PORT ANTONIO, Jamaica – Name the affliction, and Lloyd “Lee” Henry swears he can beat it. Chronic headaches? Cured in a couple of days. Kidney stones? Kicked in a few weeks. AIDS? Well, that one he’s working on.
Henry hasn’t stumbled on some breakthrough in modern medicine.
Rather, the 42-year-old dreadlocked healer relies on centuries- old herbal remedies passed down by African slaves – so-called bush medicine – to treat Jamaicans for everything from ear infections to erectile dysfunction.
“The bush man doesn’t provide pain relief, he provides a cure,” insists Henry, one of a growing number of herbalists and physicians in Jamaica who say the key to long-lasting health lies in the plant, not the pill.
While medical science is wary of herbalists like Henry, a dozen or more people line up each morning outside his makeshift clinic to seek his services.
It’s no wonder. Bush doctors usually charge less than public clinics and most offer same-day treatment – a rarity in a poor country where hospital waiting rooms are usually packed and there are only 13 doctors for every 10,000 people.
“In Jamaica, going to the hospital isn’t always the best option, so that’s where we come in,” Henry says, wearing a big grin and an old stethoscope at his clinic in Port Antonio, a sleepy seaside town 60 miles northeast of the capital, Kingston.
Inside, tall sacks of dried herbs and roots lean against the wall alongside dozens of plastic jugs filled with dark elixirs with names like “Anticancer Treatment, Multi-action Blood Purifier” and “Female Delight.”
After harvesting the herbs, Henry infuses them into tonics that he sells in discarded soda bottles for $4 to $6 each.
Tending to a female patient, Henry ticks off a list of ills he claims can be cured by his treatments – kidney ailments, arthritis, headaches, back pain, even some forms of cancer.
“From the first bottle he gave me I was a changed person,” says Lana Brown, a 41-year-old vegetable seller who recounts how she started seeing Henry last year after doctors warned she could lose her left eye from glaucoma.
She says her vision is so improved she no longer makes monthly trips to Kingston for treatment. “For me, the herbal medicine just works better than the hospital kind.”
Others interested in bush medicine include young men looking to improve their sexual performance. For that, Henry prescribes a tonic of rosemary, blood root and other herbs called “Strong Man Back.”
“Viagra simply can’t compete with this stuff,” Henry boasts of the red-brown liquid. “It’ll stay in your system for months.”
Henry, however, says he has his eye on a larger prize – finding a cure for AIDS. He says he’s treated dozens of victims and is experimenting with a new combination of herbs.
“I’m very confident I’ll find a cure someday,” he says. “You just have to believe in the power of the plant.”
Not everyone does.
At a recent symposium, Dr. Alverston Bailey, vice president of the Medical Association of Jamaica, said there is a “significant mushrooming” of herbal medicine use in Jamaica – as many as 30 percent of all patients – but that most doctors “still aren’t sold as to the efficacy of these treatments.”
“We’re not condemning alternative treatment options, but whenever people are offered them they should ask for evidence that it is safe and effective,” Bailey said.
Still, Henry says that doctors from as far away as Britain, Belgium and Germany have come to study his treatments and that some Jamaican physicians and pharmacists send patients to herbalists when conventional medicine fails.
Dr. Daniela Speck, who runs a private practice in Port Antonio, calls herself a believer in herbal medicine and has recommended Henry to dozens of people with high blood pressure, skin infections and benign tumors.
“Many people prefer herbal medicine because they know it’s from their forefathers and they’re not comfortable putting all the chemicals into their body,” says Speck, a native of Loerrach, Germany, who has lived in Jamaica 13 years.
Jamaica’s government also has a new interest in herbal medicines. It recently called for more research into such treatments, seeking to cash in on the multibillion-dollar “nutraceutical” industry by promoting the island’s medicinal herbs.
Bush medicine first flourished in Jamaica among slaves imported from Africa. It was later developed by the Maroons, a fierce band of runaway slaves whose descendants still live in semiautonomy in remote mountain settlements.
The island’s lush landscape and tropical climate proved ideal for growing herbs, and today Jamaica is home to more than 300 varieties of medicinal plants.
And what about Jamaica’s most famous plant – marijuana?
“I’ll prescribe a little ganja for my patients once in a while,” Henry says. “The law is against it, but its curative powers are incredible.”
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