nutrition, herbal, and other study notes 12/6-10/2010

Green Pharmacy- Chapters 21-30-The Industrial Revolution brought the poor working class out of the slums and away from herbal medicine. Legislation on public health and sanitation became a major factor in the late 1800's for the decline of infectious disease. Older village women used herbs as medicine in England during this era. Horehound, marshmallow, agrimony, elecampane, coltsfoot,  garlic, and comfrey were deemed obsolete, quaint or trivial medicines by Dr. Mushet in his article in “The Practitioner.” The AMA got most of their funding from the Carnegie foundation. This same Carnegie Foundation paid for the Flexner Report, which contained biased and greatly exaggerated claims against Eclectic medical schools.The main focuses of the Allopathic educational curriculum were laboratory sciences especially pharmacology, anatomy, bacteriology, physiology, and pathology.  Botany and nutrition were ignored.The Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations fund a significant portion of the allopathic cause today.

Compound 606—a dye containing arsenic—was used to treat syphilis in the early 1900's.  Jaundice, kidney disease, optic atrophy, anaphylactic shock, arsenic dermatitis, and death were side effects discovered after numerous people had been treated with this compound. There was not much difference between the drugs used in 1870 and the drugs in 1932, fifty years later. The most urgent problem facing the doctors in the early twentieth century was infection. Sulfa drugs signaled the beginning of “the great drug therapy era.” In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Four of the “magic bullets” that came out between 1939 and 1949 were streptomycin, aureomycin, chloramphenicol, and cortisone. In America, war with Germany (WWI) and the nullification of several German patens because of the war triggered the competition between pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs. In the late 1990s, the cost of bringing a new chemical drug to market $260,000,000 and took 10-15 years. In the opinion of the medical profession on the use of herbs for syphilis and acute infection, plants would not continue to provide badly needed drugs.  Plant research was not funded, because it could not be patented and exploited. There was no profit in it. In the New York Metropolitan Hospital study, garlic worked the best against tuberculosis out of the 56 treatments studied. Because it had been so thoroughly exploited and debased by the patent-medicine vendors of the nineteenth century, being associated with Indian medicine give herbs a bad name.  

Maud Grieve and Hilda Leyel were responsible for the “gentle revolution” in England that brought herbal remedies to the forefront once again. There was a crucial shortage of herbs in England after 1914, because they didn’t grow many of their own but relied on imports from the continent. Garlic was praised to the skies as an antiseptic by medical doctors during this time. Sphagnum moss used for surgical dressings during the war. Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, enthusiastic for all things Aryan, raised fold traditions, including herbalists and alternative medicine, to nearly religious status. The drug-plant industry was encouraged as a patriotic duty, new chairs in pharmacognosy were created in universities, and learned papers explored its significance. In 1933, a law was passed granting to naturopaths and herbalists almost equivalent status with qualified doctors and surgeons. The American Medical Association claimed they spent ‘fortunes’ on its national congresses on health quackery by 1968.It is quite strange how the medical establishment in the United States acts in a gestopo like fashion against anyone who dares teach against pharmaceuticals.  Nathan Podhurst ran a little herb shop for his deceased brother’s widow in San Francisco, where the brother’s-in-law book on the use of said herbs was also sold. The FDA raided the shop and burned the books. Additionally, forced him to remove one after another herbal tincture and remedy from his shelves. The herbal industry treated with such prejudice, because it takes customers away from the multi-billion dollar prescription drug industry which underwrites the very existence of the AMA. The AMA has successfully brainwashed generations of doctors into believing that outside drug oriented orthodox medical thinking lie only the grey realms of quackery. The acronym G.R.A.S stands for Generally Recognized as Safe. In the notorious sassafras case, the FDA fed massive amounts of Saffrole, the extracted oil of Sassafras, to rats. This experiment produced liver cancer in the rats. All sales of sassafras tea were banned. However, since saffrole is not water soluble, it is not present in sassafras tea. Interestingly, saffrole is found in minute amounts in nutmeg, star anise, pepper and regular tea. In 1979 the Medical Letter ran a story headed ‘Toxic Reactions to Plant Products Sold in Health-Food Stores.’  No scientific ‘evidence’ supported these claims, invalidating them. Mexican yam was used to synthesize progesterone and testosterone. A researcher made a mistake that cost a pharmaceutical company $500,000.  He marked the plants by writing an identification number on a leaf of each plant. When the poorly packed plants crumbled, so did his identification system. 

