REGIONAL (Nov 29, 2007): Debbie Mercier, owner of Greenwood Herbals in Limerick, doesn't mind being called a Wild Medicine Woman. In fact, the herbalist believes herbs can help repair and maintain the body in healthy and powerful ways.
“Some of the people that come to me don’t have insurance, they don’t have money for expensive medicines and they’re cutting their pills in half,” Mercier, 52, said. “They’re looking for a cheaper alternative to allopathic (Western) medicine. Herbal remedies can help, but they shouldn't always be seen as a replacement for traditional medicine.”
Mercier, a former computer software engineer, got started in the herb business in 1996 after suffering for 15 years from an unknown illness doctors said was stress-related. Frustrated by the vague diagnosis and no hope of treatment from her doctors, Mercier started to experiment with her diet. It took several years, but she finally figured out she had a wheat allergy.
As a result of her disappointment with mainstream medicine, Mercier became intrigued with natural cures, and the herbs from which the cures originated. She sought out herbal remedy education programs but found little locally that satisfied her curiosity. Her appetite for learning more about natural remedies led her around the country studying under herbal experts in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Minnesota.
Now, after many years of taking in knowledge of herbs and how they can be effectively used to prevent illness, she is giving back that knowledge to her clients by way of her Greenwood Herbals business on Route 160 in rural Limerick. She grows more than 100 different herbs on her 12-acre property and has built a shed that serves as an herbal shop filled with hundreds of herbs and herb-related products. She also sells her herbs on www.greenwoodherbals.com.
In a phrase, she knows her herbs.
How do herbs work?
When broken down chemically, the active ingredients in herbs are the same as the active ingredients in many over-the-counter or prescription medicines, Mercier said. While some medicine is the product of pharmaceutical labs, most medicine is the byproduct of plant material.
“Take aspirin for example. The active ingredient in aspirin – the thing that makes it work effectively as a medicine – is found in white willow bark, which is an herb. These herbs are pretty powerful stuff,” Mercier said.
But Mercier is careful not to confuse the two. While herbs can heal many ailments and symptoms of serious diseases, she doesn't go so far as to say you can replace medicine with herbal remedies. She uses her husband’s bout with Lyme Disease as an example.
“While there are some herbalists who believe everything can be cured with herbs, I think there is a time and a place for it,” she said. “My husband came down with Lyme Disease and I made him go to the doctor. His symptoms are subtle and I can treat them with herbs. It’s a good example of how herbal remedies can work alongside allopathic medicine.”
For her husband’s Lyme Disease-related joint pain, Mercier makes tea out of teasel, which is a Chinese flower when turned upside down looks like a tick, which she admits is eerily ironic since ticks transmit Lyme Disease.
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