With the growing popularity of Ayurveda worldwide, an many people are discovering the herbs that play essential roles in this millennia-old system of healing. Herbalist Omar Cruz reviews the properties & benefits of six of the most commonly used Ayurvedic plant medicines.
A standardized extract of Panax ginseng root (Panax quinquefolium) is proving safe and effective for preventing and ameliorating acute respiratory infections, particularly among elderly individuals.
Primary care doctors have a vital role to play in helping patients with cancer, even if they are not directly involved in treatment of the cancer itself. The key, says Dr. Isaac Eliaz, is for doctors to confront their own mortality and become comfortable with the reality of impermanence.
Gaia Herbs, based in western North Carolina, has had a longstanding commitment to organic farming and rigorous quality control in the making of its botanical medicines. The company’s new “Meet Your Herbs” enables practitioners and consumers trace each product from farm to pharmacy.
Data from a well-designed Swedish study indicate that green tea and Roiboos tea—but not black tea—can significantly inhibit Angiotensin Converting Enzyme, and potentially lower blood pressure. An HerbClip from the American Botanical Council.
Ginger is widely available, safe, inexpensive, and, it turns out, one of the best possible remedies for pregnancy-associated nausea. A new clinical trial involving nearly 70 women, shows that at a dose of 250 mg, four times daily, ginger is highly effective in controlling nausea and reducing vomiting.
Hibiscus, a popular tea herb in many parts of the world, can markedly lower systolic blood pressure in type II diabetic people with mild hypertension, according to a recent clinical trial. On the other hand, black tea tends to increase systolic pressure.
An extract of Elderberry (Sambucus) proved effective in reducing symptoms associated with human influenza in a new placebo-controlled clinical trial.
Allergic rhinitis may not be the most serious problem confronting us as primary care physicians. But it is very common, affecting up to one-fifth of the US population, including children. This amounts to 40,000,000 people. While not life threatening, it causes a great deal of discomfort, and more importantly, it can be an indicator of dysfunction of the adrenals, liver, immune system, or of dysbiosis and/or chronic stress, all of which warrant careful assessment and treatment.
In the first head to head comparison of a botanical therapy versus a drug for management of menopausal symptoms, a standardized formulation of Black Cohosh was equally effective as tibolone, a drug widely used in Europe and Asia; the herbal formula had fewer adverse effects. Pycnogenol, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory derived from the bark of French Maritime Pine trees, can reduce menopausal symptoms while improving women’s lipid profiles.
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