In Traditional Chinese medicine, herbs were classified by their effects on the whole person — the mind, body, spirit, emotions and essence. In the West we have been taught to think of ourselves only in the physical sense and we approach medicine in the same way. However, a person is existing on many levels simultaneously — the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional planes — and if we are to truly treat disease, illness and imbalance, all of these levels must be considered. This is one of the biggest failings of modern invasive, pharmaceutically-based medicine — to not consider the whole person.
However, this is the incredible beauty of herbal medicine… Although we may not always be aware or sensitive enough to realize it, all herbs work on every level of our being — mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Herbs are holistic remedies for healing and thus are able to truly treat the root cause of illness, which is frequently not purely physical.
Below, you will find a list of 10 of the most powerful herbs from both Eastern and Western medicine that have been discovered and used over thousands of years in ancient, holistic medical traditions that modern science is now verifying as incredibly wise, accurate and effective.