The Potency of Herbs: Some Us Were Brought Up With Herbs.

Modern medicine, over time has really improved the quality of living through relentless researches about the human body and invention of machines and advanced technology that can aid the researches on health, help with diagnosis and treatment of patients. The modern medicine has provided faster and more effective solutions to ailments and sicknesses, making it easier for health workers to administer treatments to patient with ready made drugs available.

Isn't it wonderful that you could easily get drugs in sachets, bottles, plastics, etc compared to the olden days where dotors (or physician) would need to gather the ingredients and maybe mix them through whatever means to turn them into substance potent enough to be a solution for sickness and illness.

The time I was still a child was when many people started accepting and getting used the modern medicine (which has been around for many years). My mom gave birth to all her children in hospitals and used modern medication for us till we became 2 years old when she started using herbs to treat any illness. During this time, many women still give birth on their own in their houses and just need the help of thier own mother or midwife to clean up for them. It was a common practice to bath the mother and the child in some herbal mixtures. The mother and baby were 100% dependent on herbs.

I remember days when every common sickness has a cure in some people's backyard. They had planted trees and shrubs for these common sickness like, diarrhea, like, malaria, fever, chicken or small pox etc. I still have pictures of reactions of us as kids drinking herbs in cups or steel bowl, I can say 95% of Herbs are bitter because they are directly from plant parts. The potentcy of herbs is only certain and reliable with the right physicians and doctors. There are only few people left who knows how to administer herbal solutions for diseases.

If a time comes when we would no longer be able to manufacture modern drugs at all, the alternative is surely herbs. Going back to the ancient paths and local ways of manufacturing drugs is the only option. From my experience and knowledge, I think depending on herbs won't be a big problem for us to get used to though. There will be some difficulty in adapting to the use of herbs alone as solutions to sicknesses and diseases because....

• Many health institution will need to have a farm where varieties of plants are planted, both local and imported.

• Over 75% of the herbal mixture can only be prepared when needed because they can not be preserved. Some won't even last more than a week.

• The process involved in making some of the herbal mixture is different. Physicians might need to grind, dry, soak in water or other solutes for days, boil etc to get the right solution they intend. These processes can be slow and might not meet up for emergency situations.

• Governments of various nations will need to establish academic institutions where many will be taught on the use of herbs, depending on field of sciences like agriculture, biology, botany, etc.

• All health workers will be useless unless they learn and study the use of herbs.

The certainty that we can depend on herbs alone is quite high but also, that some diseases can be cured with herbs remains uncertain because of how deadly some diseases are. It's over many centuries since when herbs were the order of the day, the knowledge of the usage of herbs is now scarce because when the modern medicine was gradually been adopted, the knowledge of herbs was going extinct. Those who had the knowledge of it have died hundreds of years ago. We might never be able to explore the use of herbs, even if we will, it will take decades of explorations and researches before there will be cure for many diseases.

Growing up, two women in our community were known for their knowledge of herbs. Many parents seek for them whenever they need their knowledge. It always surprises me whenever they prescribe the type of herbs to be used, how and where to get them, the process and the dosage. These women can identify so many plants with medicinal use. I got to know that one of these women was privileged to grow up with her mother and grandmother, both were popular physician; they lived on herbs. Shocking news, this woman's mother is still alive, she should be about 125 years or more than now, can still talk and walk well. I have lost count on the number of times I used herbs when I was sick and this period was around when I was way younger till maybe 19 years. My grandpa from my mom side was also a popular physicians, he specialised in children health more.

Conclusion....

Herbs are very potent, we can rely on herbs, maybe not 100% for now because there will have to be researches to find herbal cure for so many diseases in this present world. Imagine those kept in coma, how can their lives be sustain till they regain conciousness, some surgery operations are entirely dependent on machines because of the processes involved to carry them out. If the world would need to depend on herbs then governments of nations will have to offer scholarship programs for people to go and learn about herbs in other countries like India, China, Germany, some countries in Africa, etc. So that there the knowledge will become more saturated.

This post is my entry for Hive Naija Weekly Prompt: Edition 59. Click here to check and read more about the prompt.