Complete Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine (NTC KEATS - HEALTH)

340 Pages·2022·14.55 MB·English

by  Daniel Mowrey PhD, Jeffrey Bland PhD, Jeffrey S. Bland

The Scientific —
of
Validation
Herbal Medicine
Toni Beckman, L.N.
4901 N.W. 3rd Ave.
Boca Raton, FL 33431-4762
(407) 395-2178
Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.
With Foreword by Dr. Jeffrey Bland
How to remedy and prevent disease with Herbs, Vitamins, Minerals and other nutrients.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/scientificvalidaO0000mowr
The Scientific
Validation or
Herbal Medicine
Z jy > ! ta
Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.
LE TN OR Se RES DO Dee EE ES EEN CP OED OLE FBT EEN ER aR OLE EI
How to remedy and prevent disease with Herbs, Vitamins, Minerals and other nutrients.
IMPORTANT! The information contained in this booklet is
intended for educational purposes only. It is not provided
in order to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease,
illness, or injured condition of the body, and the author,
publisher, printer(s), and distributor(s) accept no
responsibility for such use. Those individuals suffering
from any disease, iliness, or injury should consult with
their physician.
NOTE: Many persons, on their first encounter with the information
presented in this book, are tempted to throw out their medications and start
using nothing but herbs. Please do not do that. Your educatiino tnhi s field
is just beginninIgn .m y opinion people should ease into the use of herbs
and ease ouoft t he use of traditional medications only where possible,
especiailf lthye ir health problems are severe. A sudden switch of health
regimen can be hazardous.
NOTE: Throughout the book, | use the word ‘treat’ to describe the
relationship between an herb and its users. The word is not a synonym
for ‘cure’. It implies only that the herb is used by certain people in an
‘attempt to cure’. There is a big difference between treat and cure:
While cure involves a successful treatment, treat does not imply
success; it only suggests the attempt.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mowrey, Daniel B., 1944-
The scientific validation of herbal medicine.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Herbs--Therapeutic use. 2. Vitamin therapy.
3. Minerals in nucritionsn da hieles
RM666.H33M68 1986 615" 321 St—27 72
ISBN 0-936361-00-5 (pbk.)
© Copyright 1986 by Cormorant Books.
ISBN 0-936361-00-5
FOREWORD
It was with great pleasure that | had an opportunity to evaluate the
manuscript of Dr. Mowrey’s book. The field of herbal products and natural
botanical medicines has been fraught with considerable confusion,
controversy, and misinformation over the past several years. We have seen
consumer interest rise in these natural proucts without knowledge of their
positive values, side effects, and hazards from abuse.
It was a breath of fresh air to read through Dr. Mowrey’s treatise on The
Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine, which is the first comprehensive
manuscript that | have seen which deals with the science, history,
pharmacology and clinical applications of herbal materials. The book is
highly referenced and illustrates a scientific approach to this complex field.
He has weaved a very subtle balance between the clinical anecdote, the
history of natural botanicals, and the science which underlies their efficacy.
| found the reading to be most enlightening and in a style that flowed and
inspired me to read on. We have needed this type of book for some time to
Clarify issues and separate fact from fiction concerning herbal products.
The birthing of the field of green medicine began when pharmacological
evaluations of indigenous aztec medicines yielded agents with important
implications in the treatment of modern disease. Since then medicinal plants
have provided the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry.
Certainly, natural products may suffer from a lack of defined dose and
potency data, but they benefit from the virtue of containing many specific
molecular principles in their natural state possessing a variety of influences
upon human physiology, as opposed to the purified synthetic drugs which
are based on just a single specific molecular substance derived from the
natural product. Dr. Mowrey has described these differences very nicely in
this book and | believe this volume (and the forthcoming Volume 1!) should
be of great benefit to any individual who is concerned about natural healing
and its clinical applications.
Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD
Director in Nutrition
Analysis Laboratory
Linus Pauling Institute
Dedicated To
Gail & June
Roy & Mable
PREEACE
The scientific method has been the bedrock of humankind’s explosive
progress in the medical sciences for the past dozen decades or so (see the
Introduction for more details). The use of this method of human inquiry has
had profound impact on all cultures that have discovered its power. The
material reviewed in this book, unlike the anecdotal material of most books
about herbs, rests upon a foundation built with the use of the scientific
method. :
Here are some preliminary observations about herbal medicine in
America that do not necessarily pertain to the rest of the world: The material
in this book is not common knowledge. In spite of a resurgence in natural
health, ninety percent of the references in this book are from medical
journals outside the American continent. Most Americans have a bias
against the use of herbal medicines. Medical doctors hesitate to promote
the use of herbs. Pharmaceutical companies do not manufacture herbs nor
encourage doctors to prescribe them. There is no educational support in
the medical community for folk medicine. Why has America ignored the
scientific validation of herbal medicine? To understand the uniquely
American situation, one needs to examine the development of medical
science generally, and the nature of American science specifically.
