June 2004 | Evergreen Health
The Uncommon Healer
Who: Althea Northage-Orr, registered herbalist and licensed acu-puncturist. Chicago College of Healing Arts, Chicago.
Quick take: Northage-Orr is classically trained in Chinese medical herbal medicine that includes sophisticated diagnostic approaches; she often confers with physicians on integrative approach-es to healing. Believes that herbs are a simpler and healthier way to treat many common everyday health problems — from colds, flu and allergies to earaches.
Old vs. New:
Northage-Orr is an advocate of integrative medicine where complementary and conventional practitioners work side-by-side in a clinical setting. She says herbal medicine fits well into such a system as herbs can address long-term chronic conditions. “What we really need to do is use both systems where they are best,” she says. “And that means that people shouldn’t be dragging their kids in to get antibiotics every time they have a sniffle or earache. They should be doing essential oils and herbs — much gentler [than drugs] but very effective therapies.”
But she has great respect for conventional medicine and cautions that people “should not try to duck mainstream health care when they have a situation that is life-threatening or demands acute care.”
Knowing the Difference: She thinks there are flaws in the current approach to integrative medicine by big clinics and hospital outposts, as she’s observed that these places often have practitioners with limited knowledge of, for instance, herbal medicine. Quite frequently, she says, a doctor or nutritionist on staff will have attended a few weekend courses or short certification course that doesn’t qualify them to practice herbal medicine in a truly informed manner. “They’re not trained professionals, in the same way that I have no business performing a heart operation,” she says. “That’s why many people who want this type of care go to independent healers such as myself.”
Biggest Myth: That herbs are unstudied and new. She says she “finds that hilarious when you consider that we have manuscripts going back four thousand years” validating the safe and effective use of herbal medicines. For instance, the Ebers Papyrus of ancient Egypt (from 1550 BCE.) contains prescriptions and detailed information for over seven hundred remedies including the treatment of menstrual problems, infertility and “childbirth” fever. It’s a far older system of medicine than pharmaceutical (drug) medicine. “If you ask me about a common herb like comfrey,” she remarks, “I can tell you what somebody said about it in 500 BCE.”
Northage-Orr suggests that the best way to choose an herbalist is to find one who is associated and credentialed with an organization such as the American Herbalist Guild, which she says, demands a very high level of clinical training.
Case History: Been studying herbal medicine for 30 years. Got interested in her early 20s when she was taking prescription drugs for chronic bronchitis and a variety of other ills, and was getting bad reactions. Discovering herbs, she made a serious study of them, eventually pursuing Traditional Chinese Medicine. Today, Northage-Orr is a nationally recognized figure in this highly specialized field that emphasizes herbal medicine.
Personal File: Married for 20 years to John Northage, a bodywork therapist (also her professional colleague). Has three kids. Is a passionate gardener cultivating 80 acres with 170 herbal species. Special interest in saving endangered wild herbs.
![[Send]](http://seattle.consciouschoice.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
