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Herbal Treatments
Herbs do indeed have a long history of use as medicines. Mostly because until modern medicine pharacology began, herbs and other things gathered from nature were the only possible treatments for disease. Modern drugs have jumped far ahead of many herbs in terms of efficacy (aspirin versus willow bark, just one example) and safety (the side effects are much better known, and dosage and quality are better controlled).
However, herbs are still widely used, and will probably continue to be so for the forseeable future (or until the Philosopher's Stone shows up). Many people consider herbs to be a safer form of treatment, but I feel that appearance is due mostly to the fact that the therapeutic chemicals in herbs tend to be at very low concentrations compared to drugs using the same medicines. Lower strength equals fewer side effects, but it also means lowered efficacy and a longer period of treatment, in general.
It is extremely important to remember that using herbs at levels at which there is a pharmacological effect almost always means that there are risks of side effects. Natural does not equal safe. In most advertising of herbal treatments for any disease, these possible side effects are often neglected, or even dismissed. A list of warnings has been compiled here for many herbs which have been suggested to treat psoriasis. Some of these effects are not trivial.
Quackwatch has a couple of good articles on herbalism, a general overview of the current herb market and the claims made, and another article on "Paraherbalism".
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