Pros and Cons of Herbal Remedies

Some Problem Areas of Herbal Medicine

There are numerous herbal remedies available at health food stores, online and some selection at grocery stores. Many herbal remedies are very effective and they don’t have as many side effects as prescription medications. That doesn’t mean you quite taking prescription drugs. You should talk with you pharmacist and/or doctor to make sure the herbal remedies are compatible with your medications. It is most important that you let your doctor know what herbal remedies you are taking before he prescribes your medications. There are always pros and cons to anything so I will address the problem areas in this article.
Some of the hidden problems with herbal remedies are not all pharmacists are very knowledgeablein this area . They have your medication record, so it is important for them to know if there is a compatibility issue. This is a particular problem around the American Mexican border as many Americans go to Mexico and buy herbal medications when they can’t afford their prescription medication. There is a case of a woman arriving at a rural clinic in the U.S. and she told the doctor she had taken Zapote blanco (Casimiroa edulis) which is extracted from the leaves or the fruit of a shrub that grows in semitropical and moderate areas of Mexico, because she couldn’t afford her prescription. The extract is recommended for the treatment of hypertension and atherosclerosis and is available as a commercial product in Mexico. The patient’s blood pressure was 240/150 upon arrival with a 48 beats/minute heart rate. She had been on the herbal remedy for 3 days at this point and they were able to treat her and get her blood pressure back in a safe range.
Another of the problems with herbal medicines is there are still not enough randomized drug trials completed, so the side effects are not always known. Also, not all herbal remedies have the same ingredients. Although you get the ingredient that you need, there will be some other such as twigs, bark, and other plant materials that may find their way in there along with your herbal medicine. There is a wide variety of herbal remedies to choose from but if you have a chronic illness, try to learn as much as you can about your illness with some good literature because, it might tell you remedies that are helpful and some to stay away from. For instance, I have Systemic Lupus and a few years ago someone at a health food store recommended Echinacea. Echinacea is a remedy that helps the body defends itself from viruses as it boosts the immune system. If you have a chronic auto-immune disease Echinacea is the last thing you want to take, as you already have an immune system working overtime attacking your healthy tissue. You don’t want to give your immune system any more help!

Herbal Remedy Chart

NIH Randomized Studies

There are also some herbal medicines that may cause high blood pressure in the vessels of your lungs and some others may even cause your immune system to weaken, making you more prone to diseases. The most important thing is to buy a good reference book and be informed about the herbal supplement you are planning to purchase.
The good news is, the National Institute of Health oversees the NationalCenter for Complementaryand Alternative Medicine division. It is the Federal Governments lead agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine. The mission of NCCAM is to:

• Explore complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science.
• Train complementary and alternative medicine researchers.
• Disseminate authoritative information to the public and professionals

They are using scientific methods and advanced technologies to study these alternative medicines. They have funded more than 1200 research projects at scientific institutions. They support training for new researchers and encourage researches to study complementary alternativemedicine. They provide accurate information about the research in many ways, such as their website, information clearing houses, fact sheets, lecture series and continuing medical education programs. Their website that lists fact sheets and clinical trials is http://nccam.nih.gov/health/.
I think herbal medicine will ultimately be used to a much greater degree and many of the products may be the ones our great grandparents used. So, get informed and make healthy choices..

Read more »

Herbal Medications for Mumps

Treatments for Mumps

If you happen to be wondering about the different herbal medications for mumps then cheers this article is perfect for you! Catching mumps nowadays is an annoyance for most people. I don't know about you, but growing up I had a couple of bouts with the mumps myself, and boy weren't they good experiences. For those who don't know, Mumps is described as "an acute communicable viral disease with a painful enlargement of the salivary glands, frequently invading other tissues like the testes, pancreas and the meninges." Scary right? Hopefully this article will be helpful in addressing your situation.
To begin, there are dozens of treatments which a person can use to solve this predicament. The most obvious being the usual trip to the doctor. But for people who are averse to hospitals and the like, or those who are short on the buck, there are a multitude of other treatments you could find online or in your handy dandy herbal medicine book. Please don't hesitate to use other resources in order to have a clearer grasp on the different methods, so you could be the better judge. On my part though, I believe that these herbs are efficient enough to the job

Herbal Medicine

Like I previously said, if you're someone who would like to test out the other alternative methods before heading on to the hospital/clinic, then by all means give herbal medications a shot. It's fairly simple actually. You don't need to look far for to obtain the materials needed as these will usually be provided for in your nearest herb store, or in your very own garden (for some homeowners).
Moving on, there are dozens of herbs you can use, and other online resources will elaborate on most of them, but for the purposes of this article you can take your pick from the following top herbs: Mimosa, The Coronitas, Ginger Lily, the Lagundi (or the 5 leaved chaste tree). All you have to do is simply pound or chop these leaves/fruits (in the case of the ginger lily) , and apply directly as poultice on the swollen areas for 30 minutes. This is usually done thrice a day.
Simple right? That's all it is really. If you need more elaborate explanations, then I would suggest that you visit the different herbal medicine sites online to get an in-depth guide on the topic. However, I believe that these herbal medications for mumps, as explained in this article, are indeed effective and will hopefully help you get rid of those nasty mumps.

Read more »