Can Herbal Medicine Really Have an Impact on Your Health?

You may have heard of herbal medicine, but can a few plants really have an impact on your wellness? We spoke to complementary wellness expert O.C. Madu to find out just what herbal medicine is, and which herbs really have a medical effect.

 

1. Where Does Herbal Medicine Come From? According to Madu, ‘Plants have been used for medicinal purposes long before recorded history, for example ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal plant uses. Indigenous cultures in Africa and America used herbs in their healing rituals, while others, developed traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine in which herbal therapies were used systematically. Scientists found that people in different parts of the globe tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purpose. In the early 19th century, when methods of chemical analysis first became available, scientists began extracting and modifying the active ingredients from plants. Many modern pharmaceuticals have been modelled on or derived from chemicals found in plants. An example is the heart medication digoxin derived from foxglove.’

 

2. Where Is Herbal Medicine Still Going Strong Today? ‘Recently, the World Health Organisation estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some aspect of their primary health care,’ Madu details. ‘No wonder [Nigeria’s] current Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, proposed that traditional medicines should be incorporated into the current medical curriculum. The article further stated that medical practitioners ought to equip themselves with expert knowledge of traditional medicines.’

 

3. What Issues Can Herbal Medicines Help to Treat? Madu points out, ‘Recipes for the treatment of common ailments which are reported almost on daily basis include hypertension, dysentery, low sperm count and weak erections, coated tongue, piles, menstrual disorders, leucorrhoea and fevers.’

 

4. Why Are More People Becoming Interested in Herbal Medicine? Madu asserts, ‘Interest in medicinal plant as a re emerging health aid has been fuelled by the rising costs of prescription drugs in the maintenance of personal health and wellbeing and the bio-prospecting of new plant derived drugs. Based on current research and financial investments, medicinal plants will, seemingly, continue to play an important role as a health aid. Modern medicine complements traditional practices as is obtainable in industrialised societies e.g. China and India. In these societies, herbal remedies have become more popular in the treatment of minor ailments and also, account of the increasing costs of personal health maintenance. Indeed, the market and public demand have been so great, that there is a great risk that many medicinal plants today face either extinction or loss of genetic diversity.’

 

5. Which Specific Herbs Can Help with Health Concerns? ‘These natural herbs are very effective in boosting the resistance to infections, healing the allergies, raising and renewing the body vitality,’ Madu comments.

• Garlic: Also known as allium sativum, poor man’s Treacle, Bawang Bauarrg and monocot pernial, garlic is readily available and inexpensive. Moreover, Madu adds, ‘Garlic may be the first line of defence in treating high blood pressure and dealing with common skin and fungal infections.’


• Ginger: This spice also goes by many names, including zingber officinale luyang Dilaw and perennial monocot reed. Madu explains, ‘Ginger combines well with many herbs improving taste and potency. Ginger speeds up the delivery of healthy plant chemicals into the bloodstream while adding a spicy, hot zest to your favourite dishes.’


• Basil: Madu notes, ‘Indian Basil has been used for thousands of years in the traditional medicine of India, Ayurveda, known to Hindus as Tulsi.’


• Myrrh: The wise men must have given myrrh to the baby Jesus for a reason – to look after his health and wellbeing! ‘Myrrh was used in religious rituals in ancient Egypt,’ says Madu. ‘Myrrh’s antifungal, antiseptic and astringent [properties] helps the treatment of infections.’

Categories: ginger, health aid, herbal, herbal medicine, herbal medicines, history, madu, medicinal plant, medicinal plants, personal health, traditional medicines

The History of Sex: 4 Discoveries that Changed Everthing

We’ve always been interested in sexual health. Way back in Ancient Rome and Greece, the most esteemed thinkers always had sex on the brain and we’ve never really shaken that habit. Still, back then these thinkers didn’t really know the inner workings of the birds and the bees, nor did they understand the role sex plays in your wellbeing. In the 1^st Century AD, for example, Roman writer Pliny warned that intercourse would taint lactating women’s breast milk. Luckily, we’ve come a long way since then, thanks to five very important discoveries about sex.

 

1. Sperm under the microscope: In 1677, you might think Anton von Leeuwenhoek was pretty weird for taking a gander at his own semen sample in a homemade microscope – especially as von Leeuwenhoek got into microscopes on a lark as a hobby from his day job as a draper, or cloth salesman. However, this observation revealed human spermatozoa for the first time in history, with Leeuwenhoek spying ‘a multitude of live animalcules more than a million, having the size of a grain of sand,’ as he wrote to London’s Royal Society in November 1677. That said, Cristen Conger, wellness writer and co-host of the popular Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast, notes that although this was a breakthrough moment in sexual health history, ‘it would still take a while to get the record straight about how sperm contribute to the baby-making process. Von Leeuwenhoek’s contemporaries, in fact, imagined each sperm contained a tiny person, wishing and hoping to be delivered safely to a female womb.’

 

2. The egg’s time to shine: As female eggs aren’t as observable as male semen, it wasn’t until 150 years after Anton Von Leeuwenhoek saw sperm that Prussian-Estonian embryologist Dr. Karl Ernst von Baer viewed the human ovum. ‘von Baer’s observations of dog embryos led him to correctly outline the development of the human egg and explain the ovum’s cross-mammalian reproductive role in his landmark 1827 paper entitled “On the Genesis of the Ovum of Mammals and of Man”,’ Conger explains. ‘Ironically, this egg pioneer still dismissed sperm as useless in fertilization, exemplifying the simmering uncertainty over how exactly the ovum and those eel-tailed swimmers interact.’

