Phytotherapy is the oldest system of healing on the planet

The use of plants as medicine is one of the healing forms that transcends all cultures across the globe and which has been used from the beginning of time through today.Even with such faith in plants, because the results are clear that plants heal, many aspects of plant life remain a mystery. Science has discovered cells, molecules and atoms but still cannot explain why plants heal.The complexity of life, nature and the unique properties of the plant world are enigmatic but the gifts to us remain.

Phytotherapy is the science of plants and their healing effects and can be viewed as alternative medicine although it can also be complementary to modern medicine. In fact, phytotherapy is often the discipline of choice for some long-term therapies such as osteoporosis and atherosclerosis because, generally, this approach (all natural) is better tolerated by our bodies and has no major side effects. Similarly, phytotherapy is or can be an adequate remedy for minor to medium problems and, in conjunction with synthetic medicine, might be able to increase a synthetic medicine’s effectiveness while reducing unwanted side effects.

Herbs, like foods, are complementary to human health

In the past, in many cases, herbs have been considered as an alternative to drugs for treating various symptoms, but not for treating the underlying causes of disease. Since then, many opinions on this topic have been revised significantly and we realize that herbs can help to sustain our health, just like the foods we eat.Donnie Yance, who is a clinical master herbalist, explained that foods and herbs share a couple of similarities to be pleiotropic, that is to say they produce more than one effect.The complex mix of chemicals contained in plants works synergistically to address the underlying imbalances of our body and to cure diseases.As a herbalist, Matthew Wood said, “It is very rare for herbs to be strong enough to kill germs, some of which are but become like drugs, and killing germs is not the purpose of traditional medicine.

Instead, traditional medicine works to modify the environment, to deal with imbalances in the organ systems and in the state of the tissues, it is not limited to fighting a specific bacterium with a single drug extracted from a plant or synthesized in a laboratory “.In the late 1800s and early 1900s, you could enter a pharmacy and find hundreds of herbal extracts for sale. Over 90 percent of the population at that time knew how to use medicinal plants for the treatment of diseases and common injuries; they did not even have alternatives as these were practically the only “medicines” available.With the rise of what is now known as conventional allopathic medicine, just before the First World War, herbal medicine slowly fell into disuse and became popular medicine. Instead of considering nature as a source of healing as it had been done for centuries, people began to see drugs and other “modern” methods of healing as superior means.

Today, we are separated from our natural roots

When we buy food in a grocery store, we have completely removed any link with the natural process used to produce the food we eat. In many cases, the “natural process” has been transformed into an “industrial process”, the heart of mass food production. This is just one example of our separation from nature, a condition that often leads people to feel significantly disequilibrium.Ken Ausubel, CEO and founder of Bioneers, said: “If there was a disconnection in Western civilization, this is the idea that, in some way, we are separated or distinct from nature when, in reality, the opposite is true. .. we are connected to the ecosystems around us and we can only really be healthy when the earth, the air and the water around us are healthy, otherwise our physical well-being suffers. “Now, despite the high spending on health care supported by industrialized nations, increasing rates of chronic diseases are being experienced, and it has never been more evident that disconnection from nature is backfiring on ourselves.

Environmental pollution is poisoning human beings

Infertility, immune system disorders, obesity and other chronic diseases are on the increase, and it is becoming very clear that environmental chemicals are largely to blame. Yet, there is still some reluctance to recognize that when we poison nature, it is like poisoning ourselves. On average, in the body of people in industrialized countries there are 148 different chemicals, and this chemical exposure begins in the mother’s womb. Chemicals alter the endocrine system such as phthalates and bisphenol-A which interfere with hormones and are linked to the growth of male birth defects and testicular disfunction in young people. It is exposed not only when using products that contain them, but also from plastic discharged into the environment, whose chemicals end up in watercourses with effects still little known

Today, we are separated from our natural roots

Modern medicine excels in the treatment of emergencies and some serious diseases such as bacterial infections but often misses the target when it comes to treating other more subtle but no less devastating situations. Doctors usually rely on laboratory tests and blood tests, rather than what the patient tells them and, in this way, they can use this information as evidence that everything is regular even when, in reality, the person still feels tired , clouded or depressed.

Part of the problem is the decomposition of a person into a set of parts and evaluate each organ isolated from the rest of the body; often the larger picture is ignored because laboratory tests do not shed light on the entire patient’s history. As Tieraona Dog Low says, MD: “The truth is that many people have a kind of soul disease, they have a pain in the soul, a pain in the spirit, and this can not be detected in laboratory tests, it can be found in a scan, but this is not less real “Unfortunately, conventional medicine is not well equipped to deal with the emotional pain or other basic conditions that modern clinical tests do not detect. This is confirmed by the complete lack of attention to factors such as lifestyle that could affect the health of patients such as sleep, stress and diet. Many doctors … do not prescribe a visit to the local horticultural market to buy healthy food and some herbal preparations that can be the cures for our pathologies.

Environmental pollution is poisoning human beings

Most synthetic drugs are based on compounds also present in plants. Researchers are unable to create these types of substances, they try to make copies of them but, in their synthetic models, often there are compounds that our body does not recognize and does not know how to handle.

As Herbert explained: “We send a particular chemical substance to target in a very decisive way, and we expect the system to respond according to what is expected, but in reality we get many other effects … which we call collateral. they are side effects, they are side effects “.  A plant is a complex of thousands of biomolecules, many of which are compensatory, so if in a plant there is a curative compound that can have a toxic effect, it usually also contains a compensation compound that prevents, for example, damage the liver. It is the interaction of the chemicals of the plant that works, and it is the reason why you can not deal with herbal medicine by isolating a certain compound, you must study the whole plant. This is what is largely missing in conventional medicine.

Naturally, the fundamental “phytotherapy” consists of the food that is eaten on a daily basis. Green leafy vegetables, herbs and spices are excellent sources of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory substances that can greatly affect our health. Just like Christopher Hobbs, a clinical herbalist, says: “The real medicines are hidden in the product department that we use to nourish ourselves”.