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The Herbarium is the creation of a small, autonomous group of independent herbalists. We have come together in a spirit of cooperation, to share knowledge and resources, and to explore a different way of organising ourselves in this rapidly changing world.

We do not consent to the erosion, by regulation, of our common law freedoms and rights. We therefore oppose the current attempts to turn traditional western herbalists into the poor cousins of doctors, using herbal ‘products’ as if they were the poor cousins of drugs. Our focus in these times of transition is to rehearse our skills in preparation for energy descent, climate change, and the collapse of unsustainable bureaucracies and power structures.

The Herbarium is intended to form a repository of information and to hold a safe space for a free exchange of ideas. Access is open to the public as well as our fellow herbalists. This is in keeping with the Culpeper tradition – whenever the living tradition of herbal medicine finds itself beleaguered, we share our knowledge with the people at large, so that they can claim it as their own, use it for themselves and keep it alive and relevant.

We welcome comments that aim to make a positive contribution, and in particular invite others to submit articles, ideas and information for inclusion.

Syrups & Other Sweet Preparations

Syrups and other medicinal preparations that contain some form of sugar are popular with the public (because sweet things taste nice), but are less popular with practitioners, who hesitate to contribute to health problems such as dental decay, cardiovascular disease and late-onset diabetes by adding to a diet that may already be overburdened with refined carbohydrates. These two opposing forces have to be balanced – some of the benefits of syrups and the like will become apparent as we go on, suggesting that despite our concerns, a small range of sweet medicines, perhaps designed for very short-term therapeutic strategies anyway, are a worthy component of a comprehensive approach to prescribing.

Statutory Regulation Facts & Fictions

Since the publication of the Department of Health (DH) consultation document on statutory regulation (SR) on 3 August 2009 a number of practitioners of traditional western herbal medicine have been gripped by, what can be best described as, regulation hysteria. A pro-SR demonstration was held outside the Houses of Parliament, letters demanding SR have been fired off to MPs, and an article entitled ‘Herbal drug crackdown: Millions face having to buy remedies on black market as Europe tightens the rules’ recently appeared in the Daily Mail. The European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (EHTPA) and its members are offering herbalists a stark choice: get behind SR or face oblivion from European legislation! But is herbal medicine really on brink? Below we attempt to separate fact from fiction (with a little help from the MHRA).

Fiction: Unless SR is implemented by 2011, section 12(1) of the Medicines Act 1968 will be superseded by the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) and European medicines legislation, effectively banning the practise of herbal medicine in the UK.

Fact: Section 12(1) of the Medicines Act 1968 remains available to herbalists in the UK beyond 2011, whether SR is implemented or not.

In an email (dated 6 November 2009), Richard Woodfield of the MHRA clearly stated that beyond 2011 ‘the s12(1) exemption [will remain] available where herbal practitioners are carrying out activity in accordance with the terms of that exemption.’

What exactly are the terms of the section 12(1) exemption? The exemption appears in statute in the following form:

’12. Exemptions in respect of herbal remedies

(1) The restrictions imposed by sections 7 and 8 [Licences and Certificates relating to Medicinal Products] of this Act do not apply to the sale, supply, manufacture or assembly of any herbal remedy in the course of a business where—

(a) the remedy is manufactured or assembled on premises of which the person carrying on the business is the occupier and which he is able to close so as to exclude the public, and

(b) the person carrying on the business sells or supplies the remedy for administration to a particular person after being requested by or on behalf of that person and in that person’s presence to use his own judgment as to the treatment required.’

Beekeeping

A friend of mine inherited a couple of beehives, which had been left in the garden when he moved to a new house.  They were empty of bees and rather sad looking, I asked him if he planned to keep bees “Oh no” he said “I’m scared of being stung” and I agreed whole heartedly with him – why on earth would anyone want that.  Later we moved to Kent, next door to a picture-book family farm with cows, sheep, horses, chickens, guinea fowl, geese, dogs, cats and bees (the farmer and his wife were perfect too), the bees were looked after by a local beekeeper.  We used to walk our dog down the footpath past the beehives into the woods and one day the beekeeper was there with them – he shouted just one word, “RUN”, so my daughter and I ran with the noise of angry bees around us, we continued running deep into the woods but one or two bees followed us and we both got stung several times on the head and suffered for about a week afterwards with the diminishing pain.  Another time the farmer’s daughter had to jump into the pond to escape clouds of angry bees, afterwards she had trouble with her hearing until the doctor found and removed a bee from down inside her ear.  A friend of my mother’s kept bees for years and my mother used to complain about how sticky her whole kitchen got with the honey harvest.

