by Andres Vergara, L.Ac., M.Ac. and Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH Herbs are a powerful and natural form of medicine that has distinct advantages over other medicines such as pharmaceuticals, in part because of their long and well-established tradition of use and also because they are more akin to foods and therefore easily assimilatable by our systems. As herbs become more popular and available in raw and in prepared forms, an issue that is being raised more is the quality of the herbs being Continue Reading
Herbal Medicine in the Marshal Islands
Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH For many people, the Marshall Islands are the site of US nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s and of famous World War II battles. For me, it is also my birth place, although, I am not Marshallese in ethnicity. In 2011, my husband and I were studying in Chengdu, China. We choose to take a side trip to the Marshall Islands from China, my first trip back to the Marshall Islands since I was two years old, figuring it would be shorter and easier trip. It is Continue Reading
Interview with an Amazonian Shaman
Andres Vergara, L.Ac., M.Ac., Michele Collins RH (AHG) MPH While I was in Colombia in 2010, my aunt told me about a Colombian Shaman from the Amazon rainforests who was a powerful healer and had great knowledge of Amazonian plants. She said he lived in Bogota and that he was teaching and providing treatments. His treatment consisted of using songs and intention, as well as herbs to treat a variety of health conditions. She spoke very highly of him and I became curious to get to know more about Continue Reading
United Plant Savers: How You Can Help Preserve Medicinal Plants
http:// Andres Vergara, M.Ac., L.Ac. and Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH Thank you to everyone who tuned in Holistic Healing with Herbs and Chinese Medicine on Tuesday, March 5th for our interview with Susan Leopold, the executive director of United Plant Savers, an excellent organization whose mission is to protect native medicinal plants and their native habitat in the United States and Canada. We wanted to post additional information about United Plant Savers for you. You can click Continue Reading
The Importance of Medicinal Plant Preservation
Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH and Andres Vergara, L.Ac., M.Ac. Herbs and plants are an amazing natural resource, the health and abundance of which is crucial to the practice of herbal medicine. As herbalists, one of the things we both love about what we do is working directly with plants, whether it is putting herbs together in a formula or even more importantly, learning about and from them in their natural habitat through one-on-one contact and observation. On the March 5th episode of Continue Reading