What is Botanical Medicine?

Experience natural healing for your health concerns with...

Botanical Medicine

The art and mastery of botanical medicine is strongly valued and practiced at Aspen Integrative. Our physicians have extensive training in herbal medicine, wildcrafting native southwest plants, creating custom herbal formulas and infusions and helping patients heal naturally, with herbs.

Botanical or herbal medicine is the use of plant extracts in the form of a liquid tincture, infusion, capsule or powder to aid in healing the body, shifting energetic patterns and alleviating symptoms. Botanical medicine has been used by many cultures for thousands of years and was the principle form of medicine before pharmaceuticals became popular in the mid 1900’s. Many plants were part of the US Pharmacopoeia up until the 1950’s! At Aspen Integrative Medical Center, our naturopathic physicians are highly skilled in the use of this healing modality to improve the health of the individual and prevent disease.

How does botanical medicine compare to pharmaceutical medications?

Botanical medicine (use of herbs) has fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals and can often be used alongside pharmaceuticals to achieve therapeutic benefit. Botanical medicine does not work on a single enzyme or pathway as pharmaceuticals do, making its effect on the body much more in depth and profound. It can be incredibly specific to a patient’s symptoms. Botanical or herbal medicine can address the patient’s constitution, or primary energetic pattern such as hot, cold, dry, moist. A patient’s temperature preference, personality, physical symptoms and mental health struggles can all be addressed in the same formula customized by our physicians.

How can I use botanical medicine?

Ways we utilize herbs at Aspen Integrative are:

Custom liquid tinctures (extracted in alcohol, glycerine)
Custom herbal infusions or decoctions (made with either fresh or dried herbs)
Capsules of dried, powdered herb
Herbal syrup, elixir
Herbal oil

Some herbs need to be tasted to be most efficacious, for example bitter herbs help to stimulate digestion and alleviate constipation but need to be in touch with the taste receptors on our tongue so our body gets the bitter taste to stimulate this action. Infusions can be prepared hot or cold and are cost effective ways to increase hydration and use herbal medicine. Our naturopathic physicians can create custom botanical formulations at Aspen that are always patient specific and unique to the patient’s needs. This cannot be done with a pill or ordered online through other botanical medicine providers.