I’m not sure when it was that my curiosity about bees got the better of me.  Perhaps being a herbalist and devoting my time to caring for patients, plants and the soil in the interests of health helped because I found bees were not healthy.  As a wild creature surely they should be, but they can suffer from viral infections, bacterial diseases, fungal infections, protozoa and most hives are now plagued by the varroa mite which can get quickly out of control during the summer (the number of mites doubling each 4 or 5 weeks) until they cause the demise of the whole colony of bees due to deformity and disease.

I joined my local bee association in 2001 and started going to their meetings.  These are always on the 2^nd Sunday of the month from April to September.  They are held at different homes each month and in this way we all work with each other’s bees and see how they’re getting on.  It is fascinating and the hives can vary tremendously from year to year.  The beekeepers kindly gave me a second-hand hive and in no time we were called to collect a swarm from a garden in the next village.  The swarm looked very large to me and the noise of all those bees was overwhelming, I had to pretend not to mind but wished I could be inside the house behind glass windows watching with the family there.  We managed to get most of the bees settled into a cardboard box, which was then covered by a sheet leaving a small entrance for the bees still left flying nearby.  Later we returned, collected the box of bees and I was helped to site my hive (facing south-east away from the prevailing wind and to catch the early sun) and shake the bees into it.  To begin with the hive consisted of a brood box filled with frames of wax for the bees to build comb onto, this is placed on the floor which has an entrance for the bees at one side, a cover board goes on top the box with a roof over that – this particular hive is called a ‘national hive’.  Later when the bees need more room to store honey a ‘super’ is added above the brood box – this is a shallower box with shallower frames.

I was taught to use a queen excluder to stop the Queen wandering up into the super and laying her eggs there – to destroy queen cells to try and prevent swarming – to put apistan strips in the hive to kill the varroa mites but although I bought some the first year I couldn’t bring myself to use them.  In fact I don’t do any of this now.  My thoughts were always how can we help the bees to become more healthy and to live more naturally.  My bees are lucky because they are surrounded by a medicine chest of flowers, medical herbs grown biodynamically for my patients but they can fly a long way, it is said up to about three miles and we have farmland around us where sprays are used on the crops.

Re-weaving Our Spirit of Co-operation

The Time to Re-weave Our Spirit of Co-operation – A way to rebuild and strengthen our lost communities.

In our introduction to The Herbarium we state that it is the creation of a small autonomous group of independent herbalists, who have come together in the spirit of co-operation, to share knowledge and resources, and find different ways of organizing ourselves in a rapidly changing world.  We would like to expand this concept of co-operation to inspire, support and facilitate others to venture into a constructive relationship with each other and the communities in which we find ourselves, that transcend current limitations such as cyber communities or the restrictions and differences we may place unintentionally between members of different organizations and individual herbalists.  We value communities grounded in real people and the earth.

Human beings are social animals, and we can achieve much if we participate and work co-operatively with each other, especially if we are clear about our common intent and aims, which are ideally for the ‘greater good’.  We are clear we do not have prescriptive answers or solutions, but rather we echo the Transition Town ethos – where as a community of people involved in herbalism at many levels we identify the issues that are of concern, and then in an inclusive and collective manner find the solutions that work at a grass roots level.  We would postulate that we have lived for too long under the restrictive view of one reality that asserts itself as the only one, i.e. that life on our planet is one of competition, survival of the fittest, one of control and domination of the Other, a reality that has built in victimhood and disempowerment at its core.  However, we need to explore other realities and many, ranging from those at the edge of scientific research to those who keep the ancient indigenous wisdom alive, confirm that while the energies of the Universe may be constantly changing the ethos is one of co-operation and harmony, albeit it a delicate one in human hands.  The current human predilection for  ‘ruling elites’ is a dead end for human evolution, being based on fear and control which is life sapping and a block to creativity, full vitality and empowerment.

