The Practical Herbalist

There are various schools of thought among herbalists about allopathic medicine (allopathic = western medicine).

Some people believe that allopathic medicine and the whole pharmacy/health insurance/industrial complex is so awful and corrupt that they would never use it for anything, and they believe traditional medicine (Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbal or mushroom remedies, folk remedies, Native medicine practices) provides humans with everything we need.

Some, and I count myself among this number, believe that allopathic and traditional medicine each has its place and should be balanced.

An example of balance

Wednesday night, I had heart palpitations from a condition that has caused them since I was a child. I used to just ignore them and they’d go away in about 20 minutes or so, but as I got older those times got up to eight hours and change. I have since discovered that ignoring them for hours could lead to sudden death.

First: home remedies for heart palpitations

So, first I tried some maneuvers that have stopped them in the past (taught to me by allopathic doctors but I’m counting it as a ‘home remedy’ since I do it at home and it requires no medical intervention) such as holding my breath for as long as humanly possible, bearing down like I’m giving birth or taking the biggest shit of my life, and ice on the face to trigger a vagal nerve response (the diving response.)

Second: an herbal remedy for heart palpitations

When those didn’t work, I threw a Hail Mary pass by taking a large dose of motherwort to see if it would cause them to stop* and waited for 1/2 an hour.

Then, I took a careful note in the motherwort tincture section of my notebook:

Third: allopathic medicine

That’s when I went into the ER, where they did their own balanced approach.

First, they tried a maneuver that is impossible for me to do at home but I think you should know it is very graceful and dignified, and then when that didn’t work either, they fixed me right up with a drug called adenosine.

The palps instantly stopped, and I was incredibly grateful.

Why I choose balance

Since my focus on herbs and natural/home remedies is practical rather than spiritual, ideological, or financial (currently; it was a major driver in the past), dealing with health issues in this way makes sense for me, and that’s what I advocate.

If I’d been able to stop the palps with home remedies, I’d have saved money and time, and would have kept a space free for someone else in the ER. But as they didn’t, off I marched into the arms of allopathy.

While there are serious problems with the pharmaceutical industry and with the way our system forces doctors to practice medicine, denying myself access to what allopathic medicine does best (vaccines, birth control, emergency medicine) is simply not practical for me.

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*in motherwort’s defense, it’s supposed to balance heart electrical weirdness taken in small doses over a long period of time, which I hadn’t been doing because I only just now made decent tincture.