[MPWG] herbal remedies associated with heart drugs

[Jean Giblette]

Many of our perception problems regarding medicinal plants are caused  
by the industrialization of medicine.  Within the past century or so,  
we have come to assume that medicine is (a) manufactured (b) from  
"raw materials," (c) extracted from the earth, (d) by indigenous poor  
(i.e. rural) people, and (e) the more refinement added, the more  
"value" assigned.

Each one of these assumptions is an artifact, now being challenged.   
The establishment of Oriental Medicine in North America has helped us  
return to the full context of medicine, which definitely includes  
food.  Traditional Asian medicine, guided by sophisticated  
theoretical constructs including detailed models of human health,  
recorded contextual medicinal uses of one-quarter of their known  
plant species.  (Their temperate zone species are closely related to  
those in the other northern temperate regions.)  So --hello! -- it's  
not the biochemicals in the plants, it's the many elaborate ways to  
choose, combine and integrate the plants into the diet.  (Yes, we  
have decades worth of details to work out.)

The leading-edge medicinal plant cultivators are returning us to the  
knowledge of how plants can express the power of a highly-biodiverse  
setting, like wild plants in a healthy biome, to maximize their  
healing potential.  The cultivators/stewards are also beginning to  
insist on parity pricing, in acknowledgement of the principle of  
economic sustainability.  I believe this process is inverting the  
"value chain."

The paradigm shift is occurring despite the efforts of the industrial  
Powers-That-Be to hold it back.  Their reactions may be oppressive,  
but more and more health professionals are realizing what's happening  
and are proceeding to educate themselves.

Anyone in doubt about Pharma's goals and methods, including how  
published papers are sometimes manufactured for a pre-determined  
conclusion, read this book:  Peterson, Melody, 2009. Our Daily Meds:  
How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick  
Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs   
(Picador paperback).

Also, remember that Pharma now owns the largest dietary supplement  
corporations, so the line between drugs and herbal products has been  
blurred.  The operative concept here is "manufactured product."

We have our work cut out for us, good luck to everyone.

Jean



On Feb 2, 2010, at 7:06 PM, Andrea Schwarzbach wrote:

> Hi!
> The CNN report mentioned below is summarizing  a recently published  
> paper [Tachjian A, Maria V, Jahangir A. Use of herbal products and  
> potential interactions in patients with cardiovascular diseases. J  
> Amer Coll Cardiol. 2010;55(6). [DOI:10.1016/j.jacc.2009.07.074]  
> that has major flaws and is obviously written by someone who is a  
> specialist in cardiology but certainly has no clue about botany or  
> medicinal plants.
>
> You might be interested in a press release by the American  
> Botanical Council regarding the original paper pointing out some of  
> the many mistakes.
> http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2010/Response_CardiologyArticle.html
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Dr. Andrea Schwarzbach
> Associate Professor
> University of Texas-Brownsville
> Department of Biological Sciences
> 80 Fort Brown
> Brownsville, TX 78520
>
>
> On 2/2/10 11:33 AM, "Emanuela Appetiti" <ceo at medicaltraditions.org>  
> wrote:
>
> HI!
>
> Thought you might be interested in this article about some herbal  
> remedies affecting the activity of heart drugs, appeared today in  
> CNN health:
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/01/moh.healthmag.remedies.avoid/
>
> Best,
>
> Emanuela Appetiti
>
> <http://medicaltraditions.org/>
>
> ceo at medicaltraditions.org <mailto:info at medicaltraditions.org>
>
> +1 202 633 0967
>
> PO Box 7606
> Washington, DC 20044-7606
> USA
>
> www.medicaltraditions.org <http://medicaltraditions.org/>
>
>
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> message. The information contained in posts is not intended nor  
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> or positions of the Plant Conservation Alliance.

Jean Giblette, Director
HIGH FALLS GARDENS
Box 125 Philmont NY 12565
518-672-7365, hfg at capital.net
www.highfallsgardens.net



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