Overview
Herbal medicine is as old as humankind and has been used universally throughout civilization. Yet, in the West since the Middle Ages it has passed through several cycles of ascendancy and decline. During its recent decline in favor of synthesized chemical medicines, the skills on which botanical medicine were based–the observation of patients hour by hour, day by day–was trivialized as “anecdotal” and disparaged as lacking scientific merit. Diagnosis and treatment became microscopic search and destroy missions, where specific disease agents were sought with specific tests so that they could be attacked by magic bullets of biochemical origin. Today, however, people have become aware of the limited resolving power of a solely analytical and microscopic view. Macroscopic observation–touching, listening, questioning–are once again credible. Botanical Medicine is a book for this era. It describes the main paradigms for the professional administration of herbs based on naked–sense observation, using the model of yin-yang and the five phases from Chinese traditional medicine, the model of the terrain medicines of French phytotherapy, as well as modern adaptations in physician-based European practice.
The book is complete and self-contained. It begins with an explanation of the ideas and models, extends to theoretical and practical application, and concludes with detailed profiles of a large repertory of herbs. The information required for application of each of the main therapeutic approaches is presented in a large section of herbal profiles. Each profile contains information regarding the herb’s botany, chemistry, and history, as well as its applications and indications. The information required for the professional practice of botanical medicine as it is used in Europe, is emphasized in particular, French phytotherapy.
Author Information
Dan Kenner
Editor: Acupuncture Core Therapy
Dan Kenner is a writer and consultant in alternative health care. He has over 40 years of cllinical experience in both East Asian Tradition Medicine and Naturopathy. He holds acupuncture licenses in both the US and Japan, and is among the first Americans to have completed the Meiji College of Acpuncture in Japanese along side native Japanese students. He is co-author of Botanical Medicine a European Professional Perspective (Paradigm Publications 1996).
Yves Requena, MD
Author: Character and Health, Botanical Medicine: A European Professional Perspective, Character and Health.
Dr. Requena completed his medical studies in 1971. His 1974 doctoral thesis on the subject of acupuncture and gastroenterology is one of the pioneering efforts in any language to establish a basis for the use of acupuncture in bio medial settings. He continued his integration efforts with a published study of 1353 cases of hospital-supervised smoking withdrawal. He teaches acupuncture at the Medical School of Marseille and focuses research there on the relationship of traditional European essential oils and acupuncture.
In addition to his professional publications his French-language working include works for the general public on qi gong and health. Dr. Requena continues to teach both acupuncture and qi gong internationally.
Contents
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Most of the information on European herbalism, from which most English sources are derived, lacks a professional perspective, that is, a diagnostic framework from which therapeutic decisions can be made.
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