Many medicinal herbs and plants offer anti microbial, anti fungal, cardiovascular, respiratory, pain relief and other beneficial medical properties. For example, plants like cannabis seem to be associated with properties that help relieve pain. There can be a dark side of the equation though. Sometimes herbs and plants are advertised as a ‘cure all'(snake oil?). It’s important to be skeptical and investigate claims about a specific medicinal herb. Some claims may be based on the experience of only a few people. Other claims may be from centuries old tradition. However, an anecdotal story and/or the age of a medicinal tradition are not good reasons(by themselves) to accept a claim as true.

Unfortunately, in this age of social media and Facebook, many people tend to make health conclusions based on emotions or popularity. Regardless on how much you want an herbal claim to be true and hate “big pharma”, Monsanto, GMO products and the FDA…….don’t turn your skeptical scientific brain off!

Most of the time, it can’t hurt to test them out, but please do a little research before having reliance on any medicine.