 

3. Two become one: Conger details, ‘When reproductive fertilisation piqued the interest of German scientist Wilhelm August Oscar Hertwig in the early 1870s, the field was dominated by two conflicting – and ultimately incorrect – theories. One camp posited that the mechanical vibrations of so many wiggling sperm around an egg triggered embryonic development, like a clap light switching on in response to the auditory transmission. The other predominating view maintained that sperm deposit a chemical compound into the egg, providing the crucial ingredient to kick-start the process.’ However, Hertwig disproved his academic cohorts when, in 1872, he closely observed fertilisation in a transparent species of sea urchin and witnessed the fusion of sperm and egg. Moreover, he discovered that the process isn’t a group effort by all the sperm involved in a single ejaculate; it only requires a single sperm to find its way inside the egg.

 

4. The menstrual cycle map: ‘Before the late 1920s, doctors had modelled women’s fertility on the mammalian oestrous cycle, in which females go into heat, since the role of hormones was unknown at the time,’ says Conger. ‘In some species, if the cyclical window of fertility doesn’t result in pregnancy, endometrial lining will shed, similar to having a period. By that logic, scientists presumed that menstruation and ovulation were likewise co-dependent, or that ovulation merely happened spontaneously.’ However, in 1927 and 1928, the research team of Edgar Allen and Edward A. Doisy isolated and identified the roles of the hormones progesterone and oestrogen, respectively, enabling the scientists to map out the menstrual cycle as well as ovulation.

Categories: anton von, conger, history, leeuwenhoek, menstrual cycle, nbsp, sexual health, sperm, von baer, von leeuwenhoek

How Has Birth Control Developed Over The Years?

Sex comes with the consideration of contraception, and while it may seem like it’s a burden, it’s surprising how far its developed in just the last century. And with that, there’s even more innovations to come. From the early days of makeshift condoms and crocodile dung to the dry orgasm pill, contraceptives have seen many developments and guises. In the 1950s, doctors knew that a few medications, usually taken from high blood pressure and schizophrenia, could make male patients sterile. But in 2006, researchers finally realised why – both of these medications freeze the muscle contractions that propel sperm through the reproductive tract. The result is the same orgasm, simply without the sperm. Researchers are looking into ways to turn this into a marketable pill, but its still in the early stages. On the topic of male drugs, RISUG is one of the most promising male contraceptives which is currently in development. It simply requires one injection to the vas deferens, which is the tube that carries the sperm from the testes to the urethra. The chemical compound that partially blocks the tube but any sperm that makes it past the blockade is damaged, so that it is unable to fertilise the egg. In fact, just one application of this can last up to ten years.

Phthalates are chemicals which are added to plastic to make it more flexible when it’s being used in products, showing up in everything from shampoo bottles to kids toys. They’re actually a major health concern despite their prevalence, with increasing evidence that they could affect puberty and the human reproductive system. The Population Council are looking to build on this though by changing testosterone levels and lowering sperm counts with them, and in doing so creating a new male birth control method. Men are the future of contraceptives, with plenty of development going into finding new effective drugs and treatments. One possible option being researched at the moment is finding a chemical that stops the sperm from maturing, so that they can’t fertilise eggs. It’s thought to be ten or more years away from being ready, but Adjudin could well be the answer – it would probably be in a patch or implant form, rather than a pill.

Women haven’t been forgotten entirely though. In the future, women may well be able to combine normal birth control with a factor that helps them to stay fertile for longer. This could well mean pushing the menopause back by decades. Each month, dozens of eggs begin to grow in the ovaries of a woman, and usually one fully matures where the others simply die. Fertility expert Dr Roger Gosden believes that a career pill could stop this waste and leave more eggs available as a woman reaches her 30s and 40s. The sponge was also popular among Jewish communities, and was just that – a dried piece of sea sponge wrapped in silk and with a string attached for removal. Women often soaked it in lemon juice or vinegar to kill off sperm. But sometimes the best methods are those which have been around the longest. Originally made out of animal guts or linen, condoms have been a long-lasting contraceptive that has been used for centuries thanks to its reliability and effectiveness. The remains of real condoms, dating back to the 1600s, have been found in the UK; artistic representations have even been found in Egyptian drawings that date back more than 3000 years.

Categories: Birth Control, contraception, contraceptives, history, male, Pill, Sex, sperm, years

Discovering a Family Member"s Lost Past

We speak to them almost every day, yet our family members can often harbour secrets from their past that we now nothing about. Margot Adler found this when she discovered that her cousin, now 88 years old, had hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam. It wasn’t until Margot had been visiting the nearby monument of Anne Frank’s house that her cousin disclosed that she had been through a similar ordeal when she was young. When Adler asked more questions, she discovered that her cousin had lived an entire life that she was unaware of.

Family relationships can be strengthened by learning more about a person’s background, in the same way that we tend to make an effort to learn about people when we build friendships. Because we are born into our families, we assume that we know all there is to know about the people around us. However, these are still people that we need to make an effort with and, with regards to the older generations, they can offer stories that will help you to learn about your own heritage. Often we find that we make more of an effort with the people outside of our families, as these are people we are trying to bond with – but surely that effort is equally worthwhile within the home?

You could improve the relationships in your home by taking a small amount of time our of your week to chat to your family members – pictures and old diary entries are a great motivator for conversation, and they can spark memories. Much like Adler and her cousin, they can help you relate more to your family, extended and otherwise, and help you to learn things about your past and family history.

Categories: Family, history, Relationships