1. How To Use Complementary Health
When seeking natural and complementary health remedies, you are going to be investigating three main areas -nutrition, herbalism and homeopathy. Often, an holistic practitioner, especially a naturopath who treats illness without resorting to conventional drugs, will prescribe a combination of all three. It helps, as you start to take some of the responsibility for your everyday health into your own hands, to know some of the basic tools and the reason you are likely to benefit from the types of remedies recommended in this section.
Nutrition - Why take supplements?
In a perfect world, we would not need to take dietary supplements. However, with food production and processing techniques that strip so many natural nutrients from the raw ingredients, we need to supplement our dietary intake to come even close to getting optimum levels of these important vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. Self-diagnosing for everyday ailments can be helpful in the short-term but if the problem persists, and for more serious conditions, it is always best to seek advice from a qualified nutritionist or naturopath. A simple biochemical sweat test or hair analysis will reveal exactly which minerals and vitamins your body is lacking. A good practitioner will prescribe the exact amount you need to take and recommend the right brand for you. One big problem with the Do-It-Yourself approach is that these substances can work with and against each other and so levels of one nutrient can affect levels of another in the body. This is what nutritionists call synergy. If you take a calcium supplement, for example, to protect against osteoporosis in later life, you also need to take magnesium. The recommended ratio when taking these two together is 2:1 in favour of the calcium. I cannot understand why there is still any debate over whether supplementing a diet is helpful or not. My own preference is to try the path of what I call ‘True Nutrition’ first, where you rely on natural foods to try and remedy the problem - but there can be no question that for many conditions and problems there is an important place for supplements in holistic healthcare.
One of the counter-arguments is that there is no scientific research to support the growing use of vitamin and mineral tablets. This is not true. The research is out there, but it is often fragmented - which means you just have to look harder for it. It is true there is not the same volume of research as in allopathic medicine and one reason for this is that companies who make and sell natural products cannot patent the active ingredient. This acts as a disincentive, since a small company could practically bankrupt itself by funding clinical trials when it has no way of preventing other companies from jumping on the bandwagon to make the same product and, since it has had no research costs, sell it cheaper. This is an on-going problem in complementary health but with the recent explosion of interest in the field, I am sure this will change. Hopefully, companies will themselves adopt a more co-operative approach to business in the 21st century.
There is also no question that solid, scientific research is effectively ‘sat on’ for years before reaching the public. Take the case of folic acid (vitamin M) and its proven role in preventing spina bifida and other neural tube defects in early pregnancy. The discovery that taking 400mcg of folic acid per day could reduce the incidence of this distressing condition by 80% is now cited as one of the greatest breakthroughs in 20th century medicine. Yet, according to the authors of The Natural Pharmacy (one of my most well-thumbed health bibles), an astonishing 30 years passed between researchers reporting this breakthrough and doctors passing the information on to their pregnant patients. The same is true of another discovery that could and should help reduce the risk of the Western world’s number 1 killer - heart disease.
Homocysteine is a normal by-product of the metabolism of protein, but high levels in the blood have been shown to be 40 times more accurate as an indicator of the risk of heart disease than cholesterol. When levels are elevated, it rapidly damages the arteries and causes an immediate build-up of artherosclerotic plaque - the main trigger for both heart attacks and stroke.
This link was first discovered by a Havard scientist called Dr Kilmer McCully, who was investigating the cases of several infants and young children who had mysteriously died of advanced heart disease. His research, which won him no friends at the time, was first published 30 years ago. However, for political and probably financial reasons, his findings were ignored and McCully was forced to leave Harvard.
Perhaps the major sources of funding for heart disease research were only interested in those projects investigating the link between cholesterol and heart disease. This is bizarre, though, not least because 80% of all fatal heart attacks occur in men who do NOT have high cholesterol levels. A cynic might suggest the reason this information was suppressed was because commercially, there was less money to be made from a safe and natural supplement than from pharmaceuticals or cholesterol-free foods. The good news is that this injustice has recently been exposed in the US where homocysteine research is finally getting the attention and funding it deserves. Sadly, we have yet to see the same trend in the UK.
