
FAQ: The Difference Between Herbs and Medicine
“Don’t a lot of medicines come from herbs anyway?” No. Nothing that occurs in nature can be patented.
Properties that various herbs might have often provide the initial concept for a medication, but when that property is isolated and/or synthesized you have destroyed the inherent balance of the plant and you are going to have side effects. At that point you have created a drug. The difference is that an herb provides the raw material for proper function, while a drug can d

FAQ: Are Herbs Really Safe?
I believe that most herbs commonly sold over the counter are safe for most people to use, but there are many that are of such poor quality that they can’t do you much good.
My only hesitation would be with those herbal combinations targeted to weight loss and “energy” boosting. Ma Huang, or Chinese ephedra, has gotten an undeserved, really bad rap from some of those formulas, most of which contain obscene amounts of caffeine, which is the real danger. Ma Huang is used in Ch