David Winston has been fascinated by herbs since he was a boy. His obsession led him to become a sought-after herbal clinician and a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild. Since 1980, he’s also led a two-year training program in clinical herbalism. But even after many years and a long list of accomplishments in his field, Winston said the subject still stirs his heart.
“I just fell in love with this idea that I could walk out into the woods, which had always felt like a place of comfort for me, and find plants for medicine or for food. To me, it was the most marvelous thing in the world, and it was almost unimaginable that everybody else wasn’t equally fascinated by this,” he said. “Fifty-five years later, I am still just as in love with herbs and herbal medicine.”
Reviving Lost Knowledge
Winston’s fascination began in the Boy Scouts, when a counselor introduced his troop to sheep’s sorrel, a plant with an arrowhead-shaped leaf and a “delightful sour flavor.” This experience lit a fire in Winston and led him to gather all the information he could on herbs. He studied with various traditional healers, apprenticed with a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and collected every book on medicinal plants he could find.In those pre-internet days, access to herbal knowledge was scarce.
“With the exception of a small number of ethnic or rural communities, herbal medicine was virtually gone in the United States,” Winston said.
Since ancient times, every culture on the planet has recognized herbs as a primary form of medicine. These traditions endured for thousands of years and produced texts describing the properties of medicinal plants that are still used today. But in the not-too-distant past, this know-how was forgotten.
Much of Winston’s early journey was about rediscovering this lost knowledge. On a train trip from New York state to Vermont in 1975, he came upon a used bookstore where some large, old leather-bound books caught his eye.
“I was astonished to find out that there were medical doctors from around 1830 through about the 1940s in the United States who primarily practiced herbal medicine,” he said. “I discovered that herbal medicine wasn’t just something that was done hundreds of years ago.
“Herbal medicine was part of mainstream medicine to a great degree up until at least the turn of the 20th century. People had forgotten these things in the rush to modernization, with the idea that science was going to cure everything.”
Even so, Winston said he doesn’t view herbs as a replacement for modern medicine. Instead, he sees them as a natural complement.
“I’ve been in clinical practice now for 48 years, and the reality is, where herbal medicine is strong is exactly where orthodox medicine is weak,” he said. “And where orthodox medicine is strong, it tends to be where herbal medicine is least effective.
“There are times when herbal medicine may be the best approach, there are times when orthodox medicine may be the best approach, and there are times when the two used in concert may be the best approach.”
Food, Medicine, or Poison
From ancient times until today, people have used herbs to treat all types of health problems, from cancer to colds. But with so many plants, and so much history of use behind them, it may at first feel intimidating to approach.There are several ways to classify medicinal herbs, and those classification systems can be incredibly complex. Learning a single system, such as traditional Chinese herbal medicine, for example, can take years of study.
But there are also simpler ways to understand herbs that are easy to grasp.
“My Aunt Edna used to say herbs affect people in one of three ways: as either a food, a medicine, or a poison,” Winston said.
Food herbs include plants we generally think of as food, such as blueberries, garlic, or cinnamon, but they also include a whole range of plants unlikely to have any adverse effects, such as hawthorn berry, lemon balm, and peppermint. Outside of an unusual reaction or allergy, these are the safest herbs to use.
Food herbs are mild and gentle, but they can be profound healers. Ginger, for example, has been used for thousands of years to treat nausea. Another wonderful plant is plantain, the two most common varieties of which are lanceleaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and broadleaf plantain (Plantago major).
“If you have a lawn and don’t use herbicides, I almost guarantee you have plantain,” Winston said.
He cautioned that you should always be 100 percent sure of your identification of a plant before consuming or making medicine out of it. Once you’re able to identify plantain, it makes a great topical remedy for wounds and bug bites. Winston reached for plantain when he was bitten by an ant while working in his garden last summer.
“I immediately took a piece of plantain, chewed it up, slapped it on the ant bite, and within 15 minutes, all the pain, redness, swelling, and burning were gone,” he said. He’s also used it on scorpion stings and mosquito bites.
Because of their gentle nature, food herbs can often be taken daily—within reason.
“You wouldn’t eat an entire bowl of ginger,” Winston said. “When we talk about food herbs, we’re talking about common sense amounts.”
Next are medicinal herbs, which are stronger than food herbs.
“These are things that you take for a specific reason for a specific period of time,” Winston said. “You need a greater depth of knowledge in order to use them safely.” Herbs in the medicinal category include black cohosh and goldenseal.
Herbs may be natural, but some can be dangerous. These are the poisons. While poisonous herbs may have a medicinal effect for some individuals in small doses, their use is best restricted to trained professionals who understand their toxicology and know how to use them safely.
Holistic Treatment
Many herbs have a long-standing reputation for treating a particular problem. However, finding the best herbs for your specific health problem isn’t as simple as matching plants to symptoms. The guiding philosophy at David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies is “Great herbalists treat people, not diseases.” That’s because the strategy of simply chasing symptoms is a limited approach.“It can be fine if you’re treating a wart,” Winston said. “But if you’re talking about chronic degenerative disease, you are much better off looking at the whole person, looking at the underlying pathophysiology of what they’re experiencing, and then creating a protocol to help you to address those things.”
Take depression, for example. It may be cardiac induced, thyroid induced, a result of neuro-inflammation, hormonal, or just due to a negative situation being experienced at a particular moment.
“You often hear people say, ‘St. John’s wort is the depression herb.’ I would say that’s not true at all, because herbalists recognize 14 types of depression, and St. John’s wort is only really useful for three of them,” Winston said. “So the more you can look at the person who is depressed and their underlying issues, the more effective your treatment is going to be.”
Good herbal treatment begins with a focus on the foundational components of health: a nourishing diet, enough quality sleep, exercise, stress reduction, and other aspects of a person’s lifestyle.
“Then we use herbs for their ability to help prevent illness, as well as to enhance the body’s ability to heal itself,” Winston said.
Herbs for Winter Wellness
If you’re new to herbs, cold and flu season is a great time to discover how they can work for you.One strategy is to take certain herbs preventively. Winston said taking immune amphoterics—herbs that nourish the immune system—such as reishi mushrooms, cordyceps fungus, American and Asian ginseng, ashwagandha, schisandra, and astragalus can help strengthen your immunity.
“Think of these herbs as priming the immune system so that when you are exposed to a virus or bacteria, your body has a more effective and more efficient response,” he said. “These are mild herbs you could take all winter long.”
If you think you’ve already been exposed to infection because the people around you are sniffling and sneezing, Winston recommends immune-stimulating herbs such as echinacea or elderberry.
“Elderberry is a great one that I use a lot for children,” he said. “You can buy gummies or chewable tablets that have elderberry and zinc, and both of these have antiviral activity.”
If you’re open to a stronger remedy—more of a medicine than a food herb—consider an Ayurvedic herb called andrographis, also known as “the king of bitters.” Winston said he always takes andrographis when he’s on a flight because there’s usually a fellow passenger coughing or sneezing on the plane.
Because andrographis has a strong bitter taste, Winston recommended taking it in a tincture—a type of alcohol extract—rather than in tea.
“Andrographis tastes terrible. It is extremely bitter,” he said. “I usually take a dropperful before I get on the plane, and another dropper or two on the plane, depending on how long the flight is, and I almost never get sick.”
Along with taking herbs, Winston also stressed simple preventive measures such as eating a balanced diet and getting enough sleep.
“A lot of people think that sleep is overrated,” he said. “But good quality, adequate sleep is essential to health on so many levels. It also enhances immune system function.”