 The main problem with the miracle drug thalidomide is that it caused the absence or vestigial development of limbs, when taken by pregnant women. Rene’ Dubos, a professor at the Rockefeller Institute,  said the possibility of producing a drug without toxicity “is an impossibility, because absolute selectivity is a chemical impossibility.”  With the advent of new drugs that mimic the body’s own functions, we might expect alterations so profound that they might be characterized as metabolic toxicity…a deep-seated and sometimes irreversible change involving the whole bodily mechanism. “Iatrogenic disease” refers to doctor induced illness. 1/7 of hospital days were devoted to this illness in 1969. A committee of drug experts met to review drug side effects in 1976 and came to one conclusion. About the safety of drugs, they said “Medicines can never be entirely safe. Despite extensive testing and monitoring, unforeseen and unpredictable adverse reactions will continue to occur.” When a patient reported side effects to his doctor, the doctor often under-reported the side effect. No doctor wants to believe that a drug he has himself prescribed can make his patient worse instead of better. Also they leave themselves open to malpractice suits. The British Herbal Medicine Association protected the freedom to choose herbal medicine in the United Kingdom. If an herb and been used safely and effectively for a long period of time or appeared in a standard reference book and not poisonous, it would be deemed acceptable.

Messegue’s practice included simple ordinary herbs such as marshmallow, thyme, plantain, dandelion, and hawthorn, which he learned from his father and grandmother. This knowledge was family lore passed from one generation to the next. Although he charged large fees for personal consultation, he freely shared his knowledge of simple diet and plant cures in his books. Aroma therapy with essential oils was a big part of his practice. Egypt used Aromatherapy. When Valnet served in Indo-China as a medical officer, he learned the remarkable efficacy of essential oils as antiseptic agents, the speed with which new wonder drugs bred resistance, and observe the local traditional medicine in action. Lapraz dissatisfied with chemical medicine, because he saw that chemical medicine in every day practice didn’t work. People relapsed, suffered side effects, and developed new illnesses. Also he didn’t feel he was making personal connections with his patients.Nebulisat is an alcohol or water extract of a plant that is spray dried at high speed to produce a powder and sealed in a gelatin capsule. Nebulisat made phytotherapy fast medicine by concentrating the herb and providing instant absorption.  The undoing of phytotherapy was brought about by its success and the fact that the government would not reimburse the public for using plant medicines.

It is difficult to test herbal products in double blind studies, because the costs are astronomical.The Natural Medicines Society formed in 1988 to there were no representatives of any of the therapies: herbal, homoeopathic, antrhoposophical or biochemic. The reasoning behind comfrey regulation was similar to the sassafras debacle. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids were injected into laboratory animals in high doses, which caused liver damage. The expert defense of comfrey was based on the fact that apples, almonds, pears, tea, mustard, radishes and hops all contain the same alkaloids, which if extracted would give the same results of the test. Also the amount fed to the laboratory animals was equivalent to 24 times their body weight daily. The presence of toxic constituents does not prove plant toxicity. Comfrey has been used for thousands of years safely. The current view of Herbalism in England is legal and eager participation.  Herbalists are accepted as professionals.

