Medicine has encompassed our everyday lives. From a sore throat to a small cough, pill-popping has become a natural remedy for most.

Before modern medicine, people used herbal remedies to help cure or treat fevers and illnesses they had. When doctors became too expensive, families sought the same women who practiced natural medicines illegally. They would use anything from turmeric to chamomile to relieve symptoms of certain health conditions and alleviate pain, which caused superstition among townspeople who thought they were mingling with the devil. Though this wasn’t the case, these women were marked as witches because they took part in saving poor people’s lives instead of leaving them for dead. Therefore, if a woman was good at her job, they were obviously a witch who used magic to help others in need.

Though chastised in history for their practice of natural remedies, many drugs on the market today were produced by the use of these traditional medicines such as those created by midwives and Witches. At the time, women using them would be persecuted for witchcraft and jailed for practicing medicine without a license even though using herbs was natural and not something that people should be jailed or even killed for. One example of a drug used today that dates back to when women were prosecuted is foxglove. Foxglove was used to help cure heart problems. As of now, crushed-up foxglove is used in modern heart failure drugs such as digoxin and digitoxin. 

Another example of an herb used today is cannabis. Cannabis has become far more available to the public than it has in over a decade. Long before it was used by the general public, cannabis was used by Witches for ritualistic purposes, meditation, healing and psychic awareness. Similar to today’s society, people use cannabis for relaxation and healing of the body if they undergo a lot of pain. Ironically, herbs like cannabis have become legalized, and herbs such as foxglove are used in modern medicines even though there has been so much superstition about them throughout history.

When choosing what type of medicines to use, it is helpful to differentiate when or when not to use modern and herbal medicines.

Modern medicine should only be used to treat symptoms that are severe, life-threatening, or aren’t improving with the use of herbs, or else taking them can become riskier and possibly inefficient. Herbs should be used for allergies, colds, migraines, fatigue and more. If herbs don’t work, that is the moment when people should instead use modern medicine. Overall, a combination of traditional remedies and modern medicine could offer a more holistic approach to health and wellness.

We as a society must use the natural resources around us before hitting up our nearby pharmacies to cure a small headache that could have gone away a lot quicker with the use of natural plants and herbs.