All our current ways of being are, and will continue to be, put under great challenges and much needed questioning.  Let us reflect that at the moment, most of our social and political structures are based on paying (usually) distant others to do something for us – along with the assumption that our needs will be met and taken care of.  It is all the ‘they & them’ who control our lives, whether that be central or local government, power suppliers, health services, schools, various regulatory bodies etc.  Most of these systems are motivated by wealth creation and the social-political forms of control are predominantly fear based.   As we can see from the current economic situation, those who were assumed to be the ‘experts’ actually have had a poor understanding of what they purported to control and that the whole system is driven by selfish and individualistic needs to acquire more (illusory) excessive wealth for a few at the top.  As this ineffective state of affairs unravels we have experienced for example the scandal of MP’s expenses, the continuing issue of banker’s bonuses, the bizarre handling of swine ‘flu and vaccination programmes.  Entangled with many of these events, and maybe typified by the MPs expenses was the cry “I was only following the rules”, this is a dangerous place where we negate our personal and collective responsibility and integrity.  Then there is the disempowering ethos of governing bodies that proclaim they know what is best for us, and if we should raise questions then it must be we who are at fault.  All these activities consume vast amounts of money (usually taxpayers) and time, let alone the diversion caused by the obsession with targets.  All this is a distraction from humans using their time in an effective and creative way to find real solutions.

Holism

Holism

It’s often quipped that Holism is something that others say, but only herbalists do. There is some truth in this – herbal medicine is the broadest and most versatile of therapies, whilst close observation of the plant world tends to lead us towards a more open and inclusive world-view. Holism is the ideal context in which to practise herbal medicine – formalised paradigms ultimately limit potential and ‘lower the ceiling’ on what can be achieved with herbs. It’s amusing to note how often holism is quoted as the antithesis of reductionism (the prime methodology of western material science). This is not true: reductionism is an aspect of holism, albeit a small one, that in the grand scale of things needs to be kept firmly in its place.

Holism is not a paradigm, it’s a philosophy – albeit the most all-embracing of philosophies – embodied in the disarmingly simple statement, ‘everything is connected to everything else’. Nevertheless what follows is one of a number of versions of the ‘Paradigm of Holism’, having its origins in the 1970s when work first started to reestablish holistic principles in western healing traditions. This said, as a series of affirmations, characteristic of holism and of critical interest to practitioners of all sorts, it serves as a tremendous source of guidance and inspiration: -

• Each patient is treated as a unique whole person – body, mind and spirit, – and in the context of family, community, culture and environment.

• Holistic medicine emphasises the responsibility of each individual for his or her own health. Good therapy promotes understanding and self-care rather than treatment and dependence. Holistic medicine uses therapeutic approaches that mobilise the individual’s innate capacity for healing.

• Holistic medicine promotes health as a positive state, not just an absence of disease. Likewise illness is seen as an opportunity for discovery as well as a misfortune.

• Holistic medicine acknowledges that the cornerstones of health are good nutrition, good exercise, good relaxation and good sleep.

• Holistic medicine makes use of perceptions and diagnostic systems additional to those validated by western material science.

• Holistic medicine emphasises the potential therapeutic value of the setting in which health care takes place.

• Holistic medicine demands an understanding of and a commitment to change those social, economic and environmental conditions that perpetuate ill health.

• Holistic practitioners are not judgmental – rather they assist their patients in pursuing their own life choices according to their own beliefs.

• Holistic medicine transforms its practitioners as well as its patients.

No to Licensing of Herbalists

by Susun S. Weed www.susunweed.com

To anyone who thinks herbalists need licenses:

No to all licensing of herbs and herbalists. Never. No way.

Ask the midwives of North America. They fell for “let’s regulate ourselves before the big boys do.” And they regulated themselves out of existence. There are no midwives left, according to Jeannine Parvati; only medwives. I agree. Let us learn from their mistake. No licenses for herbalists.

Herbal medicine is people’s medicine. People don’t need licenses to care for themselves and their families. Licenses don’t protect people; they protect, and create, institutions. Herbalism is change, individuality, and uniqueness. Institutions don’t change. Licensing herbalists kills herbal medicine. Licenses, and their companion, liability insurance, set up protocols. The art of herbalism is re-placed with “evidence-based” science designed to protect healers, not heal patients. No licenses for herbalists.

