FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
A western herbalism consultation involves an in-depth assessment of your current health condition and presenting symptoms, including taking blood pressure and other clinical diagnostic tests where appropriate. The consultation will through you and your family's medical history, medication, plus lifestyle factors such as diet and sleep pattern.
Although Medical Herbalists have received in-depth medical training over a 3-5 year science degree of equivalent qualification, we cannot legally diagnose health conditions. We may write to your GP if necessary and/or will advise you to make an GP appointment if there are any cause for concern. We often work together as a multi-disciplinary team so we can best support you.
We are all very different so unfortunately there is not just one definitive answer to this question! Factors that may influence the time length of treatment include; the condition, how long you've had it for, the severity, drug history, past medical condition. Broadly treatment may vary anywhere between 1 - 12 months depending on if the conditions are acute (first aid, common colds, sprains, allergy etc.) to chronic conditions (auto-immune, gynecology conditions, heart health, diabetes etc.).
Herbal medicine may take longer before beginning to achieve the desired effect when compared to pharmaceutical drugs. However, its gentle and aims to address the root cause of the condition and therefore usually produces more permanent results. In addition, when correctly prescribed, side effects are rare.
Yes, under supervision from a herbalist, it is safe to take herbal medicine with your medication. In some cases, herbal medicine may be able to help decrease dosage of your medication, with consent from your GP and close monitoring from your herbalist. There are a select number of herbs that have been known to interact with pharmaceutical drugs, so depending on the medication, will be avoided.
No, unfortunately not. Only vets that have undergone further herbalism training are able to treat animals with herbal medicine. Please see here for more information: https://herbalvets.org.uk/
Depending on the condition, I will want to ideally track your symptoms over the course of 2 -3 months. For example, for endometriosis, I'll want to access you in each four stages of your menstrual cycle, to understand how mood, pain levels, cravings and energy levels differ to best support your health and ultimately how you can feel better, for the long term.
Another example is treating menopausal symptoms such as anxiety, brain fog, low energy, hot flushes etc. I will want to monitor your symptoms over 1-2 months to really get to the root cause.
Any questions big or small - please reach out.