It has been hundreds of years since herbs have been as popular as they are today, and used by so many people for health care. Herbal use is thousands of years old, and was the only healing choice for our ancestors. But unlike our long ago ancestors, the herbs we use today are mostly picked, processed, and packaged for us. Very few people actually grow or wildcraft what they then use for medicine.

Not only have we given over the acquisition of our herbs, our sources for herbal information have switched from wise women and local experts to TV ads and mass marketing. With such a dramatic rise in the use, production, and sale of herbs, accompanied by nearly all herbal consumers relying on small and large companies to gather and prepare their herbs, there are of course questions about potency, quality, effectiveness and safety of the herbs we use.
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Chiropractic Care in Pregnancy for Safer, Easier Births

by Dr. Jennifer Brown

Chiropractic care in pregnancy is an essential ingredient in one's pre-natal care choices. A large percentage of all pregnant women experience discomfort or back pain during pregnancy. This is due to the rapid growth of the baby and an interference to the body's normal structural adaptations to that growth.

Pre-existing unnoticed imbalances in your spine and pelvis become overtaxed during these times. The added stresses lead to discomfort and difficulty while performing routine, daily activities. Chiropractic care throughout pregnancy can relieve and even prevent the common discomforts experienced in pregnancy.
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Regulation of Touch Therapies Is Not An Easy Thing

by Linda Diane Feldt

Ann Arbor's reputation as an "alternative friendly" place is widespread. In the area of alternative health and healing, Ann Arbor has been a prime location for conferences and trainings, and has nurtured many leaders in the field of complementary and alternative medicine.

...All of this exists within the non-regulated climate of the state of Michigan. Consumers have had success finding the practitioners they want, reasonable prices are charged, and people generally confine their work to what they are trained to do. We have been helping people. We have been contributing to our community through our work, by being dedicated healthcare providers, and by living and contributing as everyone else does – volunteering, paying taxes, supporting local businesses.

How, then, did we ever end up in the situation we now find ourselves in – fighting to stop a proposal to regulate massage and bodywork, a regulation proposed for one reason only – for bodyworkers to prove that they are not prostitutes.
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Plants You Don't Need To Plant –There is a Free Lunch

by Linda Diane Feldt

Dandelions, Yellow Dock, Lambs Quarters, Burdock, Pig Weed, Mallow, Wood Sorrel, Wild Grape, Virginia Creeper, Plantain, Wild Carrot, Chickweed, Violet, Dame's Rocket – what do these plants have in common? Chances are most of them are already growing in your garden. Not only have they planted themselves; they are the weeds so almost no maintenance is needed to encourage them to grow!

More and more people are realizing that poisoning their lawns to be rid of weeds is not healthy for our environment, our families, our pets, or even the lawn itself! But what can you do with those weeds? We need a fundamental shift in consciousness about the abundance of these "pest" plants. Many of them were introduced to North America because they were originally valued for food and medicine. Their fall from favor is perpetuated by lawn companies who label these nutrient rich plants as "pests" and where whole communities consider the presence of the beautiful sunny dandelion flower a sign of failure on the part of the lawn owner.

There is a more intelligent, reasonable, resourceful, responsible, environmentally sound and even fun way to deal with these plants.
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