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Conventional medicine and phytotherapy: working together

Core principles for pharmacists: when to add a herb to a treatment, what to monitor and how to work with the doctor.

1. Four questions for adding a herb to a treatmentFoundations · 4 min · free
2. Complementary, not alternative: what combining treatments meansFoundations · 4 min
3. Single substance and phytocomplex: two ways of actingCounselling · 4 min
4. Well-established and traditional use: what you can claim for eachFoundations · 4 min
5. The evidence pyramid applied to herbsCounselling · 5 min
6. First option, adjuvant or unsuitable: how to classify a herbCounselling · 5 min
7. Medicine saves, herbs support: avoiding both extremesFoundations · 4 min
8. Where the pharmacist's role begins and endsFoundations · 4 min
9. How to talk to the doctor about a herb the patient is takingCounselling · 4 min
10. The patient who doesn't tell the doctor which herbs they takeCounselling · 4 min
11. The doctor who rejects herbal medicine: keeping the collaborationCounselling · 4 min
12. How to record and follow up a herbal recommendationCounselling · 4 min
13. When to refuse a request for a herb, and how to say itCounselling · 4 min
14. The patient who wants to give up medicines for herbsAdvanced · 5 min
15. Minor ailment or a matter for the doctor: triage before the herbFoundations · 5 min
16. The goal of a recommendation: what you aim for and how you measure itFoundations · 4 min
17. The trial period: how long before you decide a herb isn't helpingCounselling · 5 min
18. When to add a herb and when to simplify the regimenCounselling · 5 min
19. One change at a time: why it matters when combining treatmentsCounselling · 5 min
20. The placebo effect and regression to the mean in herbal medicineCounselling · 5 min
21. The real cost of a regimen: what you recommend on a tight budgetCounselling · 4 min
22. Herbal dose: why there is no simple equivalence with a drugCounselling · 5 min
23. Standardization: what it assures and what it doesn'tCounselling · 5 min
24. Same name, different extract: why trials don't transferCounselling · 4 min
25. Onset of effect: why herbs often work more slowlyFoundations · 4 min
26. Adverse effects of herbs: why “natural” also carries risksCounselling · 5 min
27. Quality and contamination: metals, pesticides, adulterationAdvanced · 5 min
28. Form and excipient: alcohol, sugar, sodium alongside chronic diseaseCounselling · 4 min
29. Hypertension: where herbal medicine fits alongside treatmentCounselling · 4 min
30. Dyslipidaemia: when lifestyle and supplements do not replace a statinCounselling · 5 min
31. Venous insufficiency: horse chestnut, red vine leaf alongside treatmentCounselling · 4 min
32. Heart failure: why you do not add herbs without the cardiologistAdvanced · 5 min
33. After a heart attack or stent: what to ask before any supplementAdvanced · 5 min
34. The cardiac patient and stimulant herbsCounselling · 4 min
35. Haemorrhoids and circulation: herbs alongside local treatmentFoundations · 4 min
36. Type 2 diabetes: herbal medicine does not replace treatmentCounselling · 5 min
37. Prediabetes: where herbal support fitsCounselling · 4 min
38. Thyroid and herbs: what you do not combine with treatmentCounselling · 5 min
39. Excess weight: herbal medicine alongside modern medicinesCounselling · 5 min
40. Fatty liver: what milk thistle can and cannot doCounselling · 5 min
41. Gout: alongside allopurinol and colchicineAdvanced · 5 min
42. Osteoporosis: treatment, calcium, vitamin D and the place of herbsCounselling · 5 min
43. Reflux: herbal options alongside proton pump inhibitorsCounselling · 5 min
44. Irritable bowel: peppermint oil, fibre and the doctor's treatmentCounselling · 5 min
45. Chronic constipation: fibre, laxatives and the medicines behind itCounselling · 5 min
46. Diarrhoea after antibiotics: the probiotic, and when it is something elseCounselling · 5 min
47. Nausea: ginger and its place alongside treatmentCounselling · 4 min
48. Inflammatory bowel disease: why herbs remain an adjuvantAdvanced · 5 min
49. Bitter herbs and sluggish digestion: when not to recommend themCounselling · 4 min
50. The common cold: herbs for symptoms, medicines when neededFoundations · 4 min
51. Antibiotics: herbs do not replace them when they are indicatedCounselling · 5 min
52. Cough: herbal syrups and the signs that call for a doctorCounselling · 5 min
53. Sinusitis: how to recognise the moment for a doctorCounselling · 4 min
54. Asthma and allergies: controller treatment stays the foundationCounselling · 5 min
55. Urinary tract infection: cranberry, nettle and the moment for antibioticsCounselling · 5 min
56. Herpes, candidiasis: what is support and what is treatmentCounselling · 5 min