Probably the most common questions I get about herbs on a regular basis are, "What's good for [insert complaint]?" and "Does this [holds up some bottle of herbs or supplements] really work?" If there's one thing I've noticed after years of being involved with people both as a practitioner and as part of the supplement industry, it's that the average person really has no concept of what herbs and supplements are or how they work.
In the modern world, especially in the West, we have been culturally trained to think of health and medicine in terms of conventional pharmaceuticals. If we have a headache or some back pain, take a pill to turn it off. If we get an infection, take a pill to kill the microbes. This is the way pharmaceuticals are designed to work. They address acute symptoms typically by "turning off" various bodily responses to pathology. While this is typically very effective for symptom management, it is seldom beneficial and even often detrimental to the actual recovery from underlying pathology.
As practitioners of herbal medicine, we do not seek to manage symptoms. We look to the source of the problems. Why is there a manifestation of symptoms in the first place? When working with herbs, we are looking to correct the imbalance that has led symptoms to arise. Herbs do not forcibly "turn off" or "turn on" metabolic processes in the body as pharmaceuticals do. Herbs work with the body's innate healing response to restore balance and health. This approach requires a very different mindset than conventional medicine which must be acknowledged for effective results.
So, as I always say, the question is not "What is this good for?" or "Does this work?" The question is "Is this what my body needs right now?" Supplements support the body. They are supplements after all. The real healing is done within our own bodies as we begin to correct our lifestyle issues that created our problems in the first place.
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