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For Shawn Schultz, herbs are home. She grew up helping her herbalist mother with her work. Schultz now runs her own herbal practice in Pattersonville, New York. She grows and mixes the remedies she's used all her life.

"Herbal medicine has always been a part of my life," says Schultz. "I've always had an affinity with it. I love plants, I love growing things and I love working outside.

"A big part of my practice is growing my own herbs and gathering them from the wild. That's something I learned from my grandfather. He taught me all about plant identification and how to grow and harvest plants. I still use the herbs that I've grown up with and I'm familiar with because I know exactly how they work. I've been taught to use the things around me."

Schultz says people are interested in herbal medicine because it has fewer side effects than drugs.

"Some people have reactions to various medications, so they find they have to use herbs instead of medication. Some people have had bad experiences with physicians or they've decided they want to use something more natural. They want to have more control over their health. This way, they feel they have more choice."

Schultz says another difference between doctors and herbalists is the time herbalists can afford to spend on their patients.

"When I see clients, I go over their medical history, review their referrals from physicians and work with them to come up with a list of recommendations and decide if certain herbs work with the current medications that they're on. We also talk about their diet and lifestyle. So it's not just about people coming to me and I just give them herbs. There's a holistic approach to it."

Aviva Romm is a herbalist, midwife, author of several books and executive director of the American Herbalists Guild in Canton, Georgia. She agrees that herbalists spend a lot of time with their clients.

"On average, most herbalists spend a minimum of 30 minutes with their clients. Most spend an hour to an hour and a half, especially with the initial appointment.

"We do a lot more individual care and preventative work with respect to patients' lifestyles. We pay attention to nutrition, exercise and emotional aspects of their lives and psychosocial issues. So there's a huge personal component to our work."

Romm says herbalists customize treatments according to the specific needs of the patient. "With herbal medicine, you're coming up with an individual treatment plan for each client. For instance, people come in with a headache. You don't necessarily give them all the same protocol of treatment. But if somebody went into a family practice office with a headache, chances are you'd have fewer choices of medication."

But Romm adds there are cases where treatment is needed beyond what herbal medicine can offer, especially in terms of diagnosis. "If it's a serious problem that they haven't had a diagnosis for, it's then beyond my scope of practice. If they come in complaining of symptoms of a brain tumor, then of course I'm going to send them off to get a clinical medical evaluation.

"I always do a full medical history assessment to try and get a sense of what the symptoms are and make sure there's nothing outstanding that really does require medical attention. Then, after diagnosis, we come up with a dietary plan and a herbal plan. It often involves a lot of lifestyle education regarding smoking and sleep habits, nutrition and exercise."

Andrew Bentley is a herbalist and writer in Lexington, Kentucky. He says he's always been familiar with the healing properties of plants.

"I grew up around it," says Bentley. "I came from a rural area in Appalachia where there were no hospitals within a few hours' drive, and herbal medicine was just sort of the way people took care of themselves."

Bentley says herbalists help people get in touch with their own health. "Herbal medicines empower people. It gives them the opportunity to feel like they have a part in their own health care, rather than having it in the hands of a doctor."

Although it was common practice in his childhood community, Bentley says herbal medicine isn't as widely accepted in today's Western society.

"I see a lot of skepticism in general practice doctors," she says. "But it's been my experience if I approach them with scientific evidence about the way herbal medicine works, they're much more comfortable with it and become more open-minded."

Kevin Porowski is a herbalist. He agrees that it's difficult to convince traditional doctors of the merits of nontraditional medicine.

"It's not like we pretend to be able to treat acute injuries," says Porowski. "You break an arm? Go see a doctor. But if you have a long-term disease, that's where we specialize....But there are many doctors out there who just pooh-pooh us.

"Herbalism gets more respect from the public than it does [from] the other medical professions. But in the future, I think they will start working with us instead of against us, simply because the public is going to demand it."

Porowski loves his work so much that he's willing to put up with professional criticism for it. "I've even got really bad hay fever, but that doesn't stop me. This is a labor of love."

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