Consultations

Alan N. Hopking MA MNIMH FINEH

How I practice herbal medicine

I’d like to outline how I practice herbal medicine. If you have an illness and you would like to receive treatment with medicinal herbs, what should you expect? It is now the modern world and post covid. The world of clinical medicine has changed forever, both for general practitioners in the NHS as well as for herbal practitioners in our private clinics. No longer is it essential to attend a clinic and be face to face with your physician. It is now completely acceptable to have a video consultation, a telephone consultation, even an email consultation. For me, as a private (non-NHS) practitioner, consultations have a fee (like any private clinic). Emails however are free, but donations for my time and advice are appreciated. Face to face consultations are available again now that lockdown and all restrictions have been lifted by the UK government.

I work as a functional medicine herbal practitioner. This implies many things which I will outline in brief. When you consult me, I am interested in your unique personal story, your history, how you have come to be who you are today. That is to say, I am interested in you as a patient as a whole, not solely in the disease that you present. I see health as a positive vital force, a natural and normal state of being, a right. In other words, your health is not merely the absence of disease. Your health as positively based on systemic function – an internal interrelationship that is indivisible i.e. the liver has its action and physiological function, but this function is both dependent on what comes to it, e.g. blood, as much as to do with the organs it acts towards, e.g. the gall bladder, the pancreas, the digestive organs, etc. Health is right function of all the organs and systems together. And it is the therapist’s job to help the body restore this balance and vitality. This is functional medicine. And this is where medicinal herbs have such a powerful part to play. But it is more than just handing out a prescription of herbs. It involves addressing the lifestyle of the patient as well.

Functional medicine is more focused on understanding the causes of a person’s health imbalance than with the symptoms that express this imbalance. So it aims to address these underlying causes of disease, utilising a systems-oriented approach. It focuses on the whole person rather than just on an isolated set of symptoms. As it is focused on a patient-centred individualisation of medicine, it prescribes remedies to restore the body’s physiology (the dynamic interactions that maintain life) to normal functioning. So diseases are regarded as disordered processes of normal physiology and plants are sustainable triggers that support the restoration of the affected tissues.

Lifestyle medicine provides an interdisciplinary, whole-system approach to the prevention and reversal of chronic and lifestyle-related diseases through the modification of the behavioural, social, and environmental drivers.
My herbal practice incorporates the defining characteristics of functional medicine and applies these through the lens of the unique properties of medicinal plants. Medicinal plants in my practice have gone through a rigorous number of tests, analyses, historical use, and scientific assessment. their range of actions and uses are known, and recent pharmacological tests are always being added to our understanding of the plant’s medicinal action, as are new herbs and medicinal mushrooms. All these advances are now at the practitioner’s fingertips for use to benefit our patient. But we also investigate the patient’s diet as a positive aspect of therapy, especially with the use of phytonutrient-rich plant foods. Again, a chronic disease results from multiple causative factors (pieces in the patient’s historical mosaic). The patient’s story is paramount. A personal prescription is formulated along with other supportive remedies if required, e.g. the ABC Powder, slippery elm powder, a sleep tonic, a liver restorative tea, etc.

Yes, I have formulated an unique range of multiherbal tonics for anyone in the population to consider, select and order from this website. I still hold my long-held belief that my practice should be accessible to all and not just the few, i.e. I regard myself as a people’s herbalist. This completely supports my functional medicinal approach because the herbs in each prescriptive tonic are such that, first, they are not isolated constituents like a drug or factory-manufactured vitamin or health supplement, and second, the herbs have multifaceted actions over the range of organs, which means that each tonic takes into account the whole body whilst focusing on the task in hand, be it inflammation, immune enhancement, gall stones, breast lumps, shortness of breath, constipation, enlarged prostate, etc. These “whole-body” medicines rightly called tonics and adaptogens also empower the general goal of physiological enhancement of the function of individual systems, organs, or even tissues and cells. Such enhancement usually also involves the correction of imbalances in other causative body organs.

So, formulating a prescription of medicinal herbs is indeed complex, taking the whole mosaic into consideration, they must also be regarded as “intelligent mixtures” of secondary plant metabolites shaped by evolutionary pressures and possess inherent synergy and polyvalence. Polyvalence can be defined in this context as the range of biological activities that a herb may exhibit that contribute to the overall clinical effect. It stems directly from the chemical complexity of medicinal plants.

Functional herbal medicine supports key endocrine responses. It eliminates persistent pathogens. Lowers danger signals, boosting cellular protection (cytoprotection), enhances mitochondrial function and biogenesis. The ABC Powder is so important in this respect during the treatment period of the patient – and indeed for long-term health. We require the patient to improve their sleep quality and time asleep, thereby restoring their healthy nervous system function (lowering stress, anxiety, worry, depression). The herbs will also boost microcirculatory, macrocirculatory and endothelial health, improving blood quality, thus promoting the healing of tissues (and the person’s energy and outlook). We need to eliminate dysbiosis and promote a healthy microbiome both by diet/exercise and herbs, to optimise digestive function. And since 80% of the immune system originates in the gut, this will optimise and strengthen the defenses in the whole immune function. The mind, brain, emotions and interaction with nature are so important in this mosaic of who we are. To this extent, modern research confirms traditional herbal wisdom which emphasised gut (digestive)-brain interdependence. This has become familiar today as “mental health” – but too often the gut is not sufficiently taken into consideration in this relationship (sugar and refined carbohydrates are the major culprits causing this functional irregularity – from chidhood diabetes through to mental issues, alzheimer’s, parkinson’s and cancer). So, meditation and mindfulness which have been shown convincingly to be of benefit to all peoples on this wonderful and intriguing journey on this beautiful planet, are recommended because they give a deeper perspective of who we are, where we are, and our connection with the cosmic universe, gravity, and distant galaxies beyond our sun and moon.

I offer free support and advice throughout your treatment (usually by text or email due to time). Further telephone support and continued progressive treatment demands booking an online consultation or a further visit to my clinic.

Over 35 years as a herbal practitioner, and I am just as passionate about health and herbal medicine and functional wellness as I was when I qualified as a Member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (MNIMH), and I promise I will do all I can to help you regain your vitality and natural right to health.

(c) Alan Hopking

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Alan in front of clinic in 1985

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Doctor-induced deaths

Alan, Did you know that according to a 2004 report authored by multiple medical doctors (entitled “Death by Medicine”), the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year? In other words, more people in the USA die EACH YEAR from “iatrogenic” (i.e. doctor induced) causes than died the ENTIRE Civil War!
Even the mainstream media outlets are reporting that “medical mistakes” are one of the top 3 causes of death in the USA. From Ty Bollinger

1. After your first consultation our services are FREE for assessment between appointments throughout your treatment
2. “Free-4-5″. You’re welcome to use our freephone* to speak to our herbalist** – advice is FREE-for-5 minutes – one to one [Tell your friends it’s ” 1-2-1 FREE-4-5 ” !] ***
3. Your herbal medicines are tailored for your individual needs
4. Our herbal medicines are organic and made in our own dispensary for you
5. You get your money back if you are not completely satisfied with our service

* Freephone 0800 0834436

** Mr Alan N Hopking MA MNIMH

*** You may be asked to pay if your telephone call is longer than the FREE-4-5 allowed which takes up Mr Hopking’s clinical time. You may request a time to speak to Mr Hopking for longer on the phone; this may involve a fee.

If your call for advice is longer than 5 minutes, I’d appreciate you offering to donate towards the advice and time you have received.