*You can ask your GP to test your homocysteine levels - and if they are too high, you need to supplement your diet with vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid.
Food State Supplements
Food State is a way of describing those supplements that have, according to the manufacturers (and as the name suggests), been made to mimic the natural state of the nutrient. So, for example, instead of taking a vitamin C tablet that has, in fact, been sourced from dextrose extracted from corn syrup, you take a formulation that copies vitamin C in its natural state in citrus fruit - where you would be eating it along with the flavonoids that scientists have now identified as being important for its proper assimilation.
The aim of Food State supplements is to present the active ingredients in a way that is as close to nature as possible. So in that Food State vitamin C, the stress-busting antioxidant has been complexed with a fruit pulp made from oranges containing flavonoids. Likewise, a beta-carotene formulation will have been complexed with carrot concentrate. The argument is that this also makes it easier for the body to recognise and then utilise these nutrients. There have been long legal battles over whether this claim can be substantiated with writs flying between companies who swear by Food State and those who argue that it makes no difference.
Whatever the eventual outcome of these disagreements, it makes sense to try and eat as natural a diet as possible. In fact, some nutritionists now argue that vitamin and mineral supplements have nothing to do with nutrition - which, in its truest sense, should be primarily concerned with the food on your plate.
Herbalism - How to use herbs
The fastest way to get the standardised, active ingredient of a herb into the bloodstream is by taking it in tincture form. This is always my preferred method when I am in a rush and don’t have the time to grind, pulp, or infuse fresh herbs. You can also buy herbs and herbal combinations in tablet, capsule, powdered, and dried form.
Organic Tincture:
Organic tinctures are now readily available in health stores and by mail order. Each herb will have instructions for how much to take and when on the label, so keep a supply in the cupboard for when you need them. Handy standbys in my cupboard include echinacea for boosting the immune system, agnus castus for female hormonal fluctuations, Siberian ginseng for stress and peppermint for stomach cramps.
Infusion:
This is the method that herbalists use when they need to extract water-soluble ingredients from the less dense parts of the plant such as the leaves, stems, and flowers. You can also use it with the roots and fruits if these have been chopped finely enough.
What to do: Pour 500ml of boiling water on to 30g of the finely cut herb in a container with a tight-fitting lid. This cover means that volatile substances that might otherwise evaporate are retained. Leave the solution for 10-15 minutes to infuse. Strain the liquid and allow to cool to body temperature. The usual dose is one cup of infused liquid taken three times a day, before meals.
Poultice:
This simply describes the technique where the fresh plant is bruised or crushed to a pulp, which is then mixed with a moistening material ready to apply directly to the area where it is needed. You can mix the dried herbs with a little hot water or use a host paste such as flour, bran, or corn meal.
What to do: To make a poultice paste, mix 60g of the dried herb or herbs with 500ml of loose paste. Sandwich this paste between layers of sterile, thin cloth or gauze and apply to the wound or affected area.
Compress:
If you have ever placed a warm facecloth over tired eyes then you have already used this technique.
What to do: Soak a clean towel or sterile cloth in a hot or cold herbal infusion or decoction. Wring it out and place gently over the affected area. Repeat several times. If you are in a rush, you can use this same technique with water in which you have dissolved a few drops of your favourite essential oil.
Decoction:
The harder parts of plants - especially the bark, seeds, roots, and rhizomes - only release their active ingredients after a more prolonged hot water treatment.
What to do: Soak 30g of your chosen herb in 500ml of cold water for 10 minutes. Pour this mixture into a saucepan, cover and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, keep covered and allow the liquid to sit and cool for another 15 minutes. Strain and drink as a tea, in the same way as an infusion.
