With all the current media coverage about the regulation of herbalists and the debate around NHS payment for homeopathic treatments, it is a good time to explain the difference between herbal medicine and homeopathy. When alternative or natural therapies and medicines are discussed in the media they are often bunched altogether and herbal medicine is forever confused with homoeopathy and vice versa. The same goes for chiropractic and osteopathic treatments. They are in fact quite different and distinct therapies.
What medicines do we use in Herbal Medicine?
At Foreman & Jones we practice Herbal Medicine – this is the use of plant medicines to treat people. We use quite well-known herbs such as Dandelion, St John’s Wort, Liquorice and Lavender to herbs that are lesser known by the public such as Sarsaparilla, Damiana and Bogbean.
How are these herbs prepared?
We use tinctures (alcoholic extracts), teas (tisanes or infusions), tablets, capsules, juices, creams, salves, powders, poultices and compresses. The main bulk of the medicines we use consist of tinctures and teas.
How is a tincture made?
A herbal tincture is made my infusing the herb (fresh, or dried, depending on the preparation required) in alcohol (the strength of the alcohol is dependent on the herb, its water content, and the type of constituents (chemicals) the plant contains. The herb is left to infuse in the alcohol for a length of time (a number of weeks depending again on the herb), then strained. The remaining herb is disposed of and the liquid that remains is the tincture. This tincture has extracted the constituents of the herb so that it takes on the actions of the herb. This tincture is then used in a prescription. A prescription is a medicine that is written down (pre-scribed) before it is made.
How many herbs are used in a herbal prescription?
A herbal medicine for one patient may contain 1 – 15 herbs, all chosen for their particular action. Rather than interfere with one another, a combination of correctly chosen herbs will act synergistically, so that the medicine creates a greater overall result than the sum of its parts.
So what is different about homoeopathy?
Although homeopathy uses plants as does Herbal Medicine it also uses animals (such as cuttlefish, viper and honey bee) and minerals (such as calcium carbonate, charcoal and graphite). The remedies that are used are prepared first of all in the same way as the tinctures used in herbal medicine, then diluted. Using the decimal system of dilution a small quantity of the tincture (say 1ml) is taken from this stock bottle and diluted ten times by the addition of nine parts (e.g. 9ml) of volume of diluents – either alcohol or water and then shaken vigorously by hand or machine (succession, this is called). A small quantity of this is then diluted to one tenth (1ml added to 9ml of diluents) and succussed a second time. This process is repeated again and again, producing solutions identified as 3x, 6x, 30x according to the number of dilutions. (X-refers to 10 – the dilution, so 3x means diluted by 10 three times). It may even be continued three hundred (3C – where each dilution is 1 in 100 – 1ml of tincture in 99ml of diluents – this is the centesimal system) or a thousand times (1M). The resulting solution is then put onto an inert table (such as a small sugar pill) and then used as a medicine.
In homeopathy a remedy in some cases may be given in a dilution so great that no single molecule of the original substance remains. Homeopathy uses the ‘memory of water’ theory which implies that the effect lies in a pattern impressed on the water molecules and that this is carried over from one dilution to the next.
Are there any other differences?
There are many but the main difference are that the way in which the remedies are prescribed is quite different too – in Homeopathy a single remedy is often given, whereas in Herbal Medicine herbs are often combined.
Herbalists also use different techniques for diagnosis which include many of the techniques that your GP would use, combined with more traditional techniques.
We hope that this explains the difference between homeopathy and herbal medicine – do ask any question on the comment sheet below.
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