The value of simplicity cannot be measured. Its elegance cannot be manufactured, and the complexity of a single herb well chosen can go far in building resiliency against chronic constitutional problems. I'm an advocate of following the advice laid out by my herbal medicine great great grandfathers of the eclectic medical movement. Complexity can follow upon simplicity if required, but working backward from complexity to simplicity can be a waste of time and money for both the patient and clinician.
A friend recently told me, “The herbs you use are usually less well known, but they work better than what I find at the store.” The herbs I use are often quite common to our back yards and local ecologies. A few are from international locals. Living on the Left Coast with its rich cultural diversity and heritage of international trade comes with the good fortune to have access to both practitioners and herbs from all over the globe and some of our best home grown herbal traditions. Even with this exciting diversity of commerce, I prefer to offer my clients the most simple medicines possible, whether those medicines hail from far away or grow in my back yard.
The reason many of the herbs I use may be less well known is more a product of the Natural Food industries obsession with exoticism and the driving forces of commerce. The craving for “newer, better, faster, more” tends to trump the effectiveness of this herb vs. that herb in mainstream supplement sales. If its complicated to make or extract, you can sell it for more money. I use many local fresh plant tinctures because they are the best quality medicine I can find for the least cost to society. I could learn every herb on every herb shelf everywhere and still be a crappy herbalist. An herb is only as effective as ones knowledge of how and where it is appropriate to use it or not. My practice is rooted in generations of practice, not the latest trends and fads in commerce.
Sometimes a client requires complex medicines for complex problems. Even in these instances I work very hard to keep my remedies to the simplest combinations possible. When faced with complex endocrine disorders, fancy smancy medicines are sometimes necessary. But if I offer a smorgasbord of herbal medicines in a single strategy, that makes tracking what herb is doing what all the more complicated. There are times I give a patient a cocktail of up to ten herbs in a remedy from the start because its necessary. But its my clinical, intellectual and aesthetic preference to start simple, and educate folks on exactly what they are taking and why.
Take mullein for example. Its a tall, pretty flowering plant found high and low in different regions. It is the first plant that I ever made medicine from. Now, fourteen years later I still rely on pretty, soft leafed mullein to foster better quality breathing in my asthma patients. Its not the best, or worst tasting tea, but with a little nettle and sweetened with honey, taken daily it can make an asthma sufferers episodes less dangerous and give them better quality breathing between asthma attacks. All that from one downy leaf gathered on a sunny summers day.
I can always build more complex strategies from humble beginnings. Offering simple medicine first avoids harming a client on multiple levels. I am saving them time and money. I don't have to play the guessing game as to which herb worked and which did not. I save myself the time of picking apart my stratagem backwards if it fails. When a particular strategy fails, the simpler it is the easier it is to toss out what isn't working and get to work figuring out what will bring the person relief. That gives people the chance to get better quicker, for longer periods of time. I give people something to build on that they can easily understand and easily obtain with or without me. Simplicity fosters independence for the client, clarity for the clinician and ease and stability in the client\care provider relationship. The easier it is for a client to tell me what didn't work, the better it is for both of us.
Commerce is based on the value of the dollar; the value of a clinical practice is based in the quality of the patients experience, the resolution of their complaint and quality of on going care. Dollar bills cannot get you the same thing at Whole Foods. The blood, sweat and tears that have earned me my clinical savvy cannot be commercially produced. By working with the traditions of simpling* I'm offering an alternative to Alternative Medicine and its expensive products. Its one way I stay in keeping with the spirit of those who taught me herbal medicine.
Humble beginnings lead to clear outcomes. Those outcomes are valuable to me. Its important to see the results of my practice and to be of value to my community in this way. For that reason, I hold simplicity dear to my heart and clear in my mind. Whomever formulated Occams Razor has my deepest regard. Simplicity is a good razor to shave with.
*Simpling is the art of single plant remedies, usually a tea but sometimes a tincture. An example would be giving nettle tea to a person who has borderline anemic tendencies and getting them to add a hamburger to their diet now and again.
A friend recently told me, “The herbs you use are usually less well known, but they work better than what I find at the store.” The herbs I use are often quite common to our back yards and local ecologies. A few are from international locals. Living on the Left Coast with its rich cultural diversity and heritage of international trade comes with the good fortune to have access to both practitioners and herbs from all over the globe and some of our best home grown herbal traditions. Even with this exciting diversity of commerce, I prefer to offer my clients the most simple medicines possible, whether those medicines hail from far away or grow in my back yard.
The reason many of the herbs I use may be less well known is more a product of the Natural Food industries obsession with exoticism and the driving forces of commerce. The craving for “newer, better, faster, more” tends to trump the effectiveness of this herb vs. that herb in mainstream supplement sales. If its complicated to make or extract, you can sell it for more money. I use many local fresh plant tinctures because they are the best quality medicine I can find for the least cost to society. I could learn every herb on every herb shelf everywhere and still be a crappy herbalist. An herb is only as effective as ones knowledge of how and where it is appropriate to use it or not. My practice is rooted in generations of practice, not the latest trends and fads in commerce.
Sometimes a client requires complex medicines for complex problems. Even in these instances I work very hard to keep my remedies to the simplest combinations possible. When faced with complex endocrine disorders, fancy smancy medicines are sometimes necessary. But if I offer a smorgasbord of herbal medicines in a single strategy, that makes tracking what herb is doing what all the more complicated. There are times I give a patient a cocktail of up to ten herbs in a remedy from the start because its necessary. But its my clinical, intellectual and aesthetic preference to start simple, and educate folks on exactly what they are taking and why.
Take mullein for example. Its a tall, pretty flowering plant found high and low in different regions. It is the first plant that I ever made medicine from. Now, fourteen years later I still rely on pretty, soft leafed mullein to foster better quality breathing in my asthma patients. Its not the best, or worst tasting tea, but with a little nettle and sweetened with honey, taken daily it can make an asthma sufferers episodes less dangerous and give them better quality breathing between asthma attacks. All that from one downy leaf gathered on a sunny summers day.
I can always build more complex strategies from humble beginnings. Offering simple medicine first avoids harming a client on multiple levels. I am saving them time and money. I don't have to play the guessing game as to which herb worked and which did not. I save myself the time of picking apart my stratagem backwards if it fails. When a particular strategy fails, the simpler it is the easier it is to toss out what isn't working and get to work figuring out what will bring the person relief. That gives people the chance to get better quicker, for longer periods of time. I give people something to build on that they can easily understand and easily obtain with or without me. Simplicity fosters independence for the client, clarity for the clinician and ease and stability in the client\care provider relationship. The easier it is for a client to tell me what didn't work, the better it is for both of us.
Commerce is based on the value of the dollar; the value of a clinical practice is based in the quality of the patients experience, the resolution of their complaint and quality of on going care. Dollar bills cannot get you the same thing at Whole Foods. The blood, sweat and tears that have earned me my clinical savvy cannot be commercially produced. By working with the traditions of simpling* I'm offering an alternative to Alternative Medicine and its expensive products. Its one way I stay in keeping with the spirit of those who taught me herbal medicine.
Humble beginnings lead to clear outcomes. Those outcomes are valuable to me. Its important to see the results of my practice and to be of value to my community in this way. For that reason, I hold simplicity dear to my heart and clear in my mind. Whomever formulated Occams Razor has my deepest regard. Simplicity is a good razor to shave with.
*Simpling is the art of single plant remedies, usually a tea but sometimes a tincture. An example would be giving nettle tea to a person who has borderline anemic tendencies and getting them to add a hamburger to their diet now and again.