I am constantly amazed at the disillusionment of governments and health organisations in this day and age with their constant endeavor to try and treat herbal medicines as medical drugs.

I have no issues with medical drugs – after all they have been revolutionary in helping fight serious infections for 50 or 60 years now and when it comes to the crunch, and you are keeled over in pain, then a chemical pain-killer is a great thing. However a herb is not the same as a drug. Medical drugs are the result of modern chemistry and much trial and error, are very potent substances, often with some serious side effects, especially if you are on them for the long-term. They certainly deal with symptoms.

Herbs on the other hand are not chemical substances grown in a lab but rather plants that grow in nature. They rarely have side-effects. An herbal medicine, in Ayurveda is in general made from either the root, stem, bark, leaf, flower, fruit or seed of a plant. Some medicines are a mixture of various plants. Thus they are organic in nature rather than some synthetic product in the lab. Herbal medicines, such as Ayurveda medicines have been used for several hundred years with many of them dating back several thousand years with their usage well documented in texts over 2 thousand years old. They are not fast acting products but have a general slow effect on the body. An herbal medicine often needs to be taken for 3 to 6 months to be effective and needs to be monitored by a qualified practitioner.

Medical drugs really began with the founding of penicillin in the early 1900′s from which the chemical drug industry grew. Lots of experimental drugs were introduced to the market in the early days some of which resulted in serious side-effects due to inadequate testing. The industry was therefore forced to have any new medical drugs undergo very serious testing.

Today we find our governments and medical bodies putting forth the idea that herbal medicines should undergo these same strict tests that medical drugs go through. This is crazy when we have been using these drugs for thousands of years and when the use of these herbs have been extremely well documented. To suggest that the use of herbs have the same side effects as drugs is really an odd assertion by those who make it.

Certainly a person dispensing herbs needs to have the appropriate skills and qualifications. An understanding of herb-drug interactions today is important. Also a person purchasing herbal medicines needs to have some discernment about where the products are purchased from and confidence that have been professional manufactured.

Today the government and medical bodies are struggling to understand where complimentary medicine fits into the health model. They are often labeled as alternative but in reality they have a place in the health care system as can be clearly seen by the statistics regarding the number of people who use complimentary medicine as well as keeping in touch with their GP. They can fit together quite well as we can see in some of the multi-discipline practices beginning to appear in the world.

I fear that the debate or dialogue on what the modern health care system should look like and how it works needs to be much more inclusive and look outside the box of the current medical model. There is no reason why we could not be incorporating complimentary practice in our health care system, especially as a first stage of health care and health wellbeing.

We just need to courage to move away from seeing one as good and one as evil, to seeing how they compliment each other. When you have been educated to see health in one particular way it is often hard to see another framework or model because it is outside the understand or comprehension of the one you have studied. This has never stopped true scientific inquiry before and I welcome the day I see some open-minded inquiry with regards to health and wellbeing in our medical systems again.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (USA) NCCAM have published a paper on Ayurveda. They list some concerns and give some warnings regarding the use of Ayurveda medicines.

Always seek the guidance of a trained professional when taking herbal medicines and if you are taking medication consult your doctor.

The full articles can be viewed at:

http://news.ayurvedawellbeing.co.nz/wp-admin/post-new.php

Concerns About Ayurvedic Medications

Ayurvedic practice involves the use of medications that typically contain herbs, metals, minerals, or other materials. Health officials in India and other countries have taken steps to address some concerns about these medications. Concerns relate to toxicity, formulations, interactions, and scientific evidence.

Toxicity. Ayurvedic medications have the potential to be toxic. Many materials used in them have not been thoroughly studied in either Western or Indian research. In the United States, Ayurvedic medications are regulated as dietary supplements. As such, they are not required to meet the safety and efficacy standards for conventional medicines. An NCCAM-funded study published in 2004 found that of 70 Ayurvedic remedies purchased over-the-counter (all manufactured in South Asia), 14 contained lead, mercury, and/or arsenic at levels that could be harmful. Also in 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 12 cases of lead poisoning occurring over a recent 3-year period were linked to the use of Ayurvedic medications.

Formulations. Most Ayurvedic medications consist of combinations of herbs and other medicines. It can be challenging to know which components are having an effect and why.

Interactions. Whenever two or more medications are used, there is the potential for them to interact with each other. As a result, the effectiveness of at least one may increase or decrease in the body.

Scientific evidence. Most clinical trials (i.e., studies in people) of Ayurvedic approaches have been small, had problems with research designs, lacked appropriate control groups, or had other issues that affected how meaningful the results were. Therefore, scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Ayurvedic practices varies, and more rigorous research is needed to determine which practices are safe and effective.

Hippocrates is often considered the father of modern medicine in the west. I recently came across some of his writing on-line at:

http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Hippocrates.html

It is interesting read.

In the section on Air Water and Places some interesting parallels are made with Ayurvedic thought.

A good read for anyone interested in health and healing.