Humans have intuitively used plants or herbal medicine in healing for thousands of years. Western medicine’s healthcare system and use of prescription drugs or pharmaceuticals is based on the foundation of medicinal plants and even medications prescribed by physicians to fight addiction, pain, and eating disorder symptoms have a basis in herbal medicine. In fact, the majority of drug families (categories) were discovered and derived from the plant kingdom. According to the World Health Organization, one quarter of all prescription drugs are currently still derived from plants: herbs, shrubs, or trees. Even more remarkable, 121 prescription drugs are derived from just 90 plant species.
Herbs work to combat the consequences of disease and eating disorder symptoms by the effect of their chemical components; in essentially the same way as pharmaceuticals. Both generate biological activity and produce effects in similar ways on the body. However, herbs—possessing naturally occurring chemicals and being still in their natural state—are processed much differently by the human body without the toxic residue left by synthetic (man-made) prescription drugs. Mental eating disorder symptoms like depression and physical manifestations like sickness can be healed with herbal medicines.
Herbal medicine has been shown to be effective in naturally treating countless ailments, such as anxiety and eating disorder symptoms, although there is far less research on herbal remedies as compared to their prescription drug counterparts because natural herbs cannot be patented. For example, one of the most well known herbs is Echinacea--a Native American herb—used to stimulate the immune system, in addition to other healing benefits. Herbs are also powerful agents in assisting the body’s natural detoxification processes, which is important when treating addictions or eating disorder symptoms. Herbal medicine will be utilized in conjunction with various other treatment components in restoring balance to the body/mind system.