The Healing Remedies Sourcebook: Over 1,000 Natural Remedies to Prevent and Cure Common Ailments. C. Shealy Norman

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ clear that conventional medicine, for all its wonders, is not the answer to everything.

      Busy Western physicians have little time to spend diagnosing their patients, and our Western approach to pathology and anatomy is based on the theory that we are all the same. Individual personalities, lifestyles, emotions, spirituality, and indeed physical bodies are not taken into consideration for most conventional treatment, but we have now learned that it is the complex combination of these very things that can make us sick or well. Treatment, therefore, needs to examine a wider picture.

      In the past, many of us had the knowledge and the wherewithal to treat ourselves, using foodstuffs in our larders and plants growing in our yards and fields. There would have been a village healer or physician who could be called upon in times of emergency, but for day-today and common ailments, treatment was undertaken at home. While our understanding of biochemistry could not match that of a modern physician, our knowledge of how plants and various substances work in our bodies, and, indeed, how our bodies respond in various situations, and to different treatments, was much more profound. Women instinctively treated their children and their families—recognizing a bad temper as the onset of illness, perhaps, and being capable of addressing the cause of an illness according to a more general knowledge of our holistic being.

      Today, most drugs on the market tend to deal with symptoms, rather than the root cause of an illness. Conditions and symptoms such as asthma, eczema, ME (CFS), headaches, and menstrual problems are controlled rather than cured. We take a tablet to ease the pain of a headache, but we do not stop and consider why we have a headache. In the past, we had a much greater general understanding of the causes and effects of illness, and a much more instinctive approach to treatment. Folk medicine and home remedies kept the majority of people healthy and it is that tradition to which many people are increasingly returning today.

      CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE AND THE FOLK TRADITION

      Physicians’ offices are overwhelmed by the constant needs and demands of people suffering from minor illnesses. Conventional medicine has its place, and no one can deny that it has extended our lifespans and improved our chances of surviving serious illnesses. But it has its own drawbacks, one of the first and foremost being our dependence upon it. The majority of us are not able to listen to our bodies, and to take responsibility for our own health, in our own environment. Even conventional physicians welcome simple remedies to deal with the recurrent hazards of everyday life—coughs and colds, sore throats, cuts, bruises, skin infections, and many others—because it takes the pressure off medical systems and allows them to spend more time with more serious cases.

      In the past, when conventional medicine did not have as much to offer and people could not afford to visit a physician, there was a commonsense approach to minor ailments. Indeed, many of the same remedies used have been adopted and adapted by conventional Western medicine. The popularity of these remedies is, quite simply, due to the fact that they are effective. They do, on many occasions, work better or at least as well as some of the pharmaceuticals of the modern age, and treatment is less likely to be complicated by side-effects. Their wider use means that we are less dependent upon conventional medical expertise and more self-confident. The power shifts from the physician back to the patient, which is both time- and cost-effective for everyone, and gives us a stake in our own health. Once learned, folk and home remedies can be used again and again.

      PREVENTING ILLNESS

      Natural medicine in the home is more than just first aid for common and minor ailments. It can be preventive, using some of the most common items in the larder—onions, garlic, thyme, mint, sage, chamomile—to protect against many illnesses. Modern research—particularly over the last three decades—is now justifying the use of plants and household items, things that have been used for centuries in both folk medicine and traditional cookery. For example, mint calms the digestive system; lemon is a great detoxifier, helping the liver and kidneys to function effectively; rosemary has profound antiseptic powers and is a natural stimulant; and caraway seeds will prevent flatulence. By incorporating some of these elements in your day-to-day meals, you not only add flavor and variety, but also provide the systems of your body with nourishment and support. These remedies have a beneficial effect on our general health and deal with specific problems, something that conventional drugs do not. Most available drugs work to address specific systems and do nothing for our overall health; many of them have side-effects that are more dangerous than the symptoms they are addressing. Traditional folk and home remedies tend to work with our bodies, allowing them to heal themselves by keeping them strong and healthy.

      A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

      Whenever possible, a system of folk medicine is best understood as a dynamic in a historical context. The Aztecs in Mexico provide a good example of how conventional medical systems can go hand in hand with folk medicine, feeding from one another and allowing both to grow according to the needs of the population.

      Aztec establishment (as opposed to folk) medicine was highly organized, with a herbarium, a zoo, an intellectual elite, and a training and certification academy. It was based on a complex theoretical structure and experimental research. Some segments of the population, however, had only limited access to this medicine. They relied instead on traditional treatments and medicines.

      Aztec establishment medicine was eliminated when the Spanish conquerors killed the medical personnel and introduced their own medicine. This intrusive system became the new medicine of the Aztec establishment. The system still offered limited access. Some elements of the European approach, however, were compatible with the folk medical practice of the Native Americans and were therefore incorporated into a new folk system. Mexican folk medicine thrived and continued to incorporate elements of the new establishment medicine.

      Similarly, Native North American systems were the establishment medicine in their own societies before conquest. Europeans brought diseases that decimated populations and challenged indigenous medical systems. The social and moral bases of the systems came under attack by missionaries and governments, even as immigrants began to adopt the ideas and materials from native systems. Again, this intrusive medicine became the establishment medicine, and Native American medicine, incorporating some Euro-American elements, became folk medicine.

      DISCOVERING PLANT BENEFITS

      The history of using plants for medicine and healing goes back to the beginning of humankind. In their search for nourishment, primitive humans sampled many kinds of plants. Those that were palatable were used for food, while plants with toxic or unpleasant effects were avoided or used against enemies. Other plants that produced physiological effects such as perspiration, defecation, healing, or hallucinations were saved for medicinal purposes and divination. Over the course of thousands of years, people have learned to use a wide variety of plants as medicines for different ailments.

      More than 4,000 years ago, the Chinese emperor Qien Nong (Chi’en Nung) put together a book of medicinal plants called Ben Zao (Pen Tsao). It contained descriptions of more than 300 plants, several of which are still used in medicine. The Sumerians, at the same time and later, were recording prescriptions on clay tablets, and the Egyptians were writing their medical systems on rolls of papyrus. The oldest such document, known as the Papyrus Kabun, dates from the time of King Amenemhet III (1840–1792 B.C.E.) and contains information about women’s diseases and medical conditions.

      The most famous of these medical papyri, the so-called Ebers Papyrus, reports voluminously on the pharmaceutical prescriptions of the era. It includes specific information on how plants are to be used, for example, in the treatment of parasite worms or of stomach ailments. Some of these plants are still used today—in folk and conventional medicine.

      The Greeks and the Romans derived some of their herbal knowledge from these early civilizations. Their contributions are recorded in Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica and the 37-volume natural history written by Pliny СКАЧАТЬ