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Early morning rant.
May. 8th, 2003 08:01 amThe thing that I desire the most about being a healer is to empower others to help themselves. I believe that healing is a multi-faceted process and relationship. There is the relationship that the person seeking healing has with the healer, there is the relationship that the person seeking the healing has with the Divine, as well as the illness, the plant allies or other modalities and the relationship that that person has with themselves. There are so many different angles to that process that some days it boggles my mind. But I digress....
One of the most frustrating things I deal with is the fact that so many have handed their power over to a doctor, to a drug - even to me. I honestly don't want that power. It belongs to that person. I may borrow it just long enough to re-educate, to show them that yes, you can do these things for yourself. In my job at Frontier it is also a frustration that I cannot do that. I am not permitted, by law to say...hey, go to this website, go to Barnes and Noble, browse their alternative healing section, go to your library - read this author, they wrote an excellent book on this particular illness. I am not allowed The doctors, pharmaceuticals, FDA et al have sewn it up to the point that even if you wanted to educate yourself on these things, you have to be incredibly tenacious. At every turn there are well-meaning people who tell you to get back into line with the other lemmings and plod along. If people only knew how ineffective, ineffectual and how downright dangerous some pharmaceutical treatments are, they would be outraged. I talked to another sister in Sekhmet, a pathologist, who intimated to me that roughly half of the people with cancer that die, die of the disease itself, the other half die as a result of the treatment. I don't know about you, but I don't like those odds.
There are flip sides to the herbal coin. There are very good herbs such as Chinese Ephedra (Ephedra sinica)or Ma Huang, Kava Kava (Piper methysticum, and Yohimbe (Corynanthe yohimbe) are being pulled by Frontier, most likely due to FDA pressures. Why? Well, with Chinese Ephedra, its because the &%!# diet and sports enhancement industry abused this important herb for purposes that it was never even intended for. AND...you have to take other tonifying herbs such as licorice root. Any herbalist who is worth a damn knows you don't abuse this herb for things like that! Its been used for 5,000 years for the treatment of hayfever and asthma and as a mild stimulant. It isn't intended to be used in the mega doses that are found in these products that are all over the place. You'll burn out your system. Hello...SPEED KILLS?! Have we not heard this?! And with Kava, people were taking a "standardized extract" and it caused liver toxicity concerns. Umm....hasn't anyone thought about WHY the indigenous people who have been using this herb for years use the actual plant matter rather than an isolated constituent? Gee...maybe they might think about that for a moment or two..or ten. There is a reason why, and the reason is that there are parts of the plant that help counteract the liver toxicity of the other sides of the plant. But hey, since you isolated those OUT of it - you screwed it all to hell! Congratulations, these folks went to all that expensive schooling only to realize that they are far dumber than your average Indian in the South Pacific and about 99.999% of all of the folkloric herbalists on the face of the planet. Tell you what, labratory rat-handlers...take my advice....UNLEARN. Shut the hell up and watch your betters - the traditional healers - who have been doing this for centuries before you start working for the soul-less corporate bastards who know nothing of herbs and care nothing of healing or people - but only about $$$$!!!! *seething*
As for Yohimbe, we are going to lose it because its being mass-marketed as an herbal viagra. Now they don't tell you when they are busy spamming your email box that you need to NOT take it if you have high blood pressure concerns! *slaps forehead* Oh..my GOD! You mean we have to pay attention when taking a natural product?! No! Say it isn't so!!! It is so. Herbs, natural therapies have to be treated with respect. The problem is so few these days respect ANYTHING- especially our powerful plant allies, and most of the times they don't even respect themselves enough to pull their heads out, find out and be responsible for themselves and their own health.
Its far easier to just mosey on in to the doctor's office, let him write you a script and pop a pill every morning. In our set it and forget it society - we seem to have lost our power somewhere along the way.
More is the pity.
One of the most frustrating things I deal with is the fact that so many have handed their power over to a doctor, to a drug - even to me. I honestly don't want that power. It belongs to that person. I may borrow it just long enough to re-educate, to show them that yes, you can do these things for yourself. In my job at Frontier it is also a frustration that I cannot do that. I am not permitted, by law to say...hey, go to this website, go to Barnes and Noble, browse their alternative healing section, go to your library - read this author, they wrote an excellent book on this particular illness. I am not allowed The doctors, pharmaceuticals, FDA et al have sewn it up to the point that even if you wanted to educate yourself on these things, you have to be incredibly tenacious. At every turn there are well-meaning people who tell you to get back into line with the other lemmings and plod along. If people only knew how ineffective, ineffectual and how downright dangerous some pharmaceutical treatments are, they would be outraged. I talked to another sister in Sekhmet, a pathologist, who intimated to me that roughly half of the people with cancer that die, die of the disease itself, the other half die as a result of the treatment. I don't know about you, but I don't like those odds.
There are flip sides to the herbal coin. There are very good herbs such as Chinese Ephedra (Ephedra sinica)or Ma Huang, Kava Kava (Piper methysticum, and Yohimbe (Corynanthe yohimbe) are being pulled by Frontier, most likely due to FDA pressures. Why? Well, with Chinese Ephedra, its because the &%!# diet and sports enhancement industry abused this important herb for purposes that it was never even intended for. AND...you have to take other tonifying herbs such as licorice root. Any herbalist who is worth a damn knows you don't abuse this herb for things like that! Its been used for 5,000 years for the treatment of hayfever and asthma and as a mild stimulant. It isn't intended to be used in the mega doses that are found in these products that are all over the place. You'll burn out your system. Hello...SPEED KILLS?! Have we not heard this?! And with Kava, people were taking a "standardized extract" and it caused liver toxicity concerns. Umm....hasn't anyone thought about WHY the indigenous people who have been using this herb for years use the actual plant matter rather than an isolated constituent? Gee...maybe they might think about that for a moment or two..or ten. There is a reason why, and the reason is that there are parts of the plant that help counteract the liver toxicity of the other sides of the plant. But hey, since you isolated those OUT of it - you screwed it all to hell! Congratulations, these folks went to all that expensive schooling only to realize that they are far dumber than your average Indian in the South Pacific and about 99.999% of all of the folkloric herbalists on the face of the planet. Tell you what, labratory rat-handlers...take my advice....UNLEARN. Shut the hell up and watch your betters - the traditional healers - who have been doing this for centuries before you start working for the soul-less corporate bastards who know nothing of herbs and care nothing of healing or people - but only about $$$$!!!! *seething*
As for Yohimbe, we are going to lose it because its being mass-marketed as an herbal viagra. Now they don't tell you when they are busy spamming your email box that you need to NOT take it if you have high blood pressure concerns! *slaps forehead* Oh..my GOD! You mean we have to pay attention when taking a natural product?! No! Say it isn't so!!! It is so. Herbs, natural therapies have to be treated with respect. The problem is so few these days respect ANYTHING- especially our powerful plant allies, and most of the times they don't even respect themselves enough to pull their heads out, find out and be responsible for themselves and their own health.
Its far easier to just mosey on in to the doctor's office, let him write you a script and pop a pill every morning. In our set it and forget it society - we seem to have lost our power somewhere along the way.
More is the pity.
