@ansall



Your querry should be answered by a herbalist
Thus you should ask:Any herbalists in the house?
Is herbal medicine the same as holistic medicine?
What of Homeopathy?

@annsal

I have been reading a lot lately on ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE and I am getting convinced that these things work (i don't mean our street wagangas or money minded herbalists.

There are real professionals in this field and they do really have alternative cures for diseases but you will never hear about them because:-

1) Orthodox (contemporary) medicine will never allow that to happen for it is cheap and will kill the pharmaceutical industry
2) The research institutions will never allow that to happen for they will loose funding (when there is a naturally occurring cure for a disease you don't continue funding a research project to look for the cure, do you)
3) The media will never report there existence to you because they will loose income from advertisements by orthodox above
4) If some media house stupidly reports a "revolutionary" natural cure for a disease, the orthodoxers will finance a research whose result will be to "scientifically" rubbish the natural cure.
5) Patent and trade mark laws do not allow you to patent a naturally occurring item in whatever form. So the orthodoxers are always in a fix. when they discover a natural cure they hide the information, buy the silence of the scientist, they go to the laboratory to manufacture altered variants of the natural substance which they patent and sell to us as cure.

If you dont believe the above I will pose a question to you:

Do you think that GOD has ACTUALLY not created a cure for these diseases which devour mankind and left that to the knowledge of man?

@ kingfisher thanks for the insight.the reason why am asking is coz my mum has been ailing for over 10 years- high blood pressure and diabetes. Two months ago we took her to an herbalist, who started her on a detox to flush away the toxins etc .while she was taking the detox she was OK, so when he started her on the high blood pressure drugs,things went very wrong , after one week the blood pressure and the sugar level went very high ,we had to take back to hosi where she was hospitalised for 3 days.My query is why do they lie? and if it really works why did it backfire on my mum ama like kemac put it ,it was a case of underdosage/ overdosage.How can someone tell a real herbalist from a fake one?

@annsal and who was the herbalist?

@annsal - A good herbalist is like a good mechanic. You have to rely on word of mouth from people you know! The problem is, unlike in the case of mechanics not many Kenyans use the services of herbalist [consistently] and therefore it's hard to come by testimonials for the same herbalist from two or more of your acquaintances.

To answer your other question, a majority of these so called herbalists are quacks. Anyone can claim to be a herbalist! The industry is not regulated so don't be surprised to see an advert like the one below:

Njung'e, Wendz and Leona herbal clinic
Tunatibu ugonjwa wa sukari, chumvi, wasisi, kukosa kazi, mapenzi, kutorokwa na bibi, bwana kurudi nyumbani mchana (He he he), fitina kazini etc. etc.

Never go to a herbal doctor just because you saw his advert/program on K.B.C. or heard him talk in some radio show. Do you personally know someone with your ailment he has successfully treated? If not washana naye!

I stick to convectional medicine but I believe herbal medicine actually works. The fear of being treated of one of the many quacks is what keeps me away!

Who are these guys purporting to know your health status by reading your palm with a computer with tents all over in town?

@ elder just seen this- thanks , she is much better now , back to her kawa medicine mambo na quacks tuliwacha.

When undergoing treatment,the key to healing is drug potency; which simply means that the correct amounts are present to bring a desired effect.While herbalist have/ could have some pharmacognosy ( knowledge of natural healing properties) somewhere in there mind,i think they lack an important part of medicine and is how drugs work- Pharmacology. So even if someone gives you 10 roots to boil, the healing properties present in the fluid that you finally swallow could be way below the required amounts- giving you some period of remission, or worse still,it could be an overdose.

My advice would be to stick to one - if you go to herbalists,do not mix it western medicine ( although most of the powders that herbalists give are not purely herbal) and if you do,inform your health care provider.

High blood pressure and diabetes are serious illnesses and should therefore be handled with care and seriousness- again my guess is that it is possible to take herbs to prevent diseases and promote general well being but i would be cautious about going 'full throttle' on herbs o heal esp. with illness that have severe complications and consequences.

That said,i think that there is place for herbal medicine in the society and some countries esp. in Asia have developed and invested in it but in Kenya,i doubt that we have authentic herbal practitioners- i could be wrong.

Some research is already on going in UON and gova plans to integrate this herbal medicine in the regular clinics. But before this is realised, some basic have to be covered e.g the dosing, preparations (dose forms), proof of efficacy, standardization, practioners, regulation etc etc
For now, i take any body who claims on the radio/TV or any other media that they can 'cure' diabetes as quacks. and by the way, they break the law while advertising this...

I think its just the regulators sleeping on the job or they may have been compromised. There are rules governing what and how one can adverstise, but observed more in breach than observance