Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is the use of plants or parts of plants as medicinal therapy.
Herbal medicine has notably been a major component of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but has been used extensively by all cultures of the world for thousands of years. It is a modality which is the most similar of the complimentary medicines to conventional medicine, but remedies are minimally processed and separated to allow natural combinations of active constituents to work synergistically with each other and with the patient.
Despite knowing a great deal about the pharmacological properties of most herbs there appears to be still much more to learn about the way they help in certain conditions.
There is controversy as reserch into herbal medicine although extensive has come to the forefront only in the last 20 years, and many commonly used plants have limitted studies on detailed effects.
Some conditions can be treated with herbs for which there are limited conventional drug options,e.g. boosting the immune system, liver conditions of unknown aetiology (cause), poor kidney function, treatment of anxiety without addiction or side-effects. Many other conditions may also respond to this therapy.
Full text papers on herbs OR herbal* OR phytotherap* OR plant extract* are at http://tinyurl.com/42cuqnc >17000 hits on Aug 12, 2011)
It is unwise to assume that herbs alone are used to treat ill-health in our pets. Most holistic veterinarians recommend nutritional support, in addition to conventional therapy if the problem is acute, severe or life threatening. This integrated approach is designed to give the animal patient the greatest amount of comfort combined with the gentlest and most supportive treatments. For more information using herbs for your pets, find a veterinary herbalist through the Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association (www.vbma.org), or via the office bearers of the Australian Holistic Veterinarians.