Before western and modern medicine, herbal medicine was used to cure almost every kind of sickness in a natural way. Herbal medicine enhances the biological natural healing ability of our body, so that the recovery process gets accelerated and the body is able to maintain an ideal internal environment that is crucial for such recovery. A lot of herbs work by stimulating various glands so that appropriate hormones are activated.
These hormones carry the distress signal to the relevant parts of the physiology to either induce or inhibit certain biological processes in order for the healing process to take place, thus herbal medicine can cure almost any sickness, as it relies more on the patient’s body than the medicinal properties of the medicine. An example of this is when the body has a sudden serious acute attack on the body, such as a cold, herbs can give a stronger and don’t require a lengthy treatment time. Modern drugs, however, are extracted from parts of plants and thus, it has more side effects when consumed.
Herbal medicine usually has fewer side effects compared to modern drugs used now, as it is either extracted or created from an entire plant. The most active ingredient is embedded within a host of other natural compounds that can help to lessen side effects and improve absorption of the active ingredient, thus since herbal medicine is formed from an entire plant, it would have the active ingredient, resulting in their side effects to be more gentle and safe for long-term use, unlike modern drugs.
Modern drugs can also sometimes cause serious effects on a person if there is an overdose of that certain drug. For example, Peruvian bark tea can be consumed freely and you won’t have any problems however, taking too much of the quinine extracted from the Peruvian bark will result in the person becoming deaf, and if the person had taken even more, it would also result in death. Another example is white willow bark which contains a natural precursor to aspirin and if too much of it is taken, it would kill the person. Herbal medicine is more beneficial as it has long term advantages.
A lot of herbal remedies come with special instructions about diet, rest, and exercises that prepares the body in such a way that it responds to the treatment in the most effective way. These diets and lifestyle changes help the patient by get their bodies into a healthy rhythm and routine. When these changes become a habit, they are followed even after recovery from the ailment, so that chances of future occurrences of the same malady are greatly reduced. These diets also help to diminish one’s psychological dependence on nutritionally deprived “comfort food”.
Herbs also contribute towards strengthening the immune system and this, in turn fortifies the body’s natural defences against pathogens that are responsible for infection. This leads to improved metabolism, which in turn leads to better absorption of nutrition from one’s diet. This shows that herbal medicine is a more reliable form of medical treatment, in compared to modern drugs and western medicine, as it is safer to be consumed by the human body. Herbs, when used with guidance, are not toxic and have no side effects.