Phytotherapy

Phytotherapy is the study and use of extracts from natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents. Its roots trace all the way back to the beginning of time, and are still standing strong in much of the world today. The use of medicinal plants to heal and restore balance is phenomenal!

Plants hold truly amazing healing properties and some of the most exciting research is being done around how plants can act to naturally balance hormones. As we learn more about the underlying mechanisms of phytotherapy, science has been able to increase its effectiveness, while maintaining the gentle side effect profile herbal remedies are known for.

When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that the majority of the world’s population today relies on botanical medicine and a plant-based diet for survival. But in the United States, there continues to be so much fear around efficacy, safety, and regulation. People need and deserve more information on this subject. So Embellir takes a closer look at phytotherapy and how it can gently and effectively restore health and hormonal balance.

Traditional phytotherapy is often used as synonym for herbalism and regarded as "alternative medicine" by much of Western medicine, although effects of many substances found in plants have scientific evidence.

It’s not surprising that the study of plants for medicinal purposes led to what we now know as pharmaceuticals. Most of the drugs conventional practitioners prescribe today have roots in the plant world. The difference is that pharmaceutical companies change the chemical structure of the compound not only to specialize and magnify its actions, but also to patent the medication and sell it as their unique product. Since plants found in nature can be used and sold by everyone, phytotherapy is more accessible to the general world. It is also, in most cases, much gentler on our bodies than pharmaceutical medications.

What I like about phytotherapy is that it’s used to prevent health concerns as well as treat them — which to my mind is much more in line with a functional approach to healing. Sadly, conventional medicine has moved into the dangerous habit of treating symptoms as they arise instead of looking at an individual’s whole health picture.  Phytotherapy uses cell signaling to affect our bodies early on in the processes of disease and imbalance, which is ultimately far less disruptive to the system. For this reason the results often last longer. What’s particularly fascinating is the way phytotherapy works in conjunction with the endocrine system.

So many people are afraid to try herbal remedies because they’re uncertain about safety. They think that because a pharmaceutical drug has been studied in a laboratory, regulated by the FDA and prescribed by a doctor, it has to be safe. But the truth is that conventional medicine is responsible for 255,000 deaths per year in the United States, and almost half of those are from adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Don’t get me wrong, modern medicine has saved millions of lives. But there are so many ways to heal our bodies naturally and with fewer side effects, especially when we take a closer look at the plant world. 

So, please do not rule out plant therapy as a way to heal and be whole again.