I am a firm believer in herbalists. I am still walking around, in my personal opinion, because of a couple of good ones. I do believe in doctors especially for broken bones, heart transplants, necessary operations etc. However, at one point in my particular treatment of the many things that have visited me in my old age I felt the need to investigate organic alternative medicines. Only once have I been lucky to find a really good doctor who did not have a problem with alternative medicines.
There are dangers to using a non-certified herbalist, so do some good searching for one. There is a bigger danger for recommending cures with your herbs without being a certified herbalist.
Now more than ever there are holistic and herbal training courses offered throughout the internet and the world for that matter. Do your homework and find the accredited ones in the event you are going to pursue a career in this field because Quacks can take your hard earned money just as fast as the legitimate schools can.
We can no longer be like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies who would mix up a batch of herbs to cure what ails you. This is a "Sue, Sue, Sue" world!
I have come across many books in my search for alternative medicines and here are three that I have in my library and consider them old stand-bys.
The first one is "The New Age Herbalist" which I consider a home herb user's bible. I like the full-color illustrated glossary of over 200 herbs with their descriptions, active ingredients and traditional uses around the world. It also includes tips for using herbs for skin care and beauty, for making your own natural soaps, shampoos, cosmetics and lotions. It includes a section on examination the growing science of herbal healing with the scientific research that validates them. This book also includes a whole section on planning an herb garden, choosing symbiotic herbs, designing and scheduling plantings and how to preserve the herbs by freezing and drying.
Another favorite of mine is the revised second edition of the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D. They have created a comprehensive, user-friendly A to Z guide for treating more than 70 medical conditions from arthritis to varicose veins, from cancer to heart disease. I like the fact that this book is easy to understand and it is an excellent book on alternative medicine.
Then my third favorite is called "Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field and Marketplace" written by Lee Sturdivant and Tim Blakely. Both of these guys are highly credentialed and this little book will take you step by step from your garden, green house or Herbery to the marketplace of medicinal herbs. They detail 75 medicinal herbs with detailed help from medicinal herb growers, product makers, practitioners, Wildcrafters and medicinal mushroom growers in the United States and Canada. I like the fact that it shows the growing demand for herbal medicine opportunities for small farms and businesses in North America. They cover regulations, herb safety, market aids, company survey, standardization, and the best techniques fro propagations, cultivation, harvesting, drying and processing medicinal herbs.
These are just a start, but a good start for anyone considering even thinking about going into the herbalist field.
