Dr. Mercola February 09 2008 102,187 views
Sniff, sniff, What’s that? Do I smell a smokescreen?? As a clinical Herbalist and Traditional Chinese Practitioner for over 20 years with over 6,000 medicinal herbs at my finger tips and always stocking at least 500 deferent herbs in house I can tell you that The ones mentioned in this article are insignificant nothings. Further the Pharma system needs only one one source of animal, vegetable and mineral to pool all there synthetic poison garbage from and that is PATROLUM ! Bite me BBC !
As for what is done with this poison, “From Plants” the Pharma-Pigs (Owners of all the FDA approved drug patents) are allowed to walk free in their vile riches and in the blood of there victims being fully aware of these statistics while we spend billions on “The war on drugs” which is nothing more than a smokescreen for the most deadly killers of all time!
Herb Guy! Where may I go to learn more about Herbs! Thanks! Marco@activitycureseverything.com
Herb Doc, I certainly agree about the petroleum...
But what does your mysterious BBC comment refer to? Just curious.
petrol?
And as an herbalist who deals with Chinese, western and Ayurvedic herbs, drawing upon similar numbers of species, I would point out that German pharmaceutical companies are strip mining old growth Black cohosh for Remifen, old growth echinacea, goldenseal and ginseng. The roots we use for herbal medicine can be 40 or more years old, so should be sustainably cultivated instead of taken from the wild. China leads the world in species extinction, but US growers are cultivating herbs used in Chinese medicine (and they are fresher and organic.) There are herb companies that insist on ethical harvesting and test their herbs for pollutants and heavy metals, like Herbalist & Alchemist, HerbPharm and Gaia Herbs, so use them instead of GNC or other industry giants.
Any plant liable to extinction should cause concern - just think, that plant may never be seen again. Did we consider what animals rely on it? Many animals are also near the edge.
I agree that those plants are nothing compared to the ones most herbalists use (I would never use any of the ones listed in this article), but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to losing them. Which plants that we *do* use are disappearing right beside them?
A great resource for this type of info, as well as a great non-profit actually doing something about preserving our herbal diversity, is United Plant Savers. You can check them out here: http://unitedplantsavers.org/ It was started by Rosemary Gladstar, and I could never say enough about it.
I second the statement regarding Herbalist & Alchemist (David Winston has just published a fantastic resource on Adaptogens, well worth the read), HerbPharm and Gaia Herbs. The herbs at GNC aren't worth the gas it takes to go get them.
"and it is uncommon for them to effectively treat the cause of your health challenge"
...but if the 'health challenge is overweight, then it is OK to use Dr. M's BioThin - his description of all the herbs in it is very glowing.
I know, naughty me...just couldn't help it this morning...must be my herbal tea?? :>D
Background to who's responsible: podcast #98 from the link below
http://www.podcast.net/show/89644
Who's responsible? Ultimately, it's us , waiting for somebody else to do something .
Islander, you might be interested in this link: www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/ It provides a link to the first chapter of a book which sheds a lot of light on this subject. After reading the book, as I see it, we are all part of an enormous Ponzi scheme (the book draws parallels with cancer), which started some 10,000 years ago when "civilization" got its start, in which, basically, the cat called "unrestrained greed" was let out of the bag. Humans of "advanced" societies have been ruining their living environment ever since, and when one place will no longer support them, or when one form of commerce can no longer be continued, they move on and conquer some other place or find a new destructive activity. Natives practicing sustainable lifestyles are displaced, killed or enslaved. It is amazing this could be kept up for so long, but the whole scheme may be reaching its ultimate conclusion in our lifetimes. There is not much any of us can do about it. Generally speaking, you either work for it, or you are being victimized by it. The book offers some hope by suggesting ways to return to a sustainable lifestyle when civilization can no longer support us. Awareness may be the only hope.
Islander...Its Us Us Us, we are the biggest parasites on this planet, this reminds me of the film the Matrix........
As to the article, Many thanks Dr Mercola, I agree to your comments; many foods we have to hand are extremely health promoting, and it is a shame that we do not look closer to home. Instead, if we don't want the medication and the drugs, we are all urged and recommended to buy lots of very expensive supplements from exotic plants and herbs..etc etc..
all the packaging and the advice as to what we should be supplementing our body's with is in my mind begining to have the same rep' for me as the pharm-pigs--thanks Herb Doc...
We need to stick to the basics, and IF MAN MAKES IT-DON'T EAT IT..........
big hugs Sarah.
I've been an avid reader,proponent and customer of Mercola for several years now. I've often wondered why he doesn't include herbal therapies when addressing alternatives for many chronic problems. I now have the idea that its because he knows very little about real clinical herbalism. Let me remind the good doctor that this type of medicine was the ONLY type of medicine before the first 1/4 of the 20th century. After that the drug companies infested the rank and file and relegated true herbal medicine to the fringes.
I can tell you that as a professional clinical herbalist, I see mostly see people who have been through the mill of what modern medicine has become and come to me in their desperation to try something else. Using sophisticated combinations of herbs (mostly chinese formulae), diet modifications and qigong, I have been able to attain results that not only resolve the chronic problem, but also other "stuff" that the client had become resigned to live with.
So please, Dr. Mercola, with all due respect--be carefull about being so dismissive of something of which you obviously have had little experience. I guarantee that many of your following are themselves closet herbalists and happy to have someone like you on their side.
Hmm, if you have been a long-term reader, you should know that Dr. M. is not AGAINST herbs but says that instead of running for a herbal remedy, one should rather focus on the original cause of the problem and not just spot-treat the symptom. I think he made this clear a few times so far (although I've only been a reader since last summer...)