I recently had a patient in clinic who wanted to treat their medical condition with foods instead of supplements. There were a few foods off the top of my head, some of which I had already recommended, but it got me thinking and researching more.

If you think about it, before there was medicine as we now know it, the only option was to use what the land provided for healing. There weren’t pharmacies open 24/7 to buy pharmaceuticals or natural supplements. I feel that in the U.S. we have lost traditional roots, whereas other countries still preserve knowledge that’s been passed down from generation to generation on what to do for all the common ailments like coughs, fevers, and stomach aches, but also more chronic conditions.

One of my clinicians, Dr. Tursha Hamilton, told me that many traditional herbalists that she’s heard of have had a lot of success using tea. In the clinic, the dispensary is stocked with tinctures and pills, but for some people, those aren’t options. For example, some people can’t tolerate tinctures because of the alcohol base; others can’t take capsules/pills because of the fillers; certain religions restrict some ingredients, etc. I am still researching which teas would be appropriate for this case, and how much and how often the patient would have to drink them. I am hopeful that I will find some options to which my patient will respond well.