Issue 14 - October 2004

An herbal love affair
Herbal medicine expands wellness offerings
By Taryn Forrelli, ND

Americans are beginning to discover herbs — not just for cooking, but for medicinal purposes. Recent surveys indicate that more than half of all Americans now use herbs. Herbal medicine is being re-established as an important therapy in healthcare because herbs are safer, more cost effective and have less risk of side effects than conventional treatments.

Additionally, herbs offer important preventative health benefits that cannot be achieved through pharmaceutical or surgical interventions.

Herbal medicine has been the mainstay of every traditional healing system in the world and the origin of approximately 25 percent of modern pharmaceuticals. Today, scientists at prestigious universities across the country are advancing our understanding of the complexity of plant medicines and their therapeutic application.

More often than not, their discoveries confirm traditional herbal wisdom passed down throughout the millenia.

For example: Turmeric, a popular spice and medicine native to India and Southeast Asia, has been prescribed for thousands of years for a wide array of inflammatory conditions. Now, researchers at more than 50 universities (including Harvard Medical School, Columbia University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) have confirmed turmeric to be a powerful antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-cancer agent and an inhibitor of the inflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2).

Findings of this type are helping to re-establish herbal medicine as an important practice in healthcare.

HERBS EXPAND WELLNESS OFFERINGS
Offering herbal supplements provides you an opportunity to expand your wellness offerings while simultaneously improving patient response to manipulative therapies. When you include herbal therapies in wellness programs, you are able to influence your patients’ lives outside of the office by encouraging health, healing and prevention even after their acute complaint is resolved.

Practicing herbal medicine requires proper training and understanding of formulation and treatment principles, but a number of herbs can safely be prescribed with a basic understanding of herbs.

Not unlike chiropractic medicine, the goal of herbal therapy is to address the underlying cause of dysfunction. In contrast to the silver bullet pharmaceutical approach to symptom management, herbal med-icine relies on the natural chemical complexity of plants to restore the body’s natural homeostasis.

Generally, the best way to use herbs is in their whole form as created by nature, which provides the full spectrum of active constituents along with synergistic cofactors. Research confirms that whole herbs are significantly more effective and safer than fractionated or isolated herbal constituents most commonly obtained through chemical solvent extraction.

For example: Pure caffeine may increase the risk of heart disease by contributing to artery hardening, while the caffeine-containing coffee bean can be a healthful beverage as it delivers four times more cardioprotective antioxidants than green tea.

Such is the wisdom of nature. Other examples of isolated plant compounds include curcumin from turmeric, lycopene from tomatoes, and ephedrine from ephedra.

QUALITY AND SAFETY ISSUES
The safety of herbs is largely evidenced by thousands of years of use. When appropriately prescribed, herbs offer real health benefits without the exaggerated cost and side effects associated with conventional pharmaceutical treatments. Herbs may be combined with other natural or conventional therapies. However, practitioners must always be aware of any potential known herb-drug interactions and advise patients to report any adverse or unexpected reactions. (See Vol. 50, Issue 4, p. 50, “Beware of herb-drug conflicts” for more information.)

Finding quality herbal products can be one of the biggest challenges in herbal prescribing. However, a number of manufacturers provide nutritional and herbal supplements exclusively to healthcare providers and strive to meet the high standards required for obtaining reliable and consistent clinical outcomes.

The quality of an herb is determined by a number of factors including growing conditions, harvest time, storage conditions and extraction and processing techniques. Don’t be afraid to ask companies about their level of quality control. Any reputable company will gladly provide you with detailed information that will allow you to make an educated decision about what products you would like to offer to your patients.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
When choosing the best herbal products to recommend to patients, look for

• Whole herbs rather than isolated plant constituents;

• Herbs that have been grown organically or sustainably wild-harvested;

• Herbs that have been tested for purity and potency;

• Herbs packaged in dark glass containers which block light and air that will degrade valuable constituents; and

• Herbs extracted without the use of chemical solvents that can leave residue on the herbs, compromise the herb’s activity and contaminate the environment.

To help ensure patient compliance and product sell-through, be sure to educate patients about:

• What the product is — its content, quality and known benefits;

• Why you are recommending the product;

• What the expected results are;

• Approximate length of treatment; and

• How to take the product — given in written instructions.

Dr. Taryn Forrelli is a naturopathic physician who specializes in herbal and nutritional research and education. She is the medical director for NewMark, Inc. Dr. Forrelli can be reached by phone at 866-963-9675 or by e-mail at tforrelli@new-mark.com