21ME07 - Clinical Applications for Using 13 Heroic and Potentially Toxic Herbs

Speaker: Donald Yance, RH (AHG). Poisonous plants, when used in the proper, prescribed doses, can act as potent therapeutic agents. Virtually any substance can be harmful at high enough concentrations, and it is thought that if the dose is low enough, even a highly toxic substance will cease to cause a harmful effect. The toxic potency of a chemical is thus ultimately defined by the dose (the amount) of the chemical that will produce a specific response in a specific biological system. "In all of these debates, the key point that is not often understood is that it's the dose that makes the poison," says Dr. Carl Winter, an expert in toxicology at the University of California, Davis. "The tendency is to exaggerate toxicity. It's a slippery slope where to draw the line on what represents a legitimate concern and what restrictions should apply."  I often combine medicinal plants with powerful actions, such as Digitalis and Belladonna, with those with very gentle action, such as chamomile, lemon balm and many adaptogenic plants. "Gentle action", when referring to herbs such as chamomile does not mean they are more or less ineffective, but rather they are plants that either don't produce instant and powerful effects and/or they can be consumed in higher doses without any adverse effects. When I combine powerful herbs with gentle herbs I am looking for the powerful herbs to push a bit in a specific direction while the gentle tonic-like herbs provide the overall therapeutic effect, always in concert with the life-force of the body, lending a helping hand rather than doing all the lifting.

Related product: The PowerPoint for this recording is available here:2021 Medicines from the Earth Herb Symposium: Conference Book Download (PDF)