Historical Perspectives
A study of the history of herbal research reveals some of the reasons
American medicine evolved the way it did, and suggests ways that sound
herbology and sound pharmacology can be united in medical practice.
Historical differences in the development of herbal medicine between
Western and Eastern cultures require that the two patterns be discussed
separately. We shall see why today, in the East, there is ongoing scientific
research in herbs, and why, in the West, especially in America, whole herb
materials are seldom if ever investigated.'
The West
At one time in the West, herbs were the subject of intensive scientific
investigation. One can find numerous published studies on the effects of
herbs on animal and human physiology. As late as the mid 20th century,
important herbal research was being undertaken in Europe.
Concomittant with herbal research in this century in the West was the
development of powerful synthetic medicines that had the power to virtually
wipe out many terrible diseases.’
1One can observe a slight reversal of this trend in recent research on garlic in the West;
hopefully, the trend will continue.
It is hard for those of our generation to understand how it was to live in constant fear of
contracting any one of a hundred simple but extremely debilitating, even fatal, diseases. It may
have been similar to our fear of nuclear holocast.
vi The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine
As cure after cure was found, great excitement spread through the
medical research establishment. Young scientists, especially, were
vulnerable to the lure of the exotic new lines of study. Unlike the old
vanguard, who recognized the value of the new, but attempted to preserve
the fundamental value of botanical medicines and continued to pursue
research in them, the young students could not resist the excitement of
modern drug research.
The old vanguard died off (or is dying off). Many of the following
generation, who had studied medicinal plants while under the tutelage of
their masters, left those pursuits at the earliest opportunity in order to join
the rush to the exciting sea of synthetic medicines. In time these students
have become the masters. Their students have been completely
indoctrinated in modern medicine and have never had the chance to
develop an interest in herbal research.
Thus, the scientific method spawned a new era in the medicine of the
West, especially America. European investigators have used the scientific
method as a means to investigate herbal medicines even during the current
era of synthetic medicine. And in Asia, the the scientific method did not
arrive for decades.
The movement away from the natural and toward the synthetic was not a
conscious rejection of medical botany. | don’t believe anybody realized how
completely the older positions were being abandoned. Nobody in
mainstream medical science intended for it to happen that way.°
During this period of change, beliefs about the causes of common
disease also evolved. As several debilitating diseases were eradicated one
by one, western philosophical equivalents of the oriental Yin and Yang were
replaced by the notion of specificity, which held that each and probably
every disease is caused by one and probably only one pathogen. Western
scientists were finding these pathogenic organisms and developing specific
cures and prophylactics for them (to wit, smallpox, diptheria, tetanus,
typhus, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis).
The abandonment of herbal medicine can be explained partly as the
result of not being able to fit a round peg in a square hole. For herbal
therapeutics have not changed to fit easily into new conceptions of disease.
Herbal medicine continues to view disease as something wrong with the
whole body, or at least with whole systems within the body. Terms like
alteratives, cholagogues, stimulants, emmenagogues, demulcents,
anthelmintics, etc., are still viable in herbal medicine. But this view of
disease was abandoned so quickly by the medical researchers that
physicians accustomed to the concepts of herbal medicine and unwilling to
forsake them soon found they were talking a whole different language than
the establishment.’
3But America did not have a centuries’ old heritage of herbal use to contend with. America has
always been dedicated to the adventure of exploration and progress, has always by nature been
primed to accept the often fallacious premise that new is better.
4At best the more potent herbs were examined for their specific active principles and for
chemicals that would kill specific germs. This activity still goes on and is called pharmacognosy.
Preface vil
Public attitudes also influenced the course of this 20th century evolution
in America. Citizens were no longer content with wholistic ideas. They
wanted innoculations, penicillin shots, radical surgery, and other heroic
medical methods. Americans, and later, Europeans, entered an era of
reckless abandon regarding their health, an era characterized by the
adoption of a health creed without parallel in human history: “We shall put
our trust in food specialists to insure we receive adequate nutrition; we shall
put our trust in medical specialists to prevent most disease and to cure the
rest; and, above all, we shall trust in the government to insure that we aren't
poisoned, extorted or misled by those in whom we have entrusted health
and life itself.” Having adopted this creed, the average Westerner was free
to eat and drink whatever he chose, whenever he chose, in whatever
quantities he chose; furthermore, he could freely choose whichever
“experts” he wanted for advise on all other aspects of health. In short,
without fear, he freely relinquished all individual responsibility for health.
