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At the National Institute of Medical Herbalists AGM this year, guest speaker Barbara Griggs talked about the invisibility of herbal medicine in the UK. As anyone who has practised as a herbalist knows, there is some truth in this perception – the majority of people are still blissfully unaware that herbal medicine is a therapeutic modality in its own right. Herbalists are confused with homoeopaths, our medicines are promoted by manufacturers of over the counter brands as being remedies for specific conditions, and medical scientists measure our practice in the context of allopathic biomedical research protocols.

 

Whilst the National Institute are trying to address the question of public awareness, their resources are minuscule in comparison to the greater mass of the healthcare industry when it comes to competing for the general public’s attention. We are all encouraged to do our bit, with various schemes such as the herbal medicine awareness week to help us along the way. Here at the Herbal Apothecary we are very aware that we too have some responsibility for spreading the message.

 

We find ourselves in an interesting position here. Many of our customers are not herbalists, but use herbs as an adjunct to their own form of practice. Some are GPs with an apparent openness to medical pluralism, others may be homoeopaths who have incorporated some key herbs into their practice. Its not as if the herbs themselves are invisible – far from it! What seems to be missing is the perception of a therapeutic modality with its own system of diagnosis, that recognises the usefulness of the concept of a vital force. As the great physiomedicalist JM Thurston argued, the vital force hypothesis “will yield the same unerring practical results at the sick bedside, as well as in prophylactic and sanitary work, whether the materialist or the vitalist be right.”

 

Perhaps it is time we started talking more openly about vitalism

Barbara Griggs

© 2008 Natures Laboratory Ltd.

 

Herbert  by SEG