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BACH Flower Remedies

by Leslie Kaslof, edited by Dr. Cole

For years, holistic health practitioners have preached of a relationship among body, mind and spirit. But does science confirm this? Yes, it does! Studies from hospitals, research facilities and leading universities around the country show that mental and emotional stresses are primary factors in nearly all-physical diseases. Institutions involved in this fast growing area of research, which is called psychoneuroimmunology, include the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City; the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Miami, Florida; and the Cancer Counseling and Research Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Their studies and others reveal that emotions, acting through the brain, affect nervous system functions, hormone levels and immunological responses. Positive feelings help us resist disease, while negative feelings make us more vulnerable to it. Stress is not the problem. The problem is in how we handle our stress. The question then is, how--without becoming yogic masters or moving to the mountains--can we become emotionally stable and thereby help our bodies resist disease?

In the early 1930's Dr. Edward Bach, a London physician, began to recognize that many of his patients' ills seemed to be directly related to negative states of mind. He noted that anxiety, worrisome thoughts and even lack of self-confidence so depleted the individual's vitality that the body lost its natural resistance and became vulnerable to infection and other illnesses. He identified the relationship among body, mind and spirit that researchers acknowledge today.

"To bring oneself back into harmony, back into balance, requires the development of a positive loving nature," he wrote. Merely treating a disease does not deal with the cause of the problem. Dr Bach's experience with the negative side effects of drugs further convinced him that the answer was not to be found in the laboratories, but in nature-among the trees, plants and herbs of the field.

Following intensive research, Dr. Bach found that certain species of wild flowers-picked during a specific period in their blooming cycle, prepared by a method he developed and taken according to his directions, helped patients cope with stress. He eliminated toxic and side effect producing plants and eventually succeeded in discovering 38 flowering trees, plants and special waters that helped to balance or alleviate a wide variety of mental and emotional stresses. Today, as over the past half century, these Bach flower remedies are safely used and recommended by thousands of people worldwide for overcoming tension, loneliness, fears, insecurity, jealousy, shyness, poor self-image and other similar emotions-the very emotions that scientists now say are at the root of most physical disease. Dr. Bach's system can be used and understood easily by anyone seeking better health. The remedies are in liquid form and are placed on or under the tongue. They are similar to and act much like homeopathic medications.

"The greatest value of the Bach remedies," states Dr. John Diamond, well-known author and psychiatrist, "is in preventing disease before physical symptoms develop, and they are equally valuable in relieving emotional problems that often accompany illness. The remedies have a soothing effect on the recipient and assist the integration of emotional, psychological, and physiological patterns, so that the individual functions in a more integrated way."

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