Herbal Medicine Schools

Have you been to the doctor lately and walked out with a prescription or prescriptions with names you can not pronounce or even begin to spell? Ever wonder what was really in those prescriptions you have taken over the years? Almost every single prescription available from your pharmacist today is derived from some sort of chemical compound. Different chemicals are sliced and diced in thousands of labs across the country in the hopes of finding the next cancer, diabetes, heart, kidney, or erectile deficiency drug that will make billions of dollars for the sponsoring pharmaceutical company.

While many drugs on the market today are extremely effective, I wonder why there are so many different ones for the same type of diseases. When our founding fathers came to this country almost all medicines were of the herbal variety. Native Indian medicine was totally based on herbal medicine. There has been resurgence among people who strive to get away from the chemical influences on our lives to learn more about natural methods of healing and there are herbal medicine schools available to make that information better known.

There are a few different types of herbal medicine schools. Here in the United States, herbal medicine refers to treatment using North American or European plants. Traditional Chinese medicine uses treatments made from Chinese or Asian plants and Ayurvedic treatments refer to treatments made from plants native to India. The term herb means a seed plant whose stem dies annually. However traditional herbal practitioners do not just use “herbs”. They actually use plants like mushrooms, tree bark, roots or anything that falls in any plant phyla. In fact, the term phytopharmaceutical refers to any treatments made from plant materials.

There currently are no national bodies that offer licensing or certification to schools offering coursework in herbal medicine. Although you will not find any culture in history that does not have a history of the use of herbal medicine in its past, you will not be able to find an actual two or four year degree that will allow you to hang your shingle out as a doctor of herbal medicine. There are areas of accepted study called ethnobotany, a branch of anthropology that studies the various ways herbal medicine is and was used in various cultures. Ethnobotany over the years has classified many medicinal herbs.

There are several aspects you will need to learn as you become a trained herbalist. In the United States you must be licensed to practice medicine. The practice of medicine is defined as the diagnosis and prescription with the focus being the treatment of injury or disease. There are no licensing proscriptions on teaching people how to take better care of yourself.

Here are some steps to becoming a successful herbalist. You will need to learn the proper growing and harvesting of herbs. A second step is the proper wildcrafting or picking of herbs. This involves habitat knowledge and the proper picking to maintain a crop over time. A third step is the actual manufacturing of herbal products in a usable form. Finally there is learning how to properly educate others in the use of herbal therapy and taking better care of themselves.

There is an herbal medicine school located outside of Asheville, North Carolina called the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. Their tradition is based in roots herbalism. This means that you literally get to the roots of the plants by getting your hands dirty. They pride themselves on not holding indoor classes unless there are instances of insect problems or inclement weather. Using your various senses of sight, smell and touch are keys to being a successful herbalist. They allow you to be more in tune with nature and use a holistic approach to show you how plants are a vital part of our lives and how they can help us live a more environmentally conscious life.

The Chestnut School’s philosophy is to use spirituality and a holistic approach to gain useful knowledge through scientific exploration and use the knowledge our ancestors used daily to have a guiding philosophy for daily living. Their approach is hands on and relies on experiential learning to make for lasting impressions. You can get in touch with such herbal medicine schools by going on the web to www.chestnutherbs.com.

More information about natural medicine schools can be found by accessing the above link. It's just another informative hub that you should definitely consider if you are serious about these things.

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