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Through out recorded history, people of various cultures have relied on what Western medical practitioners today call alternative medicine. The term alternative medicine covers a broad range of healing philosophies, approaches, and therapies. It generally describes those treatments and health care practices that are outside mainstream Western health care. People use these treatments and therapies in a variety of different ways. The most common form of alternative medicine that is the most widely used is herbal medicines. Herbs have been used for thousands of years through out the world. There are records of the Egyptians using them in 1 600 BC, and scriptures that date back to the Yin dynasty in 1 500 BC (3). The Old Testament also has many references to herbal medicines. These natural remedies can be found in millions of homes in the US and Canada today. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4 billion people, 80 percent of the world population, presently use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care (2). There are several benefits to and reasons why people have turned to herbal medicines, different methods in which to use them, the most popular herbs taken for specific problems, and (like with all medicines) cautions you should remember.
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