A 'study' by a team from Peninsula Medical School has found that herbal medicine doesn't work! They have based this opinion on the only 3 randomized clinical trials that they could find where combinations of herbs were used and have stated that most many herbs are 'misunderstood' by herbal practitioners.

Hmmm, I have a BSc degree in herbal medicine, much of which consisted of learning about the actions and constituents of plants and also drug-herb and herb-herb interactions, in addition to gaining 500 hours of supervised clinical practice with experienced herbal practitioners.

Since then I have gained over 5 years experience as an individual practitioner, although I feel that I still have a lot to learn about herbal medicine. I continually update my knowledge by reading about other people's experiences, looking at the latest research on herbal medicine and attending seminars and workshops whenever possible.

If there are only 3 randomized double blind clinical trials on polypharmacy in herbal medicine, it doesn't mean that herbalists don't know about herbs or that they don't work. There are many ways to assess the efficacy of a treatment, it is just a shame that there isn't more interest and money going into this type of research in herbal medicine. Am I being cynical or is it because there isn't a lot of money to be made by doing it?

In the meantime, my friend and colleague, Medical Herbalist and Director of Research for the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, Ally Broughton MNIMH has written a reply to this paper which has been published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal Online.

Here is the original article: http://pmj.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/83/984/633