2nd Wednesday Lecture: Herbs and Aromatherapy in Healthcare

Herbs and Aromatherapy in Healthcare: Everything Old Is New Again

In this presentation, we’ll briefly look at the long worldwide history of medical use for herbs and aromatherapy. Then we’ll explore some fundamental differences between herbal medicine and pharmaceutical medicine. We’ll also uncover some challenges for safe and effective use of herbs and aromatherapy, including how to find reputable and ethical suppliers and good educational materials. Finally we’ll touch on one of the safest and most economical ways to use herbs: growing them yourself and regularly adding fresh herbs to your diet.

This talk will not provide any medical advice about herbs or aromatherapy. Instead it will focus on little known background information about the industry, as well as overviewing some changes in modern medicine that are leading to much more research and changing attitudes about herbs and aromatherapy among some doctors.

Susan began helping her mother in the garden around the age of 5. She’s been growing her own container garden at various 2nd- or 3rd-floor apartments in Chicago since the mid-1990s. A 2012 graduate of the Master Gardener training, she also has many years of experience as a corporate trainer and loves to share her knowledge with others, whatever the topic.

Susan – or Joy, as her friends call her – has long been interested in alternative healthcare and began studying aromatherapy in 2001 and Ayurvedic herbal medicine in 2002 at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico. Over the years, she has taken close to 100 hours of training in aromatherapy from several different experts and she is a Certified Community Educator for Aromatherapy.