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Vivian Pratte’s young clients anxiously tell the Richmond herbalist about their health worries.
In their 20s, they’ve looked to her for herbal remