What happens during a treatment?

When you consult a herbalist, they will usually take about an hour to discuss your problem, your medical history, your diet and lifestyle and build up a picture of the 'whole' person. They will then use their knowledge of plants and their different effects on the body to find a mixture that will treat the underlying cause of a problem.

The herbalist will usually give you enough of the remedy, or tell you where to buy it, to take away with you to use before your next consultation. You can expect a lot of herbal remedies to taste nasty owing to the bitter compounds found in many plant extracts.

If appropriate, a herbalist may suggest you see a doctor to discuss your problem further.

What can herbal medicine help with?

• Herbal medicine is thought to help with –
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Certain forms of depression
• Cold sores
• Digestive problems
• Eczema
• Hayfever and allergies
• Menstrual and menopause problems.

Where's the evidence?

Numerous trials have shown the effectiveness of some herbal remedies. For instance, in a research paper in the medical journal The Lancet, St John's Wort was reported as being just as effective at treating depression as some pharmaceutical antidepressants.

Echinacea, a traditional remedy of the North American Indians, has been shown to boost the immune system and allegedly staves off all kinds of illnesses, although there are concerns about the safety of repeated long-term use.
Other herbal remedies like garlic and ginger have been claimed to help with all sorts of problems from high cholesterol and heart disease to digestive complaints. There are many research papers that show positive effects but also some that show the research to be inconclusive.

What do doctors think of herbal medicine?

It may seem strange, but many of the conventional medicines we take today have their roots in herbal medicine. One herbal remedy for fever gave us aspirin (from willow bark), while a plant used to treat chest complaints was developed into the asthma drug salbutamol once scientists had extracted the active ingredient from the plants. Digoxin – a heart drug – comes from the poisonous foxglove, and quinine – once used to treat malaria and an ingredient in tonic water – originally came from the bark of the cinchona tree. The painkiller morphine was extracted from the opium poppy.

Mainstream doctors in the Ireland tend to side with the pharmaceutical approach and prefer regular medicines, because of the unknowns associated with herbal remedies. For instance, herbal remedies by their nature are not pure compounds, and some have been found to contain dangerous toxins.

While most manufacturers of herbal products try to maintain high standards,  there are some unscrupulous traders who may provide herbalists with poor quality remedies. Worse still, if you are buying herbal remedies for yourself through a health-food shop or elsewhere, there is an overwhelming range of products available and no certain guarantee of quality.

At best, some of these products may simply have been so diluted down that they are effectively useless, and at worst they may be so strong as to risk overdosing on certain ingredients. They may even be contaminated with poisonous metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic. Some herbal remedies imported from the East have been found to contain dangerous levels of these substances.

The government is currently considering passing laws that will bring herbal remedies into line with pharmaceuticals, so that they have to pass stringent clinical tests and quality controls before they can be sold.

Herbalists worry that this will mean they will not be able to use traditional remedies that have proved successful over centuries because of the costs of obtaining a licence. Many mainstream doctors hope such laws will bring herbal medicine into line with accepted safety and efficacy standards.