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Herbal TreatmentHow Should The Holistic Herbal Health Care Be In Global Scenario?Herbal treatment is offered globally by most herbalists as a mix of traditional medicine as well as with modern research supported medicinal herbs. Both the traditional or modern system has their unique qualities that should be given due regard and careful consideration. In India and China, the traditional natural botanicals use has evolved to the status of traditional chinese medicine and ayurvedic medicine. And these ancient systems has great influence over the trend of research for medicinal herbs globally. Both of these countries still use traditional botanicals in its purity. China enjoys traditional chinese herbal medicine as a science and it is very popular there. In India, Ayurveda and ayurvedic medicine is evolved in the full medical discipline that is equal in duration and curriculum to conventional modern medicine. Let us be in touch with the trend of herbal treatment and consultation and the global approach for it. Globally in most developed countries there is only one recognized major medical system - Conventional modern medicine. All the other system might be in use or may be popular but they are not accepted as medical discipline. All of them are considered as alternative medicine or complimentary medicine although both of these terms are relative. The main reasons behind this non-acceptance is lack of reliable data, lack of initiative to test and validate traditional herbal uses, status of herbs as food supplements, reluctance of pharma companies to support herbal research, tremendous amount of funds required to give herbs the status of approved drug. One source commented that an average of 800 million $ USD is required before FDA is able to license a chemical for use as a drug. Herbal Treatment Based On Traditional Herbal Medicine:Here the herbal practitioner is following the traditional herbal medicine. Most of these herbal preparations are based on traditional uses and many of these benefits are proved or validated by modern herbal research. The herbal formulations are classical like decoctions or infusion or herbal tea. In Ayurvedic medicine, we have more than one hundred different methods and forms in which we can give herbal formulation. These hundred plus different forms of administration result in greater patient compliance with herbal treatment. Ayurvedic medicine has decoction, cold and hot infusion, oils and clarified butter processed with herbs, sauces or jelly like preparations, syrups, tablets, smokes, self-fermented alcoholic preparations, ashes, depositories, powders, paste, extract powders, distilled products, soups and many other formulations. The main benefit of traditional herbal consultation is that each system of medicine supports and advocates holistic approach in medicine like proper diet, exercise and lifestyle. Ayurvedic medicine advocates yoga and spirituality, hygiene, preventive medicine, and lifestyle changes as well. We consider each person with a different and unique personality in ayurvedic medicine and analyze the person on the basis of ayurveda body types and then match the disease and the condition of the patient on those parameters and ultimately comes out with holistic management of disease of which herbs are only a part. The herbs are balanced and synergized with each other so that some undesirable effect of a particular herb is subdued and the beneficial and desirable effect might emerge prominently. Modern Herbal Treatment And Consultation:It is better to review about how modern herbal medicine considers a herb and what it tries to get out of clinical research trials. Herbs are studied in clinical trials in animals and human being. Any herb is studied along the following lines in herbal medicine - biochemical composition of the herb and its active principle, dosage, safety, adverse effects and side effects, drug herb interactions, effect on specific tissue or physiological process or biochemicals. This kind of study provides the pharmacological data about a herb. Herbal medicine tends to consider a herb like a drug and wants to come out with a single active principle that can be used like a drug. This approach is not intrinsically wholesome. It is OK to find out the biochemical composition of a herb and its active principle. It is perfectly fine to get the right dosage of a potentially toxic herb, even for normally the safe herb. Drug and herb interactions and herb to herb interactions are beneficial to be found out. But a herb acts in a multidimensional manner. Further several bio-regulatory positive and negative feedback mechanisms are interwoven inside the herb by nature. And many of these effects are not realized by these studies. Another negative point in several clinical research trials with herbs is that only ether or alcoholic extract of botanicals is used which is in itself deficient in several regards and is a poor alternative to represent the botanical. So whole herb extracts offer a more wholesome option while studying herbal actions. Herbal treatment offered all over the world by qualified herbalists is based on traditional benefits and uses of herbs and studies carried out by modern herbal medicine. We get some additional and beneficial information with modern herbal research but we lack the integrity and holistic approach of traditional system like Ayurveda. The Best Of Both World - Traditional And Modern Herbal Treatment And Consultation:Let us follow the example of life and nature in herbal treatment - the principle of balance and synergy. We can combine both the approach and get the benefits of both system. The herbal formulation and the prescription should be based on the principles of traditional herbal medicine like ayurvedic medicine. The dosage, safety and side effects should be considered along the modern herbal research parameters. Traditional ayurvedic medicine helps to customize the formulation that meets the personalized demands of an individual. Modern herbal knowledge helps to generalize the approach. Let us take an example, suppose the dosage of a drug X is 500 mg for 60 kg person and the dosage of herb Y is 500 mg for 60 kg person. With modern herbal medicine, we give him 500 mg of herb only. With traditional herbal medicine, we can alter the dosage, formulate it with other herbs, add some dietary adjuvant to get more personalized and customized benefit for the individual. So baseline is that always follow the synergy and balance of nature with any natural therapy like ayurveda and herbal remedies and herbal treatment.
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