Tips For Getting Started Using Herbal Medicines
If you are excited to start using herbal medicine to improve your health but have never used herbs or natural medicine before and are not sure how they work, how long they take to work and if they are a good fit for you - then this article is for you.
What this article covers:
🌟 What is herbalism
🌟 How herbal medicine works
🌟 Natural medicine vs pharmaceuticals
🌟 Avoiding common beginners mistakes
What is Herbalism?
Herbalism is the practice of using medicinal plants. Herbalism is not only using herbs to improve physical health, but I believe it encompasses the use of herbs in food, herbs for emotional and mental well-being, and also herbs in spiritual practice.
Herbs for medicine have been used since the beginning of human civilisation - its even use by animals!
A lot of our knowledge about how herbs work and what conditions they are good for has come from thousands of years of passing down knowledge.
Now, science is starting to catch up and prove the effectiveness of herbal medicines.
New research about herbal medicine is coming out every day, whether they are diving into the chemical compounds of the herbs or whether they are studying the use of herbs for specific conditions - its is a fast-growing area of research as well as a fast-growing industry.
How Do Herbs Work?
Physical compounds: active compounds, minerals & nutrients
Herbs contain an array of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that can be extracted through various herbal preparations, or sometimes consumed as a whole plant!
Herbs also contain active compounds (also called constituents) that exert an effect on the body.
Examples of herbal constituents include flavonoids, polyphenols, tannins, mucilage, essential oils, resins, bitters, saponins, phyto-oestrogens and alkaloids.
Herbal energetics: the energetic qualities of plants
Before we had science and could isolate chemical compounds in plants, we used herbal medicine based on the ‘qualities’ of the plant and aligning them with the ‘qualities’ of the body.
In Western Herbal Medicine, we commonly use 6 energetics states:
🌿 Hot & Cold
🌿 Damp & Dry
🌿 Tense & Relaxed
Tissue & Organ Specificity
Many herbal medicines work on multiple body systems at once, however, they often have a few if not 1 core system, tissue or organ that it has an affinity towards in the body.
This is what gives herbs their ‘herbal actions’.
For example, a herb that has an affinity for the nervous system may have the herbal action of a nervine or nerve tonic (improve the tone, vigour and function of the nervous system, help to relax and energise the nervous system).
Natural Medicines Vs Pharmaceuticals
Working with natural medicines is NOT like working with pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceuticals are isolated compounds that have specific target areas in the body and are used a lot of the time to alleviate symptoms.
Herbal and natural medicines restore vitality to the body and encourage the body to return to a healthy state of functioning.
What does this mean?
It means that using herbal medicine in a holistic way, addressing root cause imbalances and aiming to strengthen weakened tissues and organs may take longer, but the effects will last longer.
The aim of using herbs to restore vitality is that once the body is functioning properly again, we don’t need to continue to be reliant on herbs.
The other side of this is using herbal medicines to treat acute conditions or to alleviate symptoms.
It’s important that we ease suffering in the body, and this may require some more superficial acute treatments, but we still address the underlying dysfunction as well.
Avoiding Common Beginner Mistakes
Whether you are working with a practitioner, or coming up with your own remedies here are some tips from myself (as a clinician and a herbal user):
You often have to take the herbs longer than you think. Don’t stop taking them after 2 weeks if you don’t notice the results, some herbs can take up to 6 weeks to start noticing the effects. If you are not sure, do some more research or ask your practitioner.
If you are doing DIY make sure to research herbal safety and medication interactions! So important. If you are working with a practitioner, they will do this already for you.
Don’t trust the first result that comes up on Google, if you want to research go deeper into credible textbooks, research papers and learn from knowledgeable teachers. If you have received herbs from a practitioner, also don’t trust Google, your practitioner has had more education and training on herbal safety than Google.
Action steps:
You can do 1 or all of these!
❇️ Pick 1 herb (in a category that you need support in e.g. gut health) and get to know it well.
❇️ Look up local herbal events, herb walks, and workshops in your area.
❇️ Reach out for advice on where to source high-quality herbal information - instead of relying on Google.
❇️ Book a 1:1 consult to get personalised advice on which herbs will be the most effective for you!
Hi, I’m Meg, a naturopathic herbalist helping people reconnect with their health through the power of plant medicine. I offer personalized herbal consultations Australia-wide, combining traditional wisdom with modern naturopathic principles to create tailored herbal support for your unique needs.
The information provided on this website is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please see my full disclaimer here.