Homeopathy:
The principle underpinning homeopathy is that you use like to treat like. Thus, for the streaming eyes and running nose of hay fever, you take a remedy made up of the pollen of mixed grasses - the very cause of your misery. Technically, homeopathy does not count as a natural remedy since the tiny homeopathic pillules you will take have been synthetically manufactured, not harvested from nature. However, the underlying principle of treating the whole person and the cause of an illness, not just the symptoms, brings the subject comfortably under the umbrella of complementary health.
In fact, homeopathy can really come into its own as a truly complementary practice. For example, the first time I visited India, I decided to have the conventional anti-malarial treatments since I was a first-time visitor to this part of the world and because an earlier health problem had left my immune system under par. I was planning to travel in rural areas and did not think my immune system would withstand a malarial infection so I took the allopathic pills, and then supported my system through this onslaught with a tailor-made homeopathic remedy to keep me well.
I rarely, in my columns, recommend more than the very basic of homeopathic remedies for more than the very elementary of illnesses. It can take up to seven years to qualify as a skilled homeopath (as long as the training for many doctors) which is, to my mind, convincing evidence that this is not something you can pick up over a weekend course. A qualified homeopath will, for example, take a detailed medical history at your first visit and prescribe according to what is known as your constitutional type.
Each homeopath will have his or her own intuitive way of working too. Mine, for instance, will decide on a treatment plan only after determining how the patient reacts to specific types of pain, as well as other factors. Hers is a very precise art combining clinical training, experience and intuition. Your practitioner will decide on what is called a constitutional remedy - mine is Gelsemium - and I am given this, along with other remedies, whether I visit the homeopath to complain of toothache or digestive pains.
My feeling with homeopathy is that if you can afford a qualified practitioner, then have a constitutional diagnosis and take advice for more serious conditions. For everyday problems, such as bruising or travel sickness, homeopathic pills and creams can be highly effective so it is worth keeping these in your holistic medical kits as useful standbys.
In homeopathy, the potency of the active ingredient of any remedy is so diluted that not only can it cause no harm, sceptics will argue how can it possibly do any good either? New research is beginning to suggest that the answer may lie in the fact that the human body itself is a natural homeopathic machine.
Thanks to ongoing UK-based research, where homeopaths have been investigating the ability of water to record a signal, it is now being suggested that homeopathy works according to an even deeper principle than that of treating like with like, and that what is actually going on is something 21st century healers call Bio-Resonance.
This is a natural phenomenon and is what happens when, for example, you hit a tuning fork that has been pre-tuned to resonate at a particular frequency. It will only resonate at this frequency, regardless of how hard you hit it. What you will also notice is that anything else in the room that resonates naturally at the same frequency as the fork will also start vibrating. To the human ear, this will sound like a humming noise.
The idea, in health, is to think of normal resonance as being like a melody which illness or an infection shifts to a different key. When, for example, you have a sore throat - you not only have the physical pain and symptoms, you are also conscious that you have a sore throat and, therefore, have become aware that you are ill. So, even with a seemingly trivial complaint, both the mind and the body are affected. What this means is that instead of just one particular resonance being out of kilter, the whole body has been disturbed. It then follows, if you accept this thinking, that if you are ill you will need a treatment, (or, to follow the musical analogy, a series of tuning forks), which by resonating with your sick state will restore that original harmony.
Good health is maintained by this restored, natural vibration; when we lose it, through stress or shock, we are then vulnerable again to illness. Homeopathy, it is suggested, mimics what actually happens in the body - where vital organs, such as the beating heart, act as the tuning forks to impart that natural vibration or frequency to the body fluids. “What we believe is that the signal or what we call the memory effect of resonance is recorded or held in the fluid of the body.” explains Tony Pinkus, the UK’s leading homeopathic pharmacist and director of Ainsworths, which is carrying out the new research. “The implication is that the body is a natural homeopathic machine and this could very well be the long-awaited explanation of how homeopathy actually works.”
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