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We often wonder, "What did our ancestors do, without the medical advantages of today, when they got ill?" How did they manage to get well and thrive without the medicine and advanced procedures we take for granted?
It's true that many of us have been healed or cured by various advanced procedures and treatments which were not available just a few years past. Many suffering people are given hope today, who would have been living with a death sentence in the not too distant past and new discoveries are being made every single day. Yet, all these new advances and discoveries don't take away the fact that we still have access to a vast store of knowledge about the miracle healing powers of herbs. Throughout history, every known plant has been used for medicine or food. People created and tried their own remedies and if a remedy didn't work, they'd try another one, along with prayer. Dioscorides, an ancient Greek physician, wrote the famous De Materia Medica, which detailed over six hundred medicinal herbs. His work became the foundation for Western herbalists throughout medieval Europe. Much of this knowledge was lost during the Dark Ages. Many peasants and traveling monks kept much valuable knowledge alive through word of mouth. As the monks refined their medical skills through the Dark Ages, they began to grow herbs which were used for nearly all aspects of human life. Through the centuries medicine and herbalism went separate ways and herbal tradition continued as folk remedies. Herbs were popular with physicians and were available to average people through apothecaries and grocers. The market soon became clogged with cure-all tonics, some of which were good, but too many were toxic. During this time, scientific technology and medical therapeutics advanced rapidly toward locating and isolating chemicals to produce appropriate effects. Morphine, quinine, and strychnine became the miracle drugs of the age. As pharmaceuticals increased, herbal medicine declined but still remained the medicine of choice for people in the country. Medical licensing wasn't required to practice surgery, pharmacy and medicine until 1886, and then ordinary people could no longer purchase herbals on their own. Regardless, people still want to take part in their own treatment and a greater return to natural remedies has been evident for decades. Science has also begun to do more research into the validity of herbs and the results are amazing. Herbs really do work!
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