EUROMEDICA  Hanover 29-30  Mai 2006	Advanced methods of diagnosis, treatment and prophylactics
	European Academy of Natural Sciences, Hanover European Scientific Society, Hanover Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow

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When we first created Society of Natural Medicine programs in 1996, it was with a vision and purpose. I am honored to say that through the collaborative efforts of our dedicated international network of professors, clinicians/practitioners, and a distinguished Board of Directors, and our friendly and professional administration and staff, we have fulfilled many of our goals. We continue to grow and expand our student base and offerings through new programs and wide opportunities for education.

SNM has now established itself, by:

• Being one of the foremost educational institutions for Natural Medicine in the world through distance learning, practical training and clinical externship.
• Offering training programs that integrate healing practices and knowledge from all disciplines and cultures.
• Providing availability and affordability of education in Natural Medicine for people from all cultures and socio-economics.
• A distinguished faculty of educators and practitioners providing more than 25 professors nationally and many more in our global affiliate institutions and centers. Programs can be entirely independent study by design or may include seminars, practical training, clinical externships, mentorship and/or research in the field. The seminars, practical and clinical trainings are available through our network of campuses, affiliate clinics and centers.

Our intention is to create competent and credible practitioners to be of service through education and healthcare by empowering individuals to take charge of their own health and well-being of body, mind and spirit. As a form of treatment that is said to be as old as mankind itself, it is interesting to notice that this most ancient form of medicine is coming back to challenge the most sophisticated system of medicine in the world’s history. Today, the World Health Organization estimates that, worldwide, herbal medicine is three to four times more commonly practiced than conventional medicine.

It can be said that the origins of modern medicine, with its heavy reliance on drug prescription to treat specific diseases, lie in herbal medicine. Some of the best modern drugs are purified products of herbs, and in worldwide use. Primitive tribes still use their traditional knowledge of plants and their healing properties and, in early civilizations, food and medicine were closely linked together, as many plants were eaten for their health-giving properties.

Much of modern knowledge about the use of herbs can be traced back to ancient Egypt where the priests kept that knowledge. A papyrus from the city of Thebes dating back from1500 BC lists hundreds of medicinal herbs, including many that are still in use today.

The ancient Greeks and Romans also were practitioner of herbal medicine and much of their knowledge has been passed on as their armies conquered the world and military doctors took the plants and their uses with them. Two more cultures which have always relied very heavily on herbal medicine are the Chinese and the Indians and, to this day, China herbs play a vital part in health care.

In Russia, from the Dark Ages well into medieval times, herbals were painstakingly hand-copied in the monasteries, each of which had its own physic garden for growing herbs to treat both monks and local people. The crucial difference between medical herbalists and today’s orthodox doctor is, firstly, that the herbalist looks at the patient as a whole, while conventional doctors look for symptoms which enable them to diagnose and treat diseases. They see the person as the carrier of a disease, whilst the herbalist regards the patient as a diseased person, requiring a holistic treatment. Secondly, the medical herbalist is using whole plants or plant products containing active constituents, while doctors use these constituents in refined and isolated forms or synthetics.