Dr. Vogel was a famous natural healer in Swizterland.  Describe his procedure for the young Swiss farmer only given 10-15 days to live.  The farmer suffered from septic kidney which manifested with profuse sweating, pallid skin and low pulse. The Dr. lined his bed with cabbage leaves and covered him with the same. On top of the cabbage was placed warm blankets and hot water bottles. Dr. Vogel successfully used sunlight, fresh air, exercise, sleep, raw foods, juices, clay, medicinal plants, and hydrotherapy  in his mountain clinic. Dr. Vogel discovered the uses of Usnea lichen by observing deer eating it in the winter.

St. Johns Wort is a better choice than prescription anti-depressants, because of the lack of side-effects. Schwabe discoverd in the mid to late fifties that ginkgo biloba increases blood flow to the brain. Low blood flow to the brain has been linked to memory loss, dizziness, depression, head ache, and mild dementia.  More than 80% of German doctors prescribe phytomedicines. Phytomedicine flourishes in Germany. When a plant-based drug is evaluated there, the extract itself as a whole is considered to be the compound or active ingredient instead of isolating each chemical compound as in the US.  

Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants for food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies. In the context of this study it is the relationship between science, indigenous healers, and natural healing. The current state of tribal knowledge about medicinal plants is rapidly disappearing under Western influence. Perhaps as many as 250,000 flowering plants are estimated to exist on the world today. Nearly half occur in tropical rain forests. Because they live in a constant, relentless struggle for survival, the silent botanical warfare of tropical plants produces many powerful chemical compounds designed to fight off predators. This modern pharmaceutical companies. At least 100 acres per minute of rain forests of the world are being burned. Since synthetic chemistry cannot supply anything like the structu4ral variety found in the natural products, sending research teams into the tropical rain forests to search for these medicinal plants is not a practical option.

Near the end of his life Louis Pasture had eye opening things to say about the futility of the germ approach to disease. “The germ is unimportant: it’s the terrain which matters.” Hawthorn, milk thistle, turmeric, cranberry, and many others have gone through extensive testing and have been proven useful as phytomedicines. There are at least three impressive things about phytomedicines. They perform well in trials, are less expensive, and have few to no side-effects. With surgery, treatment of trauma, and control of infectious disease allopathic techniques work but are not necessarily holistic. Western medicine is ineffectual in treating disorders of the circulatory and digestive systems, migraine, multiple sclerosis, parkinsons, mental illnesses, acne, eczema, psoriasis, AIDS, and degenerative diseases. In 1958, Mao Tse Tung changed Chinese medicine, when he repealed the 1929 law making it illegal to practice traditional medicine. He then combined the practice of Western and Traditional Chinese medicine. The medical system in China uses both traditional and non-traditional forms of medicine with a class of paramedical practitioners.

Herbal medicine has had a long and proud past, checkered with defiant people who stood up for what they knew was right.  Presently, this same struggle continues with corporations, governments, and the medical community trying to control herbology’s rebirth.  The future for herbal medicine is a bit shaky.  With the current trend to strictly control every aspect of life in America, herbology might fair better if it is taught and practiced as it has been traditionally.  As we’ve seen with midwifery and regulation, it is better to stay unregulated. It is better to grow your own medicine under your own fig tree and treat your own family and friends. Of course those friends might include the ones who find your back door open accompanying someone that has already been helped by your knowledge of nutrition and herbal foods.  Any reasonably intelligent person can read books and learn to identify plants and change their diet and achieve vibrant health.

Dr. Fuhrman Member Center Lecture-1) Growing More of Your Food and 2) How to Save Money on Your Food Bill-Nothing really new for me here except that kale grows even under a blanket of snow. He talked about indoor gardening for greens in winter, which I find very rewarding. He talked about the frugal benefits of beans and seasonal produce. Harvesting fruits in season and freezing them for winter use is another idea. Cold frames, green houses, landscaping with edibles, composting, and all the like were addressed. Buckwheat and sunflower greens cut the green smoothie bills by about 75 % in the winter. 

Dr. Fuhrman's Nutritional Education Training Certification Program-This is an exciting nutritional education and counseling program that I'm considering. It's similar to Personal Exercise Training.