From the Herbal Academy Instagram
Just my two cents:
I feel like the text in this image probably overlaps enough with medical or scientific claims that sources probably ought to be provided. There are definitely remedies in nature, but the world is rife with people saying any number of things will fix your medical or mental health challenges, and when wrong or unsupported claims are shared and passed off as facts or truth, it can make it harder for people to find things that will actually help them.
It’s probably worthwhile to treat medical or mental health advice about alternative treatments that don’t have supporting evidence in the form of citations or sources with a healthy degree of skepticism. Some of such information may be true, but the best way to find out is to look at research on the topic and read about the findings.
I don’t intend to begrudge anyone who finds these remedies helpful, but when it’s shared with others it stops just being a personal choice and starts to medical advice- and medical advice without supporting evidence is best avoided.
That being said, the illustrations and art style are really lovely, and if anyone knows of supporting evidence for these claims, or just has any knowledge of research supported remedies from nature they’d like to share their excitement about, I would be very pleased to hear about them!
They have a wealth of information on their blog https://theherbalacademy.com/blog/ including the herbs mentioned above, and include citations for medical claims. The Instagram content is simplified for easier sharing, I think, but they generally expand upon it (and often cite sources) in the captions.
I think the info in the above pic is from one of their courses.
Thank you for sharing further info!
I took a look at their website and saw an article that seemed to overlap in topic with the posted image: https://theherbalacademy.com/top-supports-for-anxiety/ although it has citations throughout the article, and lists sources/references at the end, the links for the sources all seem to just be amazon pages for various books on alternative medicine (primarily “vedic healing”, which if I understand correctly would mean that they are more religious teachings than medical ones)
While those books may be peer reviewed, academically rigorous sources, I would expect that they aren’t, and the fact that the sources for their article just links to amazon listings instead of any kind of research unfortunately gives me a lot more pause in terms of the credibility of their claims rather than assuaging my concerns of unsupported medical or mental health advice. Its still a beautiful image, and I’m glad you shared it, but I personally wouldn’t consider the origin a credible source, and would encourage folks to take medical recommendations from that source with a large grain of salt.
You’re welcome. Yes, critical reading is definitely an important skill. I tend to ignore any of their content regarding Ayurveda and other similar, more spiritual practices.
The information on using herbs and essential oils otherwise seems pretty sound to me, but I rarely use a single source to decide. I’m especially interested in herbs and essential oils that have more studies behind them, like St John’s Wort, lavender and garlic.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the topic.
