Herbal Magic at 889 Yonge

by Chris Savidge (Japanese Acupuncture and Herbal Health Solutions Practitioner)

I’m delighted to announce that I am now offering my Herbal Health Solutions clinic here at 889 Yoga. Herbal medicine really is real life magic. Now I’m not saying that herbs are a panacea for everything, but I can say with confidence that everyone can benefit from using these gentle yet powerful medicines.

Why do I recommend that you consider using herbal medicine?

1. Herbs are extremely safe.
2. They are gentle yet powerful and effective.
3. Herbal formulations are incredibly flexible, and are created specifically for your specific health situation and challenges.
4. Plant medicine can be used both for the treatment of particular symptoms as well as for health maintenance, disease prevention and to slow down age-related degeneration.

The possibilities for their use are literally endless. Like I’ve mentioned, not only are herbs effective, they are very safe. We evolved with these plants, and have been using them for, literally, as long as we’ve been around and have been getting sick. Our bodies know these medicines, and serious side effects are extremely rare.

Herbs work in a different way than pharmaceuticals. The holy grail of Western medications is the discovery of a single chemical that acts like a magic bullet to knock out a specific symptom, while plant medicines have many different constituents that affect the functioning of the body and mind in many ways. A single plant or remedy may have dozens of different chemicals that affect the body in different ways, meaning that the whole body is nurtured and adjusted.

In addition, I look at all the different things that are affecting a patient’s life – stress, age, condition, to name a few – and prescribe herbs in combination to nurture all aspects of a client’s health. The result is a gentle yet highly effective way to move the body towards optimum balance and functioning by treating both the symptoms and the underlying causes of disease.

Let me give you an example. A patient comes in who is is 50 years old, and suffering from diabetes, weight gain and anxiety, and is also going through menopause. While this is a relatively complicated picture, this in itself is not unusual. As her practitioner, I know that I need to work with her blood sugar levels, adjust her insulin and hormone levels to help with the diabetes and to ease her passage through menopause, improve her digestion to allow more efficient nutrient absorption and also use herbs to balance and calm her mind, which will lower her levels of anxiety as well as help her eat less, which is important considering how much emotional eating we do. This would point to the need for bitter herbs like gentian to adjust and tone her digestive system, hypoglycemics to help lower blood sugar levels, calming herbs such as valerian and St John’s wort to relax her mind, and adaptogenic herbs such as Canadian ginseng to reach deep into the neuro-endocrine and immune systems to strengthen the body and mind while balancing hormones and strengthening immunity.

As we’ve become more health conscious, our understanding of the importance of nutrition, exercise and proper supplementation has grown by leaps and bounds. I see herbal medicine as being the next great advance in our move towards a rational, scientific and effective medicine that doesn’t over rely on patented Western medicines whose primary aim is to maximize drug company profits. And the wonderful thing about this advance is that our knowledge of these incredible natural healing plants is already vast and based on many thousands of years of use. All we need to do is be open to seeing what they can do to support us in living a healthy, happy, vital and long life.

Please contact the 889 concierge for more information or to book herbal consults. I’m offering 15 minute complimentary sessions that can be conducted at 889 or by phone as well as a 45 minute initial consult with 30 minute follow-ups. I’m looking forward to working with you in using this incredible (and under-utilized) healing modality.