Often, MD’s tell patients to not take herbs. I can understand their concern for their patients, but if a patient is seeing me and diagnosed by me as needing herbs, I still recommend them. Most MD’s have little to no knowledge regarding herbs.
Doctors usually:
1) Don’t have any herbal knowledge at all; after all, their MD degree is in Biomedicine.
2) Don’t prescribe herbs to patients and see the effect of herbs on them; again, this is reflected in their stuideis. Doctors also are not specialists in general on pharmacology.
3) Don’t have a license to prescribe or dispense herbs; their license is to do surgery, provide drugs, or other medical procedures.
4) Don’t use them for themselves; Because they believe strictly in the paradigm of “science”, many doctors are reluctant to use herbs on themselves as they view it as “unscientific”.
5) Go by hearsay and say herbs can cause kidney damage, etc. My retort is which ones? There are over 2000 Materia Medica substances used in Chinese Medicine…
Many drugs can cause Liver and Kidney failure when taken long term or when taken with other drugs, but I wouldn’t say all drugs do. In fact, so many beloved celebrities have been victims of medicinal drugs – just look at Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith and Corey Haim.
So the next time an MD talks about herbs, find out their qualifications about herbs and their experience with herbs. They may not be more qualified to tell you about herbs than your own grandmother. If they are found lacking, then its better to listen to your acupuncturist/herbalist.
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