I have taught and lived in Germany, where herbs and herbalism are licensed. In daily life, this meant my access to herbs was limited, and my students — many of whom are professional, licensed healers — were threatened with loss of their licenses when they recommended home-made medicines such as dandelion vinegar and St. Joan’s/John’s wort oil. No licenses for herbalists.

Any American who wants a license to heal with herbs can get one. There are plenty available. Be an herbalist and a massage therapist, an herbalist and a chiropractor, a naturopath specializing in herbs, an acupuncturist/herbalist, even an M.D. herbalist. Surely these are enough. No more licenses.

Licenses do not confer credit or merit or worth. They replace these things. We have an excellent system already in place for “certifying” herbalists: the apprentice system. We know each other, our strengths and foibles. We know who we have trained. And we talk openly. Licenses make people less secure, less likely to trust each other, less open, more protective. No licenses for herbalists.

Herbs are not manufactured. They grow. Besides standards of purity and identity — which are in place — we do not need rules. Except perhaps to consider banning the use of herbs in capsules, which, to my mind, are more likely to be harmful than any other dosage form available.

I stand firm and proud for herbal medicine free of licenses. Reconsider your plan. Herbalists have a long heritage as revolutionaries. Don’t make Culpepper and Euell Gibbons, Maude Grieves and Adelma Simmons rise from their graves to remind us: No licenses for herbalists.

I, personally don’t want to be forced to go underground, like the Chinese acupuncturists in my area, who cannot legally practice because they don’t speak enough English to pass the exam and get a license. No licenses for herbalists.

I say “NO” to all attempts to license herbalists. Please raise your voices with me, in a lusty green yell:

TRUST YOURSELF; TRUST THE EARTH; NO LICENSES FOR HERBALISTS!

The Lies at the Heart of Statutory Regulation and Licensing

The practice of herbal medicine is a fringe activity that occupies a culturally unique space in our society. Traditional western herbal medicine (TWHM) in the UK is a vibrant, vital and evolving practise, which is largely beyond state control. State regulation, which is underpinned by a positivist worldview, threatens the essential nature of TWHM by standardising its rich diversity of practice and criminalising independent practitioners. Listed below are just a few of the lies told in order to manufacture consent to the statutory regulation (SR) and licensing agenda.

Lie #1: Herbal Medicine is Risky Medicine

In the recent past western herbalists were happy to say ‘herbal medicine is safe medicine’, but now, in order to serve the SR/licensing agenda, herbalists are required to say ‘herbal medicine is risky medicine’. Why?

It is alleged that the poor practice of western herbalists is putting patients and the public at risk, but data on levels of poor practice among practitioners of TWHM has yet to be produced. The Department of Health (DH) could easily commission research to gather such data so that a rational and informed decision about the need for SR/licensing could be made. This has never been done. There simply is no reliable evidence base demonstrating that the public need safeguarding from practitioners of TWHM. Furthermore, were SR/licensing to be introduced without a supporting evidence base, then future judgements about the success or failure of such schemes to reduce levels of poor practice would be impossible to make.

Bureaucrats can theorise about potential risks all day long, but without a reliable evidence base demonstrating that real harm comes from the activities of western herbalists the imposition of any regulatory scheme would be completely unjustifiable. The precautionary principle applies here: if the potential consequences of an activity are severe, in the absence of full scientific certainty the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking action.

Consultation on Statutory Regulation 2009 – A Commentary

A Joint Consultation on the Report to Ministers from the DH Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK.

This extremely lengthy consultation paper was published by the Department of Health (DH) in July 2009 with a deadline for responses of  November 2nd, now extended to November 16th 2009. It runs to 56 pages along with a separate Impact Assessment document of 21 pages. Anybody, including members of the public, can access the document from this link: -

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_103566.pdf

Equally anybody can respond to it – the DH hopes that most will do so by using the electronic ‘Question & Answer’ form provided, although there are few if any who will be able to answer every one of the questions.

The DH Steering Group Report referred to in the title strongly recommended Statutory Regulation and was primarily concerned with the detail of how it should be achieved and administered. In somewhat unanticipated contrast the DH consultation appears to be going ‘back to the drawing board’ offering in addition no less than eight alternative ‘light touch’ approaches for consideration such as accredited voluntary regulation and even a voluntary licensing scheme.

