For a few weeks now, we’ve been talking about what practitioners are not doing. This week we want to do something different. We want to appreciate you for the positive things you’re doing, because we’ve noticed something encouraging.
Orthodox doctors are coming to complementary and integrative practitioners. They believe in the work they’re doing and in the products they’re making, but they’re realising they can’t do it alone. They still need your help. Some of them discover that their patients have been using herbal products. They see the effectiveness of the remedy, and then they want to know who the producer is, what’s in it, and how it’s made. Then they ask, can we work with you?
Let us give two examples.
We heard about a patient with spondylosis, or spondylolisthesis, who was suffering from pain. Whatever the physiotherapist recommended, the pain did not improve. Then a complementary practitioner prescribed and prepared a particular herb for the person, and the pain reduced significantly. It reduced so much that the physiotherapist began consulting the practitioner to understand what he gave his patient to help with the pain.
The second one is about sickle cell. A general hospital here has a lot of sickle cell patients, and those patients suffer from excruciating pain, a very high level of pain. Many of them started taking a certain herb, and it significantly improved their symptoms. The pain that comes from the blocking of the red blood cells reduced, and it allowed them to live much better lives. It even reduced the number of patients in casualty. So the medical doctors had to consult the herbal practitioner: what is this thing you’re giving them? Please give it to us, let’s give it to our patients in the hospital.
So clearly, we’ve always said the future is integrative, but now we can see it happening right in front of us. Medical doctors are actively approaching complementary and integrative practitioners and asking, please let us know what you give.
Now here’s the thing. As we were telling you these stories, we couldn’t remember the herb in either of them. We can’t even remember the botanical name, right? Because it wasn’t documented. It was word of mouth. But there’s no doubt this kind of thing happens, and that’s why we believe it’s time to leverage this interest by documenting your remedies.
Document what you give your patients, what it works for, and what you’ve seen it do in your practice. That way the whole world can learn from your wisdom, your indigenous or traditional wisdom.
And please, let us know the ingredients. The days of the secret ingredient in medical products are way gone. Every day we’re finding one more interaction, herb with drug, even fast food with drug, and adverse effects are being seen everywhere. If you want your product to be in the public, you cannot be hiding a secret ingredient. It doesn’t work anymore.
If you can tell us, in this remedy, this is the content, these are the herbs, these are the things we put together, that will help with documentation. It will help the general public know what is in it, and it will make the remedy more acceptable to the public and to orthodox doctors as well.
So this is a good period for you. The interest is there, so let’s use it. Document your remedies, and let us know the ingredients and what each one is used for. Thank you for the work you are doing, and we look forward to learning from you.
Curiosity of the Week
Did you know a sickle cell remedy from Nigeria went all the way from local plants to a controlled clinical trial?
It’s called Niprisan, and it was developed right here in Nigeria at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) in Abuja. It’s made from four local plants: the seeds of Piper guineense (uziza), the stem of Pterocarpus osun (camwood), the fruit of Eugenia caryophyllata (clove), and the leaves of Sorghum bicolor.
What makes it interesting is that it was written down and tested. In a placebo-controlled trial of 82 people with sickle cell disease over six months, it was found to reduce episodes of severe painful crisis. A Cochrane review of the evidence says more research is still needed, but look at the path: local plants, a documented formula, a proper trial, and a published result that anyone in the world can read.
That’s exactly what documentation can do for a remedy. When the ingredients, the dose and the results are on paper, doctors and researchers can pick it up and build on it. Read about that here.
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