What is Herbal Medicine?
Herbal medicine is the use of plant-based remedies in the treatment of disease. Perhaps the oldest known form of medicine, it is still the most widely practiced form of medicine worldwide - over 80 % of the world's population rely on herbs for their health. With this in mind we might consider it to be rather less 'alternative' than the 'orthodox' medicine of the developed West.
There are many reasons why people living in England might seek out a herbalist - concerns over side-effects of synthetic drugs are common, and people often come to see a herbalist looking for a more gentle medicine. However, herbal medicine offers much more than just a pharmacopoeia of milder drugs - the herbalist aims to give a more 'holistic' treatment, taking more time to unravel the many causes; emotional, physical, lifestyle, and environmental of ill health, and to proceed with a treatment plan to resolve these initial causes.