I use them because as long as one knows what they are doing and uses good high quality herbs in the right form (organic tinctures), I have never seen them fail.
They are way less toxic and invasive than most drugs or medical treatments. They treat the cause and not the symptom that the doctor often calls the disease. They go to the root cause & that cause may be causing several (diseases) or symptoms and this is why many herbs help so many seemingly diverse diseases.
Taking garlic as an example compared to antibiotics.
First unlike antibiotics which are for bacterial infections, garlic (and other things like organic olive leaf tincture, grapefruit seed extract and oil of oregano) is good on bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoan infections, so it is more full spectrum.
Unlike prescription antibiotics, it kills 100% of the bacteria (etc). Antibiotics only kill about 99% of them and the remaining 1% of bacteria virus etc become super viruses or super bacteria and these become resistant to antibiotics making it harder or impossible to kill some strains.
Using these antibiotics in such large numbers in filthy feedlots on animals to minimize cost and clean up filthy conditions which cause rampant disease in the animals and meat products, these also contribute to the growth of these super-viruses. If we keep going this way, one day we may be left with no medical antibiotics that work on these new resistant and mutated bacteria that came about by surviving the antibiotic (that 1% not killed).
Also unlike medical antibiotics, garlic is germ specific. It only kills the bad bacteria leaving the good ones alone. Because medical antibiotics kill the healthy bacteria in the gut or vagina, this leads to things like yeast infections or diarrhea. It may take a long time to replenish these so while it is helping it is also hurting but something like garlic gives one stamina and energy and other benefits in addition to killing antigens and pathogens.
They are safer and though sometimes slower more effective in the long run. Because they are organic substances (natural) they work better than the inorganic drugs which the body struggles to deal with.
One needs to be sure they are potent herbs though by making sure the herbs are organically grown as these and wildcrafted herbs )picked form the wilds away from highways) are 7-10 times higher in the pytochemicals that cure and prevent disease.
Also most people take herbs in capsule form which is the least or even non-effective. They are not absorbed well in this form and sometimes the herbs are burnt in the powdering process. One wants instead to take herbs in the form of herbal tinctures as the alcohol extracts so many of the potent and healthy phytochemicals that cure and prevent disease. Next best are teas made with distilled water as it is empty and absorbs more phytonutrients. But the alcohol extracts some things water can't but both are better than capsules.
The best is making your own herbal products.one can save up to 90% making them very inexpensive as well as far more effective than most things on the market as manufacturers skimp to save money doing things like buying herbs from third world countries where toxic chemicals and methods are used to save money as workers are so cheap, not letting the tincture sit long enough, using to few herbs to- menstrum (alcohol).
One should not look on herbs and alternative medicine the same way as drugs as in give me a pill to fix me after I lived a decadent lifestyle drinking, smoking, drugs, eating junk and low nutrition food, not exercising, hating etc. The real solution is to stop doing the things that hurt you and start doing new healthy thins to help you in a comprehensive health building program.
People take an herb often poor quality and when it does not work then blame alternative health when in truth they are harming themselves faster than herbs can fix them, continuing to eat badly etc and not doing enough alternative health. One goes to a doctor with the attitude doctor heal me but with alternative health, one hopefully starts taking responsibility for their illness realizing they helped create it and thus can fixed it by changing things like their habits, diet, environment and thinking.
This chart should be helpful for you to include with your paper and shows the difference between alternative healing and medical intervention.
http://healingtools.tripod.com/nvm.html
One must realize that scientists are not the the only ones practicing science. We are when we practice observation of what works and does not work with ourselves and others, when we run into class action lawsuits of people harmed using medical drugs or see how they might have affected us in the past and when we realize that hundreds of thousands die every year from drugs and medical errors and only a few from herbs generally by those who did not know what they were doing.
I was reading a book by Victoria Boutenko last night who cured her and her family from several serious and even incurable diseases with alternative health and a 100% raw vegan diet and she said in her book "green for life" that observation constitutes the foundation of every science" and that we all have "the right to make observations and draw our own conclusions" including testing our own hypotheses on ourselves and loved ones asking our help with some illness and then observe the results.
No scientific data can substitute for our own experience. She gives the example of a child told not to touch a hot stove, the warning means little until the child actually touches the stove and learns from the observation of experience what the consequences are. Only through observation can "we learn to connect consequences with causes, to become aware of what to expect" If we overeat late at night, we can expect not to feel fresh in the AM and the advantage of this awareness helps "us achieve the goals we desire through conscious actions" Instead of constantly and blindly following the advise of "experts" or somebody "who knows better"
Boutenko goes on to say that as we try and search for new answers, we gain from our personal experiences.. We feel confident then when we need to make critical decisions. "If we only have a compilation of someone else's instructions, the best we can hope for is to hope and pray that the authors of such instructions were efficient in acquiring their knowledge and honest in their intentions. In other words we hope that someone else cares for us more than we care for our own selves" (page 3 green for life)
She goes on to say when we let others observe and reason for us"... even if such things do not make sense to us...when we submit to other's authority, we give our power away."
It is our birthright to observe and do what we feel is best for us as nooe cares as much for our health as we do. She goes on to say that she believes "our own conscious observations are a thousand times more important than any rigid scientif cliam," and talks of how cut off from scientist the average person is as one must often pay hundreds of dollars to read their research which is all in technical terms hard for the average person to understand and how scientists are cut off from us.
Few scientist understand all the branches sticking within their small area.She talks of how when such a vacuum is created, people seek their own knowledge via books on health that often contradict each other. She recommends those following in her healing footsteps, try a raw food vegan diet for 2-4 weeks and see how they feel..in other words observe and do their own scientific study on what helped them/effects or lack of effects.
For example, I went from diabetes recently to normal reading by changing diet and lifestyle and I observed. I became a vegan but sometime slipped. I noticed when I juice fasted, my blood sugar fell to almost normal readings and my blood pressure dropped 20 points, even if eating fruit juice which my doctor and others say to avoid. I observed when fasting, it did not negatively affect my blood sugar to drink fruit juices in moderate amounts. I was told by doctor to eat no fruits, something my gut did not agree with.
I noticed if I ate meat or cheese (as my doctor recommended), I feel sluggish, crappy and my blood sugar rose to dangerous levels. This observation taught me what was harmful to me and the blood sugarand what helped as books had a lot of conflicting diets for diabetics. I read books and heard testimonies on others curing themselves by going vegan or raw and then I tried it and observed. I ignored the dietitian's advice and went on my own plan born of research and the testimonies of others and saw it working. I trusted my gut and reasoning more than I trusted my doctor and the trained dietitian being a smart woman. what they said did not ring through, I was motivated as I did not want to get sick and I researched and then tested things out and as usually with alternative health/diet, I got good results..astounding really considering really my high blood sugar readings.
Several times in my life, I have found had I listened to doctors or "experts" I would still be sick or have had worst results. I would be on some drug now the rest of my life if I blindly trusted doctors.
I watched my brother cure himself with gerd that drugs did not help with simple cabbage juice for 4 or 5 weeks and noticed it had not returned in a decade and thus I feel safe recommending others try it with the same problem. If it works for them, they will pass the knowledge on to others in need.
I observed how some of the drugs doctors gave me caused severe harm or the things they did to hurt my mother and the errors at doctors hands. I also observe things they do well like diagnosing