Herbs for Health

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Using the internet for information on herbs gives new meaning to the words “garden tools.”

Many of you may consider surfing the Internet as an experience akin to picking nettles. But, being on the cutting edge of herb information, especially on medicinal uses of herbs, has required not one good book, but an entire library of herbal information. I have such a library with about 4,000 volumes, on which I have spent thousands of dollars in the past twenty-five years. And while using computers to find and manage information will never be as seamless and pleasant as curling up with a book, the Internet offers more current information than you could possibly wade through in a day, much of it both up-to-date and cutting-edge.

Recently, a friend asked me for information on Parkinson’s disease, with which he had just been diagnosed. I did a PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/) search and found more than 12,000 references. I downloaded the references and abstracts for the 3,000 most current references, and handed him a printout of about 1,000 pages. That’s a little more than most of us want to know, but it illustrates how rich this source of information can be.

Getting started with your search

Make sure you have the latest Internet browser (compatible with your computer and operating system) to take full advantage of a site’s capabilities. Many of us get complacent in our browsing habits. If you get a lot of “site failed to load” messages, it might be because you don’t have the latest browser software, which is free and can be downloaded directly to your computer. You must have an up-to-date operating system and a CPU (central processing unit—i.e. your computer’s brain) to make it all work.

Get a fast Internet connection. The bigger the “pipeline,” the less time you will sit there waiting, and waiting, and waiting for your computer to respond. The ol’ 56 K modem connection doesn’t get you anywhere very fast. Check with your phone or cable TV company to see what’s available in your area. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service is available in most metropolitan areas. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines can go twice as fast as most modems. Cable TV (especially digital cable) will make you feel like you’re driving an Internet sports car. Even direct home satellite Internet service is widely available. Connect as fast as you can.

The search

Remember that there’s more than one search engine! Don’t rely on the same search engine all the time. If you use America Online, its browser engine works great for searching companies and organizations that have some kind of arrangement with the company. You’ll find more than you can plow through, but maybe not exactly what you’re looking for. The same is true for Excite, Yahoo, Hotbot, Lycos, AltaVista, and dozens of others. To learn more about search engines, I did an Internet search on “search engines.” It led me to a site called searchengine.com, which lists all sorts of search engines—general, world, topical, and reference. It explains what they are and what they do. My favorite search engine, the one that seems to give me the most hits relevant to my search, is www.google.com. I have it bookmarked as my home page in Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and use it many times each day.