy Root may be used when there is a hot fever with aterial excitement, and another herb used if it turned into a chronic, low-grade fever.
Another example of the way many approach herbs in this country can be seen in the use of an herb like Echinacea continuously or in any type of problem that may come up. Its use can be overdone, in the sense that I believe it is often used instead of making the life-style changes or the preventative use of herbs and foods that will promote long-term health. It also doesn't do justice to the many herbs that can work in so many different directions. If a person used only an anti-infective herb like Echinacea every time a urinary tract infection cropped up, they would be missing out on a good number of herbs that can be used preventatively, or along with the Echinacea that are a tonic to the tissues of the urinary tract, and create a healthy enough environment that bacteria won't take hold in the first place. Such herbs could include a tonic like Gravel Root or a soothing, coating herb like Marshmallow Root. I have found that in our modern culture, adding an herb for the nerves and stress can make a big difference in many cases.
There is, of course, also the knowledge of many other cultures that can add to our picture. Many tribal cultures, for instance, place more emphasis on the unique spiritual properties of a plant, and how they can be used in healing at the spiritual level (where they maintain that all illness begins). Some herbs have been seen to be suited to certain constitutional types; or certain emotional types. Chamomile, for instance, for children or adults that are acutely or chronically over-sensitive, irritable, self-absorbed.
Modern research can certainly add to our fund of knowledge, and a few new uses of herbs have come to light (notably Ginkgo); though reading and discussing and observing first hand clinical cases is where most herbalists gain their most useful knowledge. Many have a jaundiced eye for much modern research, based as it is on finding so-called active ingredients and magic bullets, as well as funding issues (often funded to show that herbs are ineffective or dangerous). In its attempt to equate herbs with drugs, the pharmaceutical and medical community has much of the public in the "herb-as-drug" mode; prescribing herbs for a "name" like arthritis, rather than for the individual case. This has turned St. John's Wort into the Depression Herb, and Valerian into the Insomnia Herb, though they both have a much wider range of uses and abilities.
There are times as well, when we'll want to throw out all our theories and indications and energetics and syndromes. Sometimes an herb that the herbalist would never have thought to be useful or appropriate is the one that a person will have an immediate affinity to and will aid them more than anything you had come up with. It is my belief also, that so many people are so out of touch with nature and with consuming anything natural, that just imbibing the life-force and nutrition of a wild plant can make a good impression.
An herb like Hawthorn, with limited uses in traditional Chinese medicine, has become very widely applicable and useful in the modern West where heart disease has become a #1 killer. And sometimes it does just get down to Hawthorn is good for the heart.
It is obvious that a run-down on the special properties of all the herbs is beyond the scope of this article, but I have attempted to show some directions to go in learning the versatility of each herb. With such knowledge a person can be more successful in aiding at least a major aspect of a condition with the use of a single herb than with a whole slew of less-indicated herbs. Another common usage of herbs in this country is to take so many different formulas of herbs for every condition, that one is taking a hundred herbs, some of which may be working at cross-purposes. Again, a few well-chosen herbs may do more to correct the imbalances that may be the basis for all of the person's problems, than in using such a shot-gun approach.
In summary, I believe the aspiring herbalist would do well to study the knowledge pertaining to an herb from many sources, ages and cultures, while at the same time being aware that plants, like people, are living beings and cannot always be made to fit exclusively into one system or theory.
Yours in healing,
Bob Liebert
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