Use of Wildcrafted Herbs in Clinical Practice Essay
This essay will discuss the advantages of using of wild crafted herbs in clinical practice. It will specifically address the issue of environmentally stressed plants. The use of wild crafted herbs in clinical practice still remains controversial. One particular plant, ginger (zingiber officinales) has successfully treated rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The other herb, ginseng has been used for centuries to enhance overall life vitality. Other herbs of this sort are Aveena sativa, Gentian lutea, Medicago sativa, Matricaria recutitia,Taraxacum officinale, Canada scolymus, Artemisia vulgare, Eleutherococcus senticosus, Panax quinquefolius,Acorus calamus, Foeniculum vulgare, Zanthoxylum americanum, Hydrastis Canadensis, and Glycyrrhizae glabra. A more detailed list is provided at the end of this paper. Use of Wildcrafted Herbs in Clinical Practice Essay .
Many patients are using alternative therapies to control their symptoms of the disease of rheumatoid arthritis instead of using pharmaceuticals. Nutritional and herbal therapy are generally viewed with skepticism by the mainstream medical community. One of the reasons for this is the fear that patients will neglect conventional forms of treatment. Relapses are also common in people with RA making the assessment of diet and nutrition difficult to measure. The main reason for this is due to the fluctuation of the relapse pattern of the disease.Nutritional and herbal therapy may repress the mechanisms of the inflammatory process.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER NOW
There are certain herbs that have shown to help with the inflammation and other presenting symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and high cholesterol. The following is a discussion of these herbs and the relief that they provide.
The implementation of ginger into the diet of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis has shown to help reduce joint pain and inflammation. Ginger (zingiber officinales) also works as an anti-inflammatory. Inflammation causes the tissues around the effected joint to become inflamed and produces pain and discomfort. Ginger is believed to relieve nausea and headaches.Precaution should be made as ginger can produce the side-effects of gas, bloating, heartburn, and bleeding if taken at a high dosage.
Herbs like Ginseng have been used for thousands of years by the ancients. Ginseng can lower cholesterol, increase energy and endurance, and prevent infections. People with diabetes have experienced a decrease in blood sugar levels. Ginseng is very effective as an anti-aging agent. It slows the degeneration of the blood system, and increases mental and physical capacity. Ginseng is used in cancer treatments and enhances sports performance.
A list of other wild crafted, environmentally stressed herbs can be found at the end of this essay. Alternatives to pharmaceutical treatments are not always welcome in the field of clinical practice. Regardless of the skepticism, these herbs provide a viable alternative to the traditional treatment of diseases like high cholesterol and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Use of Wildcrafted Herbs in Clinical Practice Essay . Many of these wild crafted plants are excellent treatments for patients with connective tissue diseases because they are natural anti-inflammatory agents. The use of ginseng, ginger, and other wild crafted, environmentally stressed herbs, from the list provided below, are highly recommended in clinical practice.In today’s economy, with the high cost of health care and the even higher cost of pharmaceutical drugs, the use of alternative medicines like wild crafted herbs is a safe and cost effective alternative for patients in the treatment of various ailments.
Partial list of environmentally stressed, wild crafted herbs
- Hypericum perforatum
- Anemone pulsatilla
- Scutellaria lateriflora
- Valeriana officinalis
- Humulus lupulus
- Passiflora incarnate
- Serenoa repens
- Turnera diffusa var./aphrodisiaca
- Angelica archangelica/sinensis
- Schisandra chinensis
- Zingiber officinales (Ginger)
- Urtica dioica
- Barcopamonnieri
- Verconicastrumvirginium
- Zanthoxylum americanum
- Hydrastis canadensis
- Glycyrrhizae glabra
- Ilybum marinum
- Aveena sativa
- Gentian lutea
- Medicago sativa
- Matricaria recutitia
- Taraxacum officinale
- Canada scolymus
- Artemisia vulgare
- Eleutherococcus senticosus
- Panax
- Ginseng
- Pan ax quinquefolius
- Acorus calamus
- Foeniculum vulgare
Works cited
Benefits of Ginseng. Retrieved May 27, 2011, from Web site: http://www.chinese-herbs.org/ginseng/benefits-of-ginseng.html
Pagan, C. N. (September/October 2009). Nourished by nature. Arthritis Today, 23(5) 70 – 84. Retrieved from http://www.web.ebscohost.yosemite.wbu.edu
Rall, L. C., & Roubenoff, R. (July/August 2000). Nutrition and connective tissue health. Nutrition Today. 35(4), 142-50.
There are many medicinal benefits that herbs provide in the prevention and fight against heart disease. Use of Wildcrafted Herbs in Clinical Practice Essay .To combat the disease effectively, patients of heart disease must have a strong heart. Hawthorne berries are used to restore the heart muscle…
Herbs offer hope for reducing the risk of heart disease and may also benefit those already affected by it.
Cancer is another serious disease that herbs can provide medicinal benefits. Not only can herbs provide help in the prevention of cancer, but also in the treatment and providing comfort from the side effects of treatment. Both chaparral and dandelion provide help in the prevention of cancer. Dandelion aids in the prevention of breast cancer and chaparral protects against the formation of tumors and cancerous cells. Chaparral also protects cancer patients from the harmful effects of radiation. Both garlic and pau d’arco are good for tumors and cancer and aid in the treatment of cancer. Cancer patients suffer from horrible side effects of the treatment of cancer and fennel has been found to be good for the patient after chemotherapy and radiation to calm the side effects. When used in conjunction with conventional anticancer therapies, herbs appear to inhibit the proliferation of some cancer cells and may help counteract the undesirable toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER NOW
A woman’s health is very important when she becomes pregnant and herbs can be an aid in all stages of pregnancy. Conception can sometimes be a difficult thing if things aren’t “just right,” but dong quai has been found to increase the effects of ovarian and testicular hormones. After becoming pregnant, morning sickness is an annoying
The most common form of alternative medicine nowadays is herbal medicines. These natural remedies can be found in millions of American homes today. Herbal medicine is probably the most widely used of the alternative medicines. Herbal medicine is a part of homeopathy, which is an alternative system of healing that uses very small doses of substances to relieve specific symptoms (2). Traditional…
It is designed to treat the person, not just the disease.
Alternative medicine emphasizes the individual person. “Because of it holistic view of the body/mind, it is more specific for each patient’s needs than is Western medicine”(9). For example, five women may come into a clinic with the same problem, but each of the problems is accompanied by a variety of different signs and symptoms, no two of which are exactly alike. Instead of each woman getting the same treatment, each of these five women will receive an individually tailored treatment plan with different herbs, different acupuncture therapy, and different lifestyle suggestions (9).
Alternative medicine has no side effects. “Because treatment is so specifically tailored to each person, if the diagnosis has been correct, the treatments prescribed by Alternative medicine should have no side effects”(9). Any mild side effects that may arise in the initial stages of herbal treatment can be corrected by adjustments to the herbal formula. Most drugs prescribed by doctors have at least some expected and normal side effects and many have potentially serious, irreversible ones.
Alternative medicine has a strong emphasis on prevention. In Western medicine, diagnosis can only be made and treatment given if there are measurable material or tissue changes that show up in pictures or in blood or fluid tests(5). If a person complains of symptoms which cannot be measured by these tests,. Use of Wildcrafted Herbs in Clinical Practice Essay.