Alex Laird Talks Skin

Our first guest speaker of 2021 Alex Laird

Our students derive a lot of benefit from guest speakers which we invite in from many different areas of herbal medicine. We’re very grateful for these guest speakers in sharing their expertise with our students, as it enables them to experience the wide range of roles in herbal medicine when they are exposed to different aspects of earning a living as a herbalist, and of treating patients in specialist areas.

Alex was originally booked to speak at our Easter school in 2020, but due to lockdown she wasn’t able to join us. We therefore added her into the beginning of our new academic year beginning in September 2021. Alex came to the school’s clinic in Minehead where the students gathered to listen to her presentation, not only on how to treat skin conditions with herbal medicine, but also on the whole energetics idea of what skin means as a boundary, and what other boundaries we must be aware of in our lives and in our patients lives when we are aiming towards health both physically and emotionally.

Alex Laird is the inspiration behind a London-based charity Living Medicine which focuses on community health education, http://livingmedicine.org/ This community project which aims to encourage people to eat more healthily and to look after their health, and incorporate plants into their diet.

Alex is also the pioneer of a herbal clinic embedded within an NH hospital dermatology department. She was invited to trial herbal clinic at Whipp’s Cross hospital some years ago, where she and colleagues train student herbalists to assess, diagnose and treat skin conditions. She has a long and effective track record in treating skin conditions, and she very generously agreed to share her knowledge with our students as a guest speaker.

What is an FCE?

Our first lot of students are fast coming up to their Final Clinical Exam [FCE] after 6 years of study. All of our students will have to sit this exam to be able to receive their Advanced Diploma and join a professional body like the National Institute of Medical Herbalists [NIMH] or the College of Practising Phytotherapists [CPP].

This exam is practical and it is based around taking a patient they haven’t seen before, while under the scrutiny of external examiners that they do not know. What are they being assessed on?

They are marked on their demeanor with the patient, and the effectiveness and sensitivity of their questioning, if they make the patient feel at ease, and that they don’t ask leading questions.

The exam will also involve a clinical examination to help the student decide on the differential diagnoses [a choice of conditions it could be] before settling on the working diagnosis [what they feel is most likely].

After the patient has left the room, the student will be given some time to reflect and write a prescription and will then be questioned on any aspect of the consultation, diagnosis and final prescription.

Finally, the student will be asked random questions about any aspect of clinical diagnosis or treatment.

Although this may seem a very hard task for the student, we prepare them well and the examiners understand that students will perhaps be nervous. If the student has done enough practise and revised their materia medica, they have been known to find it fun…

OPEN DAY – COME & SEE US!

OPEN DAY SATURDAY 19th JUNE 2021

Venue: Carhampton Recreation Centre, Main Road (A39), Carhampton, Minehead, TA24 6LX

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm OR 1.30 – 3.30pm

If you are interested in herbal medicine, and might consider training to be a Herbalist, this is your opportunity to find out about our unique Advanced Diploma in Herbal Medicine and what it entails.

Programme:

• Doors open 10.30am and 1.30pm

• Sessions will start at 10.40 and 1.40 there will be an introductory talk and a Q&A session

• An opportunity to meet us and ask your questions.

• Examples of Study Guides, Recommended Reading List, Botany, Pharmacy

• Teas & coffees will be available, a picnic can be brought and enjoyed on the green

Please contact us at info@schoolofherbamedicine.co.uk or for more info

OR JUST TURN UP – WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU AT EITHER SESSION!

How to find us: https://goo.gl/maps/KXCjBqndkGFL5BDn8

The School of Herbal Medicine is a Limited Liability Partnership, registered in England and Wales, OC395594.

We are now a member school of the American Herbalists Guild

This term we became a member school of the American Herbalists Guild [AHG]. Why did we do this?

The main reason is that for our students they will now be able to access all the AHG training webinars, and all the archived AHG Journals which are packed with articles from practising herbalists. In addition they will also be able to access the AHG Facebook Group if they so desire…

Their History:

The shared vision of an herbalist guild was first verbalized in the mountains of Breitenbush, Oregon, where each year a large group of professional herbalists from all parts of the nation gathered to teach, walk together in ancient forests, soak in mineral-rich hot springs and discuss issues important to herbalism. Discussions at the Breitenbush retreats always included the vision of creating a guild for dedicated herbalists and serious herbal students. A 1989 letter from Michael Tierra invited herbalists from all regions of the country to come and exchange ideas about what this guild might become. On the weekend of February 17, twenty herbalists gathered at the Santa Cruz mountain home of Christopher Hobbs and Beth Baugh to initiate the organization of the guild, and the long hours of discussion that followed proved productive.

The first order of business was to adopt a name, and The American Herbalists Guild was born. As we continue our journey as a guild, we have sorted out and crystallized many of the details of our initial enthusiasm. We have learned much, not only about herbalists, but also about herbalists working together within the framework of an organization.

We go on with our work heartened by the belief that we are contributing to the evolution of herbalism in our country and in the world. We hope that all herbalists, regardless of their affiliation or non-affiliation with the AHG, will work together as peers toward this end.

