The Integrated Pharmacist

Greetings, listeners!  Welcome to another episode of the integrated pharmacist podcast.  Today I'd like to share with you one of my favorite herbal medications - the elderberry.  With the current COVID-19 pandemic causing socioeconomic upheaval, people are scrambling for some miracle product that will prevent themselves from getting the dreaded disease.  From disinfectants and face-masks to unproven medications, very little seems to be off the table at his point. Elderberry has taken some spotlight in all of this, because of its history of use in other viral infections.  Research suggests one of it's effects is similar to the human hormone interferon.  Interferon is a chemical that virus-infected cells release that helps prevent neighboring cells from getting infected.  The in-vitro trial I refer to demonstrates mostly late-stage activity against influenza virus infection as well as immune response activation to up-regulate specific cytokines dur...

***Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to be used as legal or medical advice.  It is written as my person perspective on how medical professionals could blend western medicine with other modalities*** Greetings, and welcome to another episode of the Integrated Pharmacist Podcast.  Fad diets come and go.  So often, they're built on extreme limitations with the goal of dropping weight quickly or offering longer, more vibrant life.  These fad diets came into being during the 19th century when people drifted culturally away from ethnic and locally grown foods to diets based more on comfort and pleasure.  This new style of eating obviously had a negative effect on health and wellness, so new diet trends continue to spring up.  Extreme diets have included low-fat, low-carb, high fiber, and high protein.  There have been diets based on specific foods or food-groups like cabbage and grapefruit, restrictive diets, liquid diets, and much more. Of course, fad ...

***Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to be used as legal or medical advice.  It is written as my person perspective on how medical professionals could blend western medicine with other modalities*** Ayurveda is the tradition of medicine that stems from ancient India.  As I mentioned in a previous post, there is an emphasis on one's dosha which is determined by body shape, activity, personality, and attitude.  Interventions are often tailored to the patient's dosha .  The tradition covers many aspects of medicine including surgery, but upholds the value of preventative medicine, and views strength as the ability to endure extremes.  Yoga is another big part of Ayurveda worth it's own blog post.  In this post, I'm going to focus on the herbs associated with Ayurvedic medicine. Because this is such a broad sweeping modality, it is difficult to define everything it should or should not be used for.  Like my recent post on aromatherapy, this is a subj...