With apologies to herbalists who claim otherwise…NO. Your body “cures” diseases when you provide what it needs to function correctly! Diseases are dis-ease: the body is out of its natural state. Providing the proper resources allows for return of normal function and proper cell regulation. That said, I have had clients who had been diagnosed with everything from anxiety to cancer who no longer had those conditions after integrating herbs and other changes and naturopathic elements into their lives. Some symptoms of disease, such as fevers and diarrhea, are actually your body doing a good job of eliminating the “disease” on its own!
Why should you use herbs in your health program, even if you are already “eating right”? Primarily because herbs are foods! You were designed to digest primarily plants. In their whole form, herbs contain the balance of related elements that make them easily assimilable by your body. Calcium, for instance, can’t be utilized for proper cell function without adequate levels of magnesium, phosphorus, and other trace elements. Plants high in calcium tend to be proportionately high in those other elements. Additionally, calcium tablets require large amounts of hydrochloric acid to break down completely, which is often deficient in our population because of chlorinated water, aging and hiatal he
I am often asked, “What exactly IS an herbalist? And how do herbs work?” Literally – an herbalist is someone who uses herbs! To me, personally, herbs are foods – think of parsley, dandelion, carrots. Because every plant has a different range of nutrients (which is what gives each its distinctive flavor and color), each has something special to offer the different types of cells and organs in the body. So we say, for example, that dandelion is good for the stomach and liver, and parsley is traditional support to the kidneys. Herbs work in two ways. The first is by supplying concentrated nutrition targeted to the specific type of cell you are trying to rebuild. Remember that you replace
