"Remember my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved..."
A beautiful line from a classic movie- The Wizard of Oz (1939). It is odd that some of us can remember certain lines from movies. Perhaps the dialogue touches the heart in some way. We all want to be loved. Personally I recently witnessed love by the presence of family and friends for my 50th birthday. My heart swelled and my inner soul was touched. If you have no expectations from family and friends, you will get surprised every once in a while. Living without expectations is a gift of sobriety. It is not easy not to have expectations, but the more I practice, the better I get at having none.
When you tell your doctor that you take an herb for a certain disease, there are two responses. One response is, "I do not think it will work." The second is, "Are there are studies on that herb for this disease?" I am amazed at the amount of research there is on certain herbs. I am also in awe at the way traditional medicine views the use of herbs. Do we need a study to prove that an herb is efficacious? I think not. Many individuals were placed on conventional drugs before research and trials were conducted. I think it is the ignorance of certain physicians not to consider other modalities of treatment. I call this the 'blind horse syndrome'. In medical school, the study of nutrition and supplements is very limited. There are no courses on herbs or botany. As a medical student I was blinded by other medical modalities to treat disease.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has designated several herbs as funding priorities for an 8.1 million dollar grant project according to the Journal of the American Botanical Council February-April 2011. This is great news, but the funding is limited to action mechanisms and not clinical efficacy.
I do not know how the herbs were selected but there is wide diversity among the nine herbs. These herbs include:
1. Tumeric (Curcuma longa)
2. Thunder god wine (Tripterygium wilfordii)
3. Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum)
4. Hops (Humulus lupulus)
5. Ginseng (Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius) Asian/American respectively
6. Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
7. Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum membranaceus)
8. Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus)
9. Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera)
The NCCAM will focus on certain properties of each herb. For example, for ashwaganda research will focus on the systemic type of activity for this herb's effect on the body including but not limited to immune modulation, anxiety issues and anti parasitic activity. I have discussed all of the herbs above except Thunder god vine and Devil's Claw in previous blog entries.
6. Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
7. Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum membranaceus)
8. Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus)
9. Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera)
The NCCAM will focus on certain properties of each herb. For example, for ashwaganda research will focus on the systemic type of activity for this herb's effect on the body including but not limited to immune modulation, anxiety issues and anti parasitic activity. I have discussed all of the herbs above except Thunder god vine and Devil's Claw in previous blog entries.
Top photograph: Milk Thistle flower
Middle photograph: Echinacae flower
Bottom photograph: Hops Flower
Notice: The Honeybees !!
Until tomorrow...
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