David Winston

David Winston is an American herbalist and ethnobotanist who, since 1977 has practiced and taught herbal medicine in United States. He has over 38 years training in Cherokee, Chinese and the western/Eclectic herbal traditions. In addition, Winston is a founding/professional member of the American Herbalists Guild^[1] , for which he served four terms as a Board Member and is a founding member of United Plant Savers a nonprofit which seeks to protect native medicinal plants of the United States and Canada and their native habitats. ^[2] He serves as an adjunct professor at the Tai Sophia Institute and is the Dean of the Center for Herbal Studies ^[3]

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Biography

As a child David Winston, RH(AHG) developed a serious relationship with plants and started experimenting with taking them and observing their effects in the late 1960s. He was leading herb walks and teaching about herbs by age 17. In 1974 he moved to New York City where he studied with Dr. Eng, a doctor of Chinese Herbal Medicine. In 1976 he began study with western herbalist William LeSassier who developed the theory of Triune formulas and he also took university courses in anatomy & physiology, pharmacognosy, cellular biology, etc. In 1977 he started his clinical practice and in 1982 he founded one of NJ's first holistic health centers, The Awareness Health Center, in Franklin Park, NJ. David has also studied herbal medicine with several Cherokee elders, as well as other indigenous people. David is a founding and professional member of the American Herbalist's Guild, the director of the David Winston's Center for Herbal Studies and the Herbal Therapeutics Research Library, the author of Saw Palmetto for Men and Women (Storey), Herbal Therapeutics (2003) and the co-author of Herb Therapy & Supplements; a scientific and traditional approach (2000, Lippencott) and Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina and Stress Relief (Healing Arts Press, 2007) ^[4]

Herbal Therapeutics Research Library

David Winston has one of the largest private libraries of botanical medicine in the United States with extensive holdings with over 8,000 books and over 12,000 articles on file, including Eclectic and Thomsonian Medicine, physiomedicalism, the history of medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacy, pharmocognosy, poisonous plants, mycology, botany and economic botany. The HTRL also has substantial holdings in Southeastern native ethnology, Southeastern material culture and ethnomusicology. He also has the only antiquarian book company Herbalist and Alchemist Books that deals exclusively with antiquarian herbal and medical books. ^[5]

Herbal Manufacturing

Winston founded Herbalist and Alchemist, an herbal tincture firm known for spagyric alchemical processing of herbs. Unlike most commercially available herbal tinctures, the alchemically processed herbs have mineral constituents reduced to ash from the marc added back after filtration. Herbalist and Alchemist does not standardize their herbal products as Winston point out that standardization has not been standardized yet. Different companies use different markers, or different levels of the same markers, or different methods of testing for marker compounds. He also points out that whenever different compounds are chosen as "active ingredients" for different herbs, there is a chance that suppliers will get a substandard batch (low on the chemical markers) and mix it with a batch higher in the desired marker to compensate for the difference.^[6]

Teaching

Over the last three decades David Winston has lectured widely in classes and conferences including the American Herbalists Guild Conference, Medicines from the Earth, The Southwest Conference of Botanical Medicine, the International Herb Symposium, United Plant Savers, the Green Nations' Gathering, the Natural Products Expo, the Blue Ridge School, and the New York Open Center. Major schools where he has lectured include the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) Continuing Education in York, England, Bastyr University in Bellingham, WA, the University of Medicine & Dentistry (UMDNJ)in Newark, NJ, George Washington University Medical School in Washington, DC, Dominion Herbal College in Vancouver BC, the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ, North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, NY, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, OR, and Tai Sophia Institute, Laurel, MD (adjunct professor, M.S. program), ^{[7] [8]}

His company, Herbal Therapeutics, Inc, runs his library, his consulting entity, and his school. The 'David Winston Center for Herbal Studies, which trains experienced herbalists and medical personnel in the use of herbal medicines, using over 300 plants taken from Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Native American, Eclectic and European herbal traditions, with subtle differentiation between species and uses. His philosophy is to use plants from various traditions, analyzed in a way that allows him to construct formulas based on Cherokee, Triune, Chinese or other traditions that match the individual, rather than using herbs stereotyped for a specific disease. This is a kind of constitutional medicine that puts the strengths and weaknesses of a patient at the center of the analysis rather than the named disease, and is common to most traditional herbal medicine traditions. He has trained hundreds of herbalists over the last 25 years and taught classes for thousands of healthcare practitioners. ^[9] A number of the leading younger herbalists in the United States today were trained in his methodology and he has taught in Canada and Europe as well.

Publications

• 2007, Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief (with Steven Maimes)
• 2006, Cancer: Its Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment (With Earl Yarnel and Eli Jones)
• 2003, Herbal Therapeutics: Specific Indications for Herbs & Herbal Formulas
• 2001, Herbal Therapy and Supplements: A Scientific and Traditional Approach (with Merrily Kuhn)
• 1999, Saw Palmetto for Men & Women: Herbal Healing for the Prostate, Urinary Tract, Immune System and More (Medicinal Herb Guide)]]
• 1992, Nvwoti Cherokee Medicine and Ethnobotany in American Herbalism edited by Michael Tierra Crossings Press

References

See also

• Chinese Medicine
• Ayurveda
• Eclectic medicine
• Herbalism
• Pharmacognosy
• Botany
• Ethnobotany