The consultation does seem very concerned that any regulation of herbal medicine, acupuncture et al. should be proportionate to risk – ‘proportionate’ taking into account not only what is perceived as risk but also any negative impact on practitioners and their patients (expense, bureaucracy, interference), and in particular the cost to the taxpayer.

In most respects the consultation does appear to be painstakingly accessible, even-handed and inclusive. Conspiracy theorists can be forgiven in the light of recent government behaviour to interpret this all as ‘window dressing’, decisions having already been made by the Ministers. Others see signs that the DH is wavering and that the whole regulation issue will be shelved or scrapped. This latter contention is more likely – new, expensive, petty regulation will clearly not be a vote-winner during a deep recession, and there is a general election looming long before any new arrangements could be enacted.

How to Become a Master Herbalist in Thirty Years or More

by Paul Bergner
North American Institute of Medical Herbalism

Part I

I am convinced that Western medical herbalism is dying in North America and Britain. If we stop congratulating ourselves for a moment on the growing numbers of herbalists, or of schools, or of accredited degrees, or of more interest by scientists in herbs, and look honestly, we will see it is dying. If we look to a hundred years ago, the number of herbs in use, and the knowledge of those herbs, by professional herbalists, they greatly exceeded what we use today. Our medical herbal forebears mastered more herbs than we do today, and also knew more about each of them. If, say, an herbalist today, truly understands about a hundred herbs, and knows 2-3 clinical things about each of them, we can call that 250 data bits. If our ancestors learned 365 herbs (more on this below), and knew 6-8 things about each, then that is more than 2500 data bits, and 90% of our herbal knowledge has gone down the drain.

Swine Flu Advice

As more and more members of the public are using the Herbarium, it seems a good idea to offer some calm and sound advice in the face of all the panicking over Swine Flu. Although in the main it’s fairly basic stuff to practitioners, you may want to download this file and use it (or adapt it) for the benefit of your own patients and communities. If you have ideas of your own to throw into the pot, do let us know. Things might well change as we approach the winter season anyway, so we’ll try to keep things updated as we go.

Common Sense & Swine Flu

It’s very hard to understand what the governments of the western world are up to with their extraordinary handling of Swine Flu, unless of course you factor in the profit motives of powerful pharmaceuticals, or the need for timely diversionary tactics from failing administrations such as our own. Despite the media being blanketed with ever more terrifying predictions of mass deaths and the destruction of the western economy whilst everybody goes off sick, Swine Flu is in reality, and until further notice, a widespread but nonetheless pretty innocuous phenomenon.

What not to do

Quite rightly, everybody should make their own decisions regarding how they and their families should shape up to Swine Flu. But to help inform these decisions…

• Tamiflu (Oseltamavir) at the very best trades off a possible easing of the course of the infection with the likely addition of nausea (sometimes vomiting), diarrhoea and headache to your symptoms. In rare cases much more serious skin, liver, heart, neurological and metabolic side-effects may occur. Relenza (Zanamavir) is newer (so less well tested) but is said to have fewer side-effects. Earlier this year, and prior to the Swine Flu outbreak, NICE guidance was emphatic that these were not recommended for treatment of influenza in otherwise healthy individuals.
• Mass vaccination is imminent but we recommend you avoid it. The vaccines have been rushed out without proper human trials, (risky enough in itself), whilst there are very real concerns being voiced regarding manufacturing contamination, and further worries over the inclusion of adjuvants such as squalene which have already been strongly implicated in Gulf War Syndrome.
• Health trade frenzies: it’s a sad reflection on the state of the over-the-counter trade in health supplements that there’s such a headlong rush to provide ‘preventatives’ for Swine Flu. There may be some complementary practitioners who see an opportunity to cash in on this too. If people have genuinely compromised defence systems then there is some wisdom in a ‘tune up’ – but for an otherwise healthy individual, taking immuno-stimulants, antioxidants and the like will make little difference… and Swine Flu will probably be around for years, so how long would you plan to keep it up?
• Avoidance measures: as well as the above, there are people wearing face masks, staying away from crowds and social gatherings, avoiding known contacts, keeping their kids off school and so on. None of these things are likely to prove effective, but simply delay the inevitable which, as will be discussed, may work against you in the long run.