Phytotherapeutics is healing through plants, either in whole food form or in the form of standardized extracts and supplements for healing purposes. It is herbal medicine used to heal and restore balance. It involves the use of herbs, aromatic essential oils, herbal and floral extracts. Phytotherapy uses cell signaling to affect our bodies early on in the processes of disease and imbalance. Responses within our cells that originate from the plant world are known as phytocrine. And, phytocrines are the bioactive molecules in plants that share features with our own hormones. The other important aspect of phytotherapy is that cells of our body and the plant molecules can communicate. In communicating with the plant molecules in herbal therapies, our body can oftentimes get what it needs, thus, the adaptogenic effect. Phytotherapy is both historically significant, and backed by solid research and science. It is a massive area of medicine that cannot be written off or dismissed as being merely an “alternative” method.
Plants hold truly amazing healing properties. The study of plants for medicinal purposes led to what we now know as pharmaceuticals. Herbal medicine has been used in many cultures for centuries. It has been recorded that large amounts of garlic were given to Egyptian builders when they were constructing the pyramids in order to prevent them from contracting malaria. Garlic has strong antimicrobial properties that have been used extensively through history. In addition, the bark of the cinchona tree is a source of quinine which menthol can be extracted. Menthol has properties which make it suitable for use as a local anesthetic and it also has counter-irritant qualities.
Thus, phytotherapy takes a different approach from conventional allopathhic medicine in classifying and treating medical problems. Its key principle is based on a natural approach to healing by aiming to stimulate the body’s defense mechanism and processes to prevent or treat illnesses.
Phytotherapy treatment is individualized (tailored to each person). Health is the state of harmony between the body, mind, and spirit. Disturbance of harmony results in disease which is expressed in the form of signs and symptoms. In every case of a disease, a person gives two types of symptoms – Common and Uncommon. Common symptoms are those symptoms which are found in most cases of a particular disease, whereas uncommon symptoms reflect the individuality of a patient. This is the basis for the individualizing each client in phytotherapy.
The mind and emotions are also considered in treating the client in phytotherapy. Phytotherapy practitioners select remedies according to a total picture of the patient, including not only symptoms but lifestyle, emotional and mental states, and other factors. Through treatment, not only are the symptoms removed, this usually means drainage…removing the effects of metabolic and environmental toxins, but the mind also becomes calm and peaceful.
Again, herbal medicine is the treatment of illness using whole plant material (in the form of tinctures, teas, capsules, creams, ointments, essential oils, etc) It is a folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy. Herbal medicine remains the oldest and most used form of medicine on the planet today. Every culture on the planet has their own herbal medicine system. The modern herbalist may utilise medicinal plants from all over the world, in the context of a health philosophy incorporating modern and traditional concepts and knowledge.
Aromatherapy is a specialized complimentary medicine system, which uses naturally extracted aromatic essences from plants, flowers, leafs, seeds, barks and fruits to balance and harmonize the body at all levels – physical, emotional and spiritual. The idea of Aromatherapy is based on the positive response of our bodies when exposed to some kinds of smells, or when treated with aromatherapy organic essential oils. When the body is massaged with specially prepared aromatherapy massage oils our breath takes about 15% of the air to the roof of the nose, where olfactory receptors transport odors straight to the brain. This process stimulates the release of beneficial chemical within the body responsible for healing any bodily imbalance. Additionally, when directly absorbed into the bloodstream, these essential oils also improve the overall health, beauty and hygiene.
Four approaches to the use of plants as medicine include:
1. The magikal/shamanic
Almost all non-modern societies recognise this kind of use. The practitioner is regarded as endowed with gifts or powers that allow him/her to use herbs in a way that is hidden from the average person, and the herbs are said to affect the spirit or soul of the person.
2. The energetic
This approach includes the major systems of TCM, Ayurveda, and Unani. Herbs are regarded as having actions in terms of their energies and affecting the energies of the body.
3. The functional dynamic
This approach was used by early physiomedical practitioners, whose doctrine forms the basis of contemporary practice in the UK. Herbs have a functional action, which is not necessarily linked to a physical compound, although often to a physiological function, but there is no explicit recourse to concepts involving energy.
4. The chemical
Modern practitioners – called Phytotherapists – attempt to explain herb actions in terms of their chemical constituents. It is generally assumed that the specific combination of secondary metabolites in the plant are responsible for the activity claimed or demonstrated, a concept called synergy.
Dynamic Phytotherapy is used for most conditions and for people of all ages. Homeobotanical remedies are made from herbal tinctures. Homeobotanical potions use flower, and herb essences. Thus, components are botanical extracts and tinctures that are employed in both the herbal and homeopathic manners. Each homeobotanical formulation focuses on an organ or system of the body. The various components initiate healing responses over a broad spectrum of symptoms that are active within the self. The body has an innate intelligence that responds only to a well indicated remedy-the basis of homeopathic action. Thus, within the wide range of actions possible from the many components in a personalised homeobotanical prescription, the self ‘s own homoeostatic responses determine the healing action.
Most modern herbalists concede that pharmaceuticals are more effective in emergency situations where time is of the essence. An example would be where a patient had an acute heart attack that posed imminent danger. However they claim that over the long term herbs can help the patient resist disease, and that in addition, they provide nutritional and immunological support that pharmaceuticals lack. They view their goal as prevention as well as cure.
CreoleMoon
