herbal vs pharmaceutical medicine contradictions, and herbal safety, toxicity in hands of Herbalist.

In most cases it is enchanting action which can be:

improving absorption

reducing side effects

reducing synthetic medicine dose needed to achieve medical actions

decreasing or increasing lifetime

stopping use of synthetic medicine

Of course, there is quite few really harmful contradiction and Herbalist is fully aware of that fact. But in most case contradictions herb-pharmaceutical are theoretical, based in many cases on lab tests in vitro but very rarely results replicated in vivo. That’s because of way herbal remedies moving through the body, a test tube is not digested – doesn’t interact with our gut flora. In many cases those test has been done on single isolated constituents while herbalist use herbs as complex, you can read about herbal complex in my post about synergy. Experienced Herbalist is fully aware possible interaction and use them to achieve medical action and possibly reduce or remove harmful synthetic pills.

In some cases, we can move from synthetic to herbal in one go, great example will be here stopping use of statins and move to red yeast rice. In other cases, we need just have time frame between synthetic and herbs, starting from 30 minutes up to few hours. Some other cases require starting slow and increase dose of herbs while reducing intake of synthetics, based on precise dose calculation.

One of the greatest examples of herbal-synthetic interactions is St John`s reacting with so many synthetic medicines, yet in hand of experienced Herbalist is one of the safest and very effective herbal remedy.

Dr. Glen Nagel ND describes assessment of using herbs along a continuum of risk based on several parameters, including:

• Whether the remedy is a simple tea, whole plant extract (tincture or juice), ground whole herb capsules or powder (very low risk), a standardized extract or concentrate (relatively greater risk), or an isolated concentrate or purified compound (highest risk)

• Low, moderate, or high potency extract (e.g., 1:1 or 1:10)

• Low, moderate, or high dose

• Short or long duration

• Used alone or in combination

• Known interactions with drugs

• Whether the remedy is a known inducer or inhibitor of CYP450 detox pathways

Summarizing in hand of Herbalist herbs are safest thing in the world, that’s why whether you use any synthetic medicine, are protected age, or pregnancy, breastfeeding or have long illness history you should always consult Medical Herbalist before start using herbs.

Herbalist prescribing herbs always take under consideration:

Liver function – slows clearance

Kidney function – speeds clearance

Bowel function – constipation slows clearance, diarrhoea speeds clearance, gut flora

Height, weight, BMI

Age

Severity / Chronicity

Co-morbidities

Adjunctive treatments

Paracelsus (1493 – 1541) said:

“What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not poison."

Herbalist is fully aware of possible herbal toxicity, which depends on:

Dose applied

Duration of exposure

Pharmacokinetic and absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion

Susceptibility of tissues

Re-generative capacity of tissues

Below risk of death injury in UK, where you can see that greater risk of death poses even bath, while on first two places are preventable medical injuries in hospital and adverse pharmaceutical drug reactions.