Herbalism and critical thinking.
Herbalism and critical thinking need to be made as one. I wish that my formal herbal education had involved more focus on critical thinking. Unfortunately, the whole natural health movement frequently fails when it comes to critical thinking. A good critical thinker can take in information and discriminate between high quality information and low-quality information and between those useful details and those that are less useful. If you are Canadian and reading you might remember the great media literacy spot about the house hippos. This was meant to help people think critically about their media consumption.
Appeal to nature.
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that undermines the validity of your argument. There are many different logical fallacies but today I am thinking about the “appeal to nature.” This fallacy is the notion that something is good, beneficial, or safe because it is “natural.” It corresponds with the rhetorical tactic that something is bad because it is “unnatural.”
Bloodroot.
On my walk today I came across a colony of bloodroot. I love spring ephemerals.
Bloodroot colony.
Bloodroot has notoriously been used as a component of black salve. People have used these salves for the home treatment of cancer and to remove warts, moles, and skin tags. Bloodroot is an escharotic. This is a substance that kills tissue, leaving the dead cells to slough off.
If a raccoon gets into my basement do I burn the house down?
Bloodroot – specifically the alkaloids in the root – are indiscriminate killers. Caustic to any tissue that it comes come in contact with. I went back to my notes from school before writing this post. I even wrote on the bloodroot handout – “kill the tumour but not the tissue around.” That’s incorrect. Applied topically the tissue dissolves. A scab forms and then heals and falls away – frequently leaving a gaping wound. I am not putting any images. Avail yourself of google. Bloodroot salves can lead to scarring, disability, and there is no way to know if they have removed all cancerous tissue.
When removing cancerous tissue doctors focus on clear margins. This means they remove all the cancerous tissue and then a bit more for insurance. A pathologist examines the cells at the margins to see if all cancerous tissue has been removed. A person slathering black salve on the skin at their kitchen table has no way to know if they have removed all the cancer.
As for warts and skin tags – liquid nitrogen works great.
Duty.
I was watching a cooking show this week. My new pandemic pastime. The chef being corrected was pushing back against the criticism she was getting. The chef handing out the criticism point blank told her that his job was to tell her the truth about how well or how poorly she had done. I was like – you are my new idol. I am an herbalist. As a practitioner I have a duty to continue to educate myself about herbs and their uses. I have a duty to ensure that my herbalism and critical thinking are as one.
I remember years ago my boss at the herb store took down some articles I had posted because she felt they were too negative. If hoodia doesn’t work for weight loss it doesn’t work. This is no more negative than pointing to a cardinal and saying it is a cardinal and not a blue jay.
Maya Angelou said “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.