For most of human history, we relied on only the natural remedies we had around us to cure injury, ailments and disease.

Generations of healers passed on their knowledge of roots, barks, berries, and the combinations that would save people in times of distress.

And these remedies held their appeal, because they worked, and kept whole families, communities, and even regions alive and thriving to this day.

Now with the advent of science, and the ongoing revolutions in our understanding of the human body, do these ancient treatments stand the test of time, or are they just a folklore?

Hippocrates

When a grandma says ‘take this, this is what my grandma gave to me,’ we usually give in – because grandma said so. But there is real truth and wisdom behind her beliefs?

For those who are cured by grandma’s remedies, the answer is ‘yes.’  From chicken noodle soup for colds to a warm bath for aches, grandma’s ideas are considered sound science and good medicine. People accept that the wisdom of the past is still correct, and health will be restored.

To this day, the graduation of new medical doctors incorporates the Hippocratic oath. A pledge named for Hippocrates, a detailed doctor, scientist and writer who lived more than two millennia ago. Called ‘the father of modern medicine,’ Hippocrates separated illness from religious fears, and focused instead on food, behavior and the environment…as we do today.

But given the incredible advances in science and medicine that have changed the world so dramatically, these facts seems extraordinary, and a little superstitious.

How is it that the ideas from some old guy still govern the way medicine is practiced and taught today?

And if Hippocrates’ teachings are still relevant, wouldn’t the information and ideas of those ancient times also still be relevant too?

Ancient Remedies from Back in the Day

In Hippocrates time, the bark of a willow tree was used for pain relief.  Fast forward, and we call the derivative of this treatment…aspirin.

That is just one example of how ancient remedies have passed through time to cure us today.  In the ruins of ancient Babylon (Iraq), archeologists have discovered ‘prescriptions’ for ritualistic healing. In Egypt, millennia-old papyrus paper details hundreds of remedies from plants. And the Romans documented their findings and best practices in books and guides. 

Herbal practices were common practice well into the 17^th century until understanding science began to rise. The battle between drugs and pharmacology, and traditional herbal practices began to take shape, with herbs often losing to drugs as medical practices became more sophisticated.

But many continued to defend herbal uses, and to warn of the combinations we did not know we were losing.  The quest to capture our collective memory before it disappeared ramped up.

A Nobel Prize for Medicine to a Non-Doctor

In 2015, a recipe used perhaps thousands of years ago, helped Chinese chemist Tu Youyou win the Nobel Prize for Medicine.  Without a medical degree or doctorate, she researched traditional Chinese medical records and folk recipes, and summarized hundreds of prescriptions before beginning experiments that would lead to a breakthrough in the fight against malaria.

Research results from thousands of years of practice combined with the decision to search historical methods used to fight malaria, led to breakthroughs that humans had not known.

Her discovery of artemisinin, which was also used in Hippocrates day, reduced the mortality rates of malaria patients, perhaps saving millions of lives.

What Treatments Are We Missing?

Like the previously unknown potential of artemisinin, there are likely thousands of other remedies that have been lost to time.

Some are gone because of the disruption to cultures by colonialism and war.  Others because of progress and the rise of science. And many are not gone at all.

In the last dusty alleyways of Beijing, the curved corners of the old souk in Marrakesh, or far into a rural village in Zambia, locals continue to practice the ancient ways that have been passed down for generations.

Transforming their knowledge into products today’s society can use is an uphill battle, but one researchers are taking on in an effort to humanize care.

Ethnopharmacology

The practice is called ethnopharmacology and it’s the modern day effort to resurrect ancient remedies. The word ethno, referring to the study of people, societies and cultures, and pharmacology for the use and effect of drugs, creating a fast-growing field of medicine that identifies the elements cultures use as medicines.

So people drugs or culture drugs, as opposed to…science drugs?

Either way, this new practice is part of the intent to bring back the memories of those who know the remedies everyone should know before they die out for good.

In The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, more than 800 medicinal plants and lost cures of North America have been documented along with recipes ranging from teas to oils, to preserve the wisdom of a lost way of life.

For those who are paying attention to these developments, they could be creating the next branch of ethnopharmacology in their own backyard.

A fact many will have to consider as society becomes increasingly separated from its own history by advancement.

High Tech or Low Field

In a world turning increasingly towards technology, the essential battle is between the advancement of technology and the instincts of our basic humanity – that’s the tagline for the Life Online series of future world techno thrillers that describe a time when everyone functions by the dictates of The Network.

In the series, this inevitability is increasingly kept in check by human nature. The desire to use our sensory connections to maintain our natural state overrides the convenience and security we receive from machines.

But that’s the fictional account.

How will the same conflict play out in the real world?

Will we remember lost remedies and use them to our advantage, or will we give up and give in to progress?

If Tu Youyou’s Nobel prize is any indicator, we will go back. China’s long and distinguished history with ancient remedies is just the beginning of rediscovery.

In Africa, in Latin America, even in northern Canada where ice and snow cover the ground for ten months of the year, there are plants, seeds and soils to be revealed that have locked within them the inevitable power to transform our health and welfare.

Our Future in the Past

Ancient remedies work for our health because the discoveries that led to their value centuries ago are still relevant today.

The human body may be bombarded with chemicals, compounds and pollutants that ancient ancestors never knew, but the functions that make us able to withstand these poisons are still whirling within us.

While ongoing evolution may make us taller, fatter, and in many cases, healthier with longer lives, the old ways are the mainstay of our ability to continue to exist in a fast changing world.

The Lost Remedies can be revived, and re-entered into our diet and lexicon to ensure we continue to benefit from the wisdom and ideas that have existed for so long.

The only risk is that we fail to realize this necessity.

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