There are many signs that the public has recently recognized “The Great
Error’ and is again asserting its “right” of individual responsibility in health
care. The one agent-one disease theory is falling on hard times as the
number of diseases for which it holds true decreases and the number for
which it doesn’t pertain stand out as in bold relief. There is an increasing
public sentiment that disease is created and nurtured by a general lack of
health. Unreasonable trust in the creed has been violated by the reasonable
forces of human failing and economic pressure.®
This is not to say that the American and European experiment was a
failure. And we should not make the mistake of assuming the new climate in
health care in any way resembles that of a century ago. It doesn’t. What it
represents is a whole new paradigm in medicine, a new age. The time has
come for ushering in an era of balance between the synthetic and the
natural.
We must never return to the way things were before the era of modern
medicine. Though it was probably a serious error to abandon centuries of
medical experience with natural medicines, it would be an even more grave
mistake to overlook the role that proper use of the scientific method can
play in making great new advancements in the area of herbal medicine
(e.g., see the chapter on NAUSEA).
Immune Deficiency
The highway of modern medicine and the scenic route of herbal medicine
seem to converge at several points. One of these is immune response
deficiency. Without recognizing what it was doing, herbal medicine quite
naturally enlisted all systems of the body in the fight against disease.
SAlso gaining in popularity is the corollary to the above idea, namely, that careful attention to
the general health of the body will help prevent many common diseases. The side effects and
dangers of synthesized drugs, as well as the values of herbs, nutritional supplemnts and of whole
food substances, are being brought to the public's attention by an increasingly sophisticated
press.
vill The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine
Though the treatment may have been aimed at a particular disease, it
usually depended on energizing, stimulating or otherwise recruiting the aid
of many systems within the organism.®
The modern medical approach has, until recently, underplayed the
importance of the body’s own immune system. In fact, the term itself has
entered into popular terminology only in the last few years. The medical
establishment now recognizes the immune system as the key to the
prevention of cancer and other stubborn diseases.
Cardiovascular Disease
Another meeting point between the old and new is in the recognition that
much cardiovascular disease can be prevented, not simply treated. Many
herbal medicines are designed specifically for this purpose (see chapters
on HEART and HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE). They bespeak common sense
and have been scientifically validated. Modern medicine could easily, and
wisely, incorporate the use of herbs such as garlic, hawthorn and
echinacea. With the support of more research, other herbal medicines could
eventually become a regular part of health, diet and medicine.
We can only eliminate cancer and heart disease in this age by paying
more attention to the health of the body and less to treating disease; by
devoting more effort to preventing, less to curing. We may then witness a
return to medical terminology of terms that describe a substance's effect on
whole systems, words that reflect a concern with the ability of the body to
withstand the onslaught of environmental pathogens—words like
adaptogen, cholagoggue, aperient, etc., words that are the substance of
herbal medicine.
The East
In the East (as in Europe) herbal medicine has a centuries’ old heritage.
But unlike Europe, and with the possible exception of Japan, countries in
the East have generally been slower to adopt the medical advancements of
the West.®
China incorporates the research methods of the West even as she
maintains a strong interest in her native folk methods. And as Americans
Thus, if an infection was present, herbal antibiotics were administered in conjunction with
agents that stimulated blood and lymph flow, mild laxatives, and agents that stimulated
phagocytic activity in the white blood cells or leukocytes.
®Japan, more than any other Asian country, has adopted the mechanistic philosophy of the
West. But over the last 10-15 years a resurgence of interest in wholistic medicine has taken place
in Japan, characterized by a revival in Kampo, an ancient Chinese system of medicine first
introduced to Japan in the sixth century. But in its new incarnation Kampo has been forced to
conform to the reductionistic values of orthodox medicine. Pharmacists and some medical
doctors have been pressured by public interest, the press, and the market place to prescribe
herbal medicines. The result has been devastating. With complete disregard for the philosophical
and empirical bases of Kampo, herbs are prescribed as if they were just other synthetic drugs.
Ignored are methods of blending, concepts of prevention, wholistic medical practices, etc., basic
to the Kampo system. In essence, the Japanese are exerting great effort to pound the square
peg in the round hole with a sledge hammer.