Their Mission:

The American Herbalists Guild promotes clinical herbalism as a viable profession rooted in ethics, competency, diversity, and freedom of practice. The American Herbalists Guild supports access to herbal medicine for all and advocates excellence in herbal education.

Their Vision:

The American Herbalists Guild envisions a world where herbal medicine is accessible to all as a core component of health care. We envision a culture of vocational empowerment for aspiring and practicing clinical herbalists, as well as other members of the herbal profession including educators, growers, wildcrafters, and apothecaries.

Their Values:

The American Herbalists Guild honours diversity in the practice of herbal medicine. We equally recognize the validity of traditional herbal practice and modern science-based clinical phytotherapy. As the American Herbalists Guild values the relationship between individual and environmental health, we are dedicated to promoting plant sustainability.

Foundation Science Course

We have included a good deal of science in our Advanced Diploma, and we are aware that not all prospective students have a background in science subjects. There are many students that would make very good clinical herbalists who have not got A levels or equivalent in Chemistry or Biology, and we felt it was unfair to bar them from access to the diploma, and this is why we did not make that a prerequisite of admission. We included the basic science knowledge necessary within our specifically written module guides, taking the topics and concepts that we felt were necessary to understand the subject matter as a whole.

However, for students who feel that they would like, or need, basic science education before applying to our course we are running a one-year science foundation course starting from Autumn 2021.

The fees for the year will be around £1,000 and include module guides and four weekends of seminars for the year where you will receive face-to-face instruction [COVID permitting].

If you are interested in attending this course, please email us for more information at:

info@schoolofherbalmedicine.co.uk

Open Day Substitute…

Unfortunately we had to cancel our planned Open Day at the end of May. The purpose of the day was to introduce some of the staff to interested applicants, let prospective students talk to current students, display our extensive module guides, and have our administrator and course leaders on hand to answer questions about anything.

So, what to do…

We have decided to run a Facebook Live hour on Sunday 2nd August. This will be a space where we can answer questions that we have already receieved, and if necessary, answer questions that prospective students pop up on the day. But, as many people don’t use Facebook we will hopefully post a recording of it here.

In addition, we have asked a few of our students to record short messages about how they find the course, if there have been problems and if so, how they are overcome, and what they have enjoyed.

So, listen up for the question time if you have anything you want to ask about the course. We will try to answer as best we can on the day. Anything obscure or technical may have to be taken back to colleagues and discussed, but we will have an answer for everything…

We look forward to seeing you.

 

Keeping Going

Pharmacy lessons for both years 1 & 2 were held over Zoom again this month. One of the subjects covered by year 1 was the making of ointments and balms, and understanding the difference between them. I used the opportunity while talking through different balms, to illustrate the making of an efficacious Chest Rub, which in the current climate may prove useful. It was a good way to multitask and supplement my Growing Medicine store cupboard.

We also covered medicated wines and vinegars, herbal syrups and honeys, oxymels, and electuaries. I am drinking the oxymel myself and it is delish, as well as being nutritive and therapeutic. If you click on the link below you should be able to view the rolling of electuaries…

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14Y0x6yo3aEYRKS-BVyWjKlbpexmD6L1t  

Pharmacy 2 covered Pessaries and Suppositories, what conditions are suitable for their use, and what herbs we could use. We covered pill making and capsule making.

Easter School Online

It was better than nothing but it wasn’t ideal…

Our well organised, carefully planned, and eagerly awaited Easter School was going to be 6 days of seminars, fine lunches and fun. We were even bringing in a well-known and experienced speaker from London to finish it off on the last day.

Of course, that all went up in smoke when the lockdown happened. What to do?

We did what we could. Those tutors who could run lessons on Zoom, Whereby or Skype went ahead and did it. I even managed to teach Pharmacy 1 and 2 from my husband’s office [he has superfast fibre broadband and I don’t]. Herbal Therapeutics was easier for me in that I didn’t have so many props to ferry across the garden from my clinic to his office. For Herbal Therapeutics I ran a presentation and we had group discussions after each symptoms pattern and therapy strategy – it was nice to see everyone’s faces on the gallery setting in Zoom, and catch up with how they were doing.

There were some lessons that couldn’t be shared effectively online – like practical clinical skills where students have hands-on sessions being shown how to perform physical examinations. And there were some tutors who did not have internet capabilities, or were not able to travel to a site where they could access such capabilities.

What shall we do in May? That depends, but we will sort it. For a school that prides ourselves on face-to-face tuition it is not going to be easy – but we will find a way through and get back on track as soon as we can. There are obviously more important things to consider going on in our country than whether we run our lessons or not.

Pharmacognosy Trip to Department of Plant Sciences in Oxford

We know how to give our students a good time!

