What are Herbal Remedies?

On this website you can read a lot about herbs and herbal remedies. We have made lots of suggestions about which herbs are good for what ailments. I think it's time to step back and see what is behind remedies made from herbs. A remedy from China may be quite different from a rainforest mix or one from India or the U.S. But how, and why?

Compared to other huge topics, this one is bigger than huge. It's gigantic. It includes what a plant is, how plants impact humans, how human body systems work, and global differences in history, geography, culture and belief systems. All of these infuse what will be in a remedy from herbs.

Another reason this topic is huge is because herbal healing is old. I mean really, really old. As old as human time, and that's a lot of history. Perhaps you remember the herb drawings found in a cave that dated back into the mists of who knows when. Maybe 20,000 years ago.  Or the herbs found from 80,000 years ago.

There are indicators showing an unbroken chain of use over millennia. In China, and in Mesopotamia under the Sumerians recorded herbal use dates back some 5,000 years. That's 3,000 years BC. In India, Ayurvedic medicinal herbs have been recorded in the Vedas, or ancient holy books. The Rig Veda includes over 60 medicinal preparations. The Rig Veda was written over 6,000 years ago.

There are four major divisions in approaching herbal medicine. The differences break down along nothing less than a society's world view.

Chinese herbal medicine
Ayurvedic medicine
Indigenous herbalism
Western herbalism

Herbalists view the interactions among healer, healing, and patient as a web of relationships and all remedies stem from that view. All herbal traditions also believe in the synergy and wider reach of plants working in combination. This is why most herbal remedies include several herbs.

They have a wider reach and are more broadly able to effect healing. Herbal remedies are designed to activate our own healing energies, strengthen our ability to cope with attacks from without and imbalances from within.

Not to diss pharmaceuticals, because as I've said repeatedly they have their place. But herbal remedies tend to be reasonably priced, have vastly fewer side-effects than pharmaceuticals, seek to normalize our entire physiology, and soothe our spirit.