jambo372 said:
Epepke
Your claims are very interesting.
I know about many medicines which would originally have been 'herbal' but since doctors have started widely using them they have just became classified as conventional - I'd just like to know why this is.
That's a very good question, and I don't really know the answer. Sometimes I think it's cultural, and that some people just like to buy brown pills in brown bottles with labels of brown paper showing brown people dancing around and with names like "Nature's Goodness" because they look right next to their copies of
Mother Jones. That may seem a bit cynical, but I think there's some truth to it.
Also, serious herbalists have a kind of theory with two prongs: 1) that the Whole Plant is necessary, and that, being natural, it's harmless and has no side-effects.
This, I think is very dangerous. A lot of medicine can be reduced to killing pests without killing us. A lot of the substances that have evolved in plants have evolved to kill the plant's pests without killing the plants. Some of the plant's pests may be similar to our pests. Bacteria, for instance, are a pest to fungi, so fungi evolved antibiotics. However, we are not plants. At times, it may be that we have more in common with the plant's pests than we do with the plant.
As an example, take one natural product: pyrethrins. These are produced naturally by Chrysanthemum flowers. If you've ever smelled roach spray, you know the smell. One time, I met a girl with Chrysanthemum perfume, and it was disgusting. Anyway, pyrethrin insecticides are used quite frequently, partially on the belief that they are "natural." However, pyrethrin insecticides are some of the worst kinds of insecticides for people with asthma. Even DDT, while it has some obvious ecological problems that mandated its banning, is less dangerous to humans.
That is why it is important to find out what chemicals have the beneficial effect, separate them from other chemicals that the same plant may have evolved that are dangerous, and subject the chemical to rigorous testing. Often, the chemical is modified, as in the case of aspirin. The use of willow bark as an analgesic has been known since the ancient Greeks, but in its natural form it really does a number on the stomach. Adding an acetyl group to the salicylic acid makes it much, much safer. Of course, there are now at least a dozen products modified from aspirin in different ways.
Personally I don't think Ginger worked for my motion sickness - but right enough it was so bad nothing did.
Ah, you mean nausea. I thought by "travel sickness" you meant jet lag. I find that drinking small amounts of very cold water inhibits my nausea.
Maybe you're right about St.John's Wort but I don't understand why it's so popular if your claims are true.
As for St. John's Wort, there was some evidence a few years back that it has a weak monoamine oxidase inhibiting effect. MAOIs have been around for years and years. However, they're seldom prescribed because they can result in some rather dramatic reactions with foods.
Well it has actually been shown that garlic works in vitro. You said there are much better ways of treating bacterial infections - I am afraid this isn't always the case. I take it you're talking about antibiotics here.
A lot of things work really well in vitro. Clorox works in vitro. And there may be something to Clorox treatment; once I got rid of a persistent fungal infection of the fingertips with Clorox. Iodine, of course, is in the same family as chlorine, and it's been used for a long time.
As far as the assumption of antibiotics, you take it wrongly. For topical infections, while a triple antibiotic ointment is a cheap first course of treatment, for more serious infections there are a lot of alternatives. Preparations with metal ions, including silver, work very well.
There are also some interesting cases. It is possible to treat a strep throat infection by swabbing the back of the throat with Betadine and then getting the patient to hack it up. It works great. However, it's so monumentally unpleasant that it isn't done much.
As for antibiotics, it's unfair to compare antibiotics such as amoxicillin in vitro. The whole point of amoxicillin is to survive the gut and produce absorbable, effective metabolites.
Some bacteria have developed resistance to just about all of them eg MRSA , VRE , TB , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Shigella and Acinetobacter - that's why scientists are turning to Garlic in the first place.
I have no problem with people looking for good stuff. If garlic has something good in it that has somehow been missed, we'll know pretty soon, because some manufacturer will isolate the ingredient, and then it won't be called "herbal" any more. In the mean time, though, those garlic tablets are useless. Although I highly recommend eating lots of garlic, as it is delectable, and I cannot rate the value of a satisfying meal too highly.
Mugwort treats seizures - It was a herbalist white witch who told me this.
Well, that's just a bald assertion. Bald as in it has no hair. It doesn't matter if the Pope told you it with a flock of white angels singing the Hallelujah chorus. There needs to be some way to back it up.
I don't know if there is proof about Aloe Vera but I certainly testify to it - it was the only thing that worked on my eczema.
Vinegar can supposedly cure warts, candida and athlete's foot amongst other things.
Well, then it will probably surprise you to learn that, by my memory, for at least 30 years, the most common over-the-counter, FDA-approved remedy for warts has contained, as its active ingredient, concentrated acetic acid. Vinegar is, basically, this acid mixed with water. Which is a waste product of bacteria.
But back to the top of the thread, it just sounds more herbarrific to say "vinegar," especially if you say it comes from apples, which would look nice in a wicker basket made in Guatemala next to those
Mother Jones magazines.
Frankly, if I have a wart, I'm going to go to the drug store and get some of the concentrated stuff and not waste my time messing around with vinegar. I have had warts, and I have done this. It does work. It doesn't do the complete job, however. What does may also surprise you: sandpaper. It works great.
It hear it's been shown in studies that Milk-Thistle could prevent cancer.
Again, that's a bald claim. There's no hair to grab onto, no way of following it up. I believe you heard it, but for science, I'd have to see the studies.
Well tonic water being alkaline may help UTI's but it's not only that. The alcohol in Gin can encourage you to urinate and Juniper can have anti-septic properties.
The problem with Juniper as having anti-septic properties is this. There's a reason that your stomach has a pH nearly one. There's a reason that the duodenum is alkaline. It's to destroy stuff. Nearly all molecules of any significant size get destroyed. This can cause problems. Early versions of penicillin get destroyed in the stomach. This is obviously a problem.
You're right in that alcohol is a diuretic, though. But it can't work unless you pump other fluids into yourself. Besides, I'm a big fan of gin, especially Bombay. Not the Sapphire crap; it tastes too medicinal.
