Take 3 Droppers of Echinacea - and Don’t Call Me In The Morning

When I was in school studying sociology, I was introduced to idea that society “co-opts” revolutionary or challenging social trends. Back in the 60s when I was in school, the hippie movement was afoot and there was plenty of revolutionary material to watch being “co-opted”. Over a few years, mainstream society absorbed the hippie movement and brought it more in line with mainstream principles.

Herbs Arrive On The Scene

I watched the same thing happen with “alternative medicine”. When I began Evenstar Herbs back in 1987, herbal medicine was just starting to peek its head out from behind closed doors. Pockets of people were all excited about herbs because herbs seemed to put the power of taking care of your health back in the hands of the people.

Even though there were pockets of excitement about herbs, the mainstream was not very approving. Herbs were backward and suspicious and most of all – unscientific (unscientific being the worse slur you can make). Conventional medicine was very disapproving - and downright disparaging - of you if you used herbs.

Fast forward to 2007 - and now something like 64% (estimates run from 3 - 93% with 40% a popular figure) of the population uses herbs as part of their alternative medicine approach. Now this is a good thing but it has its peculiarities to it.

Herbal medicine – and many of the so-called alternative medicine therapies – has gone the way of all revolutionary/evolutionary outcroppings in society. Herbal medicine has been “co-opted” by mainstream principles.

Original Intent

Most of the world has used herbal medicine in some form for most of recorded human history. Herbal medicine is part of a traditional culture of medicine and healing. Original herbal medicine played a central part in an integral system of healing that addressed the individual as part of a whole constellation of order. In this traditional healing culture, the whole person and their entire context of being was addressed. Each physical problem had it correlates emotionally, psychologically, socially, spiritually.

Not only was the person’s symptoms considered in choosing healing remedies but also the person as part of the whole constellation of her social order was addressed. Remedies were chosen by taking into account all of these factors– herbs often being a part of the remedy constellation.

An herbal remedy was a marker for this holist medicine approach. The herb was not just used for its chemical constituents. Rather the herb was used to carry the intention for healing the whole. As a part of nature – an integral part of the whole –it was appropriate for herbs to represent this holist intention.

When you took an herb, the intent was to imbibe that representative part of the whole with the entire healing intention. In this kind of integrated holist system of healing herbs carried a lot of power beyond their chemical parts.

That is not to say that their chemical parts were not important – but they were just one aspect of the healing potential of herbs.

And I believe that it was this holist potential of herbal medicine that captured the attention of so many people. Herbs were attractive because they represented this lost connection to wholeness.

Zoom into 2007

Herbs are widely available. They are on Food Lion grocery shelves and in the isles of Wal-Mart. It seems like more people than ever are using herbs. They are advertised on TV and in popular magazines. Herbs have truly become mainstream.

Every day I get emails from people all over the world telling me about what is happening to them and asking what herb they can take.

These emails go along these lines:

I have had migraines for 15 years. I get 1-3 a week now and there is nothing I can do for them – I end up having to spend the day in bed. I have had to stop working they are so bad. I have been to 15 doctors in the last five years and tried 6 different medications and none have worked for me. What herb can I take? By the way, I have hypothyroidism, eczema, and IBS.

Or

I have my periods every 10 days and I am flooding. I bleed so heavily that I have to stay home the first 2 days of my period. I even passed out once. I have had 3 ovarian cysts burst in the last 3 years. I am so tired that all I do is sleep and go to work when I can. Do you think chaste tree might help me?

Is It A Drug Or Is It An Herb - It Is Hard To Tell

My first reaction is a sinking reaction. Yes, herbs have become mainstream but here they are now being thought of in the same way people think about aspirin. If you have a headache take 2 aspirin and in 20 minutes, the headache is suppose to be gone. Now its “If you have anything happening to your health take one herb a couple of times and it goes away.”

Herbs have been co-opted by society. They have been mainstreamed. That evolutionary/revolutionary idea that herbs exemplified (i.e. holist natural healing with the power located in the person) has been drawn into the conflux of society’s churning and moving. And as herbs get mixed in they bring along some of their original flavor but for the most part they start to take on the flavor of society’s organizing principles.

Herb themselves are not alternative medicine. The alternative medicine part is the traditional holist context in which herbs were traditionally used.

So yes, we have herbs that are readily available to many many people – and this is good. Lots of people know about herbs and lots of people want herbs. But for the most part herbs have been saturated with the prevailing organizing principles that are applied to drugs.

People take herbs just like they would take an over the counter drug (OTC)– except they think herbs should be cheaper than OTC drugs. People interact with herbs just like they interact with OTC medications – what am I going to take that will get rid of my symptoms.

Herbs have been extracted out of their original context and plumped down in our societal context. People think they are engaging in that holist-healing context when they use herbs but alas, for the most part they have just substituted an herb for a drug.

Moving Backwards To Go Forward

Here is how I answer some of those emails I get.

An herb might be helpful for you if it is being used as part of a holist-healing program. An herb is a useful part of a program that looks at what is happening for you from many different viewpoints.

• Are you being supported nutritionally in your diet?
• Are you giving yourself the vitamin/mineral and other nutritional supported needed in the form of appropriate supplements?
• How about your lifestyle? Are you making the lifestyle changes needed to support your body in achieving physiological coherence?
• Have you ruled out medical complications?
• Have you looked at the fundamental functional processes in the body to see how they are affecting what is happening for you … such as food allergies, GI upset?
• Do you have a team of healers helping you address these issues from different perspectives?
• Are you addressing the personal foundation issues that are related to what is happening to you physically? No physical issue happens in the body in isolation – it is always attached to something in our personal development and evolution.
• Are you supporting yourself emotionally?
• Socially?
• Psychologically?

If you have those aspects in place – if you are working toward those changes and getting the needed support in those areas- if you recognize that all those areas need to be addressed in some manner then an herb can absolutely be of help to you. If you are not addressing those areas then perhaps you are asking an herb to do a bit too much.