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I'm Ian, your host and my Check out our recipes in the cooking section. They all include herbs in different ways and are categorised by herb and under the headings of chicken, red meat, seafood, vegetarian and vegan. Get tips on growing different culinary herbs and learn a little about the history and folklore surrounding them. Herbs can improve your lifestyle in a number of ways.
Firstly, by using herbs, particularly fresh herbs, in you everyday cuisine you improve the flavour of your food. Secondly, by using herbs and herbal extracts in the form of herbal supplements you magnify the therapeutic benefits of herbs many times. A word of warning, however; different herbs have different therapeutic effects on the body and have been AND are being used effectively to address specific health problems. Disregard of recommended dosages and ignorance of interactions with other medication can have dangerous consequences. For example, people with chronic illnesses, pregnant women and nursing mothers need to be aware of which herbs, herbal supplements and, indeed, medicines in general, to steer clear of. Your physician may be able to advise; a qualified herbalist or an ND, a doctor of naturopathy, will certainly be able to give you good advice, because that is their training. It is with this in mind that we have prepared our herbal supplement guide, in which we have tried to provide current, and traditional, wisdoms on the use of medicinal herbs to address specific health issues in a measured, non-alarmist and non-sensationalised manner. I've called this site the herb spiral because I regard the herb spiral as a neat way of creating an herb garden in a small space. Of course some herbs have to be kept separate from the central herb garden and are, therefore, not suitable to grow this way, but I find for most it works well. It's all explained in the growing section of the site. The herbs shown in the spiral are all culinary herbs. (There's not a lot of point in growing your own medicinal herbs as the extraction of the active agents would be more trouble than it is worth). Of course, culinary herbs have their own health benefits, not least of all brought about by the physical exertion and sheer enjoyment drived from growing and harvesting them! Click here to view our herb spiral and see how we made it.. I hope you can find your way around the site ok. I've just gone for a "wander" around myself and found old pages which I wrote about two years ago and had forgotten all about. There's always a "home" button should you get lost to get you back here. I'd really love to hear from you. I know I'm getting lots of visitors - over 600 a day, but that doesn't mean much to me unless I have some feedback. If you like this site you could always bookmark it |
Using Herbs for your Health Most of us have been conditioned into regarding personal health care as being a matter of waiting until we have a problem and then “going to the doctor” to get it fixed. But then, why would you go to the doctor if you weren't sick? Why indeed? I have been practice manager of a medical practice and am well aware also of doctors' frustration at patients presenting to them with a “shopping list” of ailments. They haven't got time for that. After all, they need to see 6, 8, 10 patients an hour to make a decent living.  And therein lies the fundamental difference between Western and Eastern, or modern and traditional, or natural, approaches to health care. The approach of people who practice natural medicine is to keep people healthy through embracing a good lifestyle and nutrition. Exercise should certainly be incorporated into one's daily routine and excesses should be avoided. Fortunately, today more people than ever before are questioning the cycle of diagnosis and prescription that conventional physicians practice, and are taking increasing responsibility for maintaining their own health and wellbeing. This involves pre-empting the onset of age-related diseases and discomforts by tapping into the age-old wisdoms of our forefathers.
While it would be nice to have a garden full, all year round, of medicinal herbs, so that you could snip off what you required, a snip of Black Cohosh for your menopause symptoms, maybe throw in some Wild Yam and Red Clover; mix up some Saw Palmetto, Pygeum or Nettle for hubby's prostate, Cascara Sagrada to keep the bowels moving, or a little Hoodia Gordonii to curb the appetite, and so on…let's face it that's not going to happen! I suspect the more practical way to consume herbs, apart from culinary herbs of course, is in the form of herbal supplements, which are readily available on the market. Some manufacturers of herbal products also claim that their products have “standardised” quantities the “active” ingredient of the herb. They will insist that that it is very important for consumers to know what they are getting in a quantifiable way.
In these cases scientists have been able to identify and extract the active ingredient of the plant and produce it in concentrated (and patentable) form. Very good. But is that necessarily a good idea? The other thought is that the whole herb should be consumed, whether it be the whole plant, leaf, stem or root, or in the form of an herbal supplement, because otherwise you could be missing out on some of the other healthy ingredients in the original plant. Also, once you start separating ingredient extracts you are then mimicking what the pharmaceutical drug industry – but without all the monitoring, research and testing that is mandatory before a synthetic drug is allowed on the market. It is also a good idea to learn which herbs have been, and are being, used to address specific health issues or to boost your energy, provide anti-oxidants to slow ageing, stimulate your sex drive, help your memory, relieve your joint pain; there is no end to the list.
The Herb Spiral tries to provide that some of that perspective. My database so far covers over a hundred of the most commonly used medicinal herbs. I have extracted from our source data what I hope are non-technical readable notes on each herb with reference to additional information, articles and news comments for those of you who may seek to learn more. For the more commonly used herbs I list some products from trusted manufacturers. I also love hearing from our visitors, so, if you have a spare minute, I really would love to hear what you think of the site by emailing me with your thoughts (don't change the default subject line or your comments will be deleted). |
Growing herbs in an herb spiral 
 Top Ten Herbs So what are the most popular herbs used in herbal medicine? Here are the top ten, in terms of most searched for, on the web
Herbs for Health Issues Which herbs are best for which health problems? Some herbs offer specific protection against the health issues listed below. Mouse over the items that interest you and get an idea of which herbs or herbal extracts to expect in your supplements. This gives you only a thumbnail sketch however and you are encouraged to read further about the herbs and their claimed benefits.
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passion is herbs, 
In many cases the medicine practiced by our forefathers has been the precursor of pharmaceutical medicine. This includes herbal medicine and phytotherapy, which is prevalent in Chinese, Ayurvedic (Indian), and Greek medicine. Many synthetic medicines such as quinine and aspirin, commonly used in modern medicine, had their roots in traditional medicine. Furthermore, morphine, which is an active element of the opium plant atrophine comes from belladonna leaves and the heart drug digitoxin from leaves of the foxglove plant. 