Here are some of the first years enjoying an extra-curricular trip to Oxford. The venue was the Department of Plant Sciences in Oxford with our Pharmacognosy tutor Christina Stapley [author and expert on the History of Herbal Medicine – which she also teaches for us]. Not only is Christina instructing the students how to construct their own Herbarium, she is also putting together a fantastic Herbarium for the school together with the students in their Pharmacognosy lessons. This will cover all [or most] of the herbs covered in Materia Medica year on year as they progress through the school. We have 6 full years of Materia Medica, so that’s a lot of herbs…

The visit was a specially organised educational visit; although the department has Open Days and likes to share what they do with the public, you can’t just wander in and see Herbaria that are 400 years old. Christina had arranged this specific visit with a member of the department’s staff, Serena Marner – which meant that there were ancient and precious Herbaria out ready for the students to see.

One of the most interesting documents that the students saw was written in 1606 by Gregorio da Reggio in Bologna, an infirmarer. The infirmarer was the monk responsible for treating the sick in the hospital part of a monastery and would go and pick medicinal plants to use in treatment. They would press specimens of the herb after picking and write about the properties and parts of the plant, and what it had been used for. Often there would be additional information on the climate, the soil, the scent and colour.

The aim of this trip was that the students could gain an appreciation for, and be inspired by, the beauty of such specimens and how well they had been preserved and just how much information was passed down by herbalists hundreds of years ago. These collections of mounted herbs with descriptions were part of their medical literature.

The students were also shown a herb press, and talked through the correct way to press and mount their own collection of medicinal plants. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to share any photos from inside the department, but check out their webpage and maybe you can get to an Open Day. Failing that, you could train to be a Medical Herbalist with us and Christina could take you…

Cervical Cancer Week

Cytological Specimen Showing Cervical Cancer Description Cytological specimen showing cervical cancer specifically squamous cell carcinoma in the cervix. Tissue is stained with pap stain and magnified x200. Topics/Categories Cancer Types — Cervical Cancer Cells or Tissue — Abnormal Cells or Tissue  Source National Cancer Institute

 

This week is apparently Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.

Here and now I can say that we don’t teach our students that they can ‘cure’ cancer with herbs.

What we do teach our students is that medicinal herbs can help the general health of patients with cancer, and possibly help mitigate some of the side effects of orthodox treatment. What we can say is that we can use medicinal herbs as an adjunct to orthodox treatment, and to help in the management of the symptoms of cancer treatment and to aid recuperation post-radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

To aid the treatment of patients who have cancer we have to understand what cancer is, how it has developed and to see if there is a way herbs can help the patient get their body into a state where they can be in the best shape possible to survive orthodox treatment, and the ravages that the tumours themselves inflict on the human body.

As Christopher Menzies-Trull quotes in his book Herbal Medicine – Keys to Physiomedicalism 2nd Ed.;

“Cancer is not a symptom to be treated, nor a specific disease but the reactions and functions of the entire body that have to be transformed and restored.”

Cancer causes 20-25% of deaths [Medicine at a Glance 2nd Ed. Patrick Davey] so sooner or later our students will be involved with patients who are suffering from some type of malignancy.

Cancer is a broad term that includes a wide range of related diseases, but in all types it will involve some cells dividing uncontrollably and invading surrounding tissues and organs. The orderly process of a cell’s life-cycle where it grows, divides, grows old then dies and is replaced by a new cell, will have broken down for some reason.

When these abnormal cells divide without stopping they may form a physical tumour or mass. When there is a cancer of the blood, no mass may be formed but these cells will spread and invade nearby tissue or inhibit healthy blood cell formation.

There is no average cancer patient, and indeed as herbalists we see each patient as an individual and a whole person. If a patient comes to us with cervical cancer we would not just see one type of tissue, one organ or one system. We would look at their lifestyle, their diet, their outlook on life and their personality. When we come to understand the actual individual we are caring for then we can construct a package for them that will support them the best.

What can a herbalist do to contribute to treatment for a person with cancer?

• supportive diet regime – this would include citrus fruits and grapes, fresh vegetables. Encourage the patient to increase the intake of onions, cabbage, green tea and garlic. Advise the intake of psyllium husk or linseed in plenty of water if orthodox meds have left them with constipation
• support depleted resources – bolster endogenous defences using immune tonics, especially Echinacea and herbs with similar actions
• support the liver – if the patient is on a heavy orthodox meds regime then Milk Thistle will protect the liver from damage. We would not use herbs like St John’s Wort to stimulate the action of the liver as this may rid the body of any orthodox medicine that they are taking
• support the body’s own ‘cleansing mechanisms’ by using alteratives such as Cleavers, Stinging Nettle, Echinacea, Garlic, Burdock, and Pokeroot
• use specific tonics for individual needs – these will often be nutritive, such as Nettle Seed

There are, of course, specific herbs that are said to provide a cytotoxic action towards cancer cells, and some that can alter the action of hormonal receptor-type cancers. On the internet and within herbal literature there have been many treatments and cancer cures that have no real basis in reality. I do believe that there are herbs which can profoundly affect the course of tumour progression in some cases in some people, such as Artemisisa annua in the treatment of leukaemias, but I would never ‘treat’ cancer, and I would never give the patient the impression that I could.

Herbalists treat people, not diseases. When we look at the individual and see how their body is coping with a disease process, and more importantly, how it got to that place, then maybe we can contribute to the healing journey in some way.

https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/cervical-cancer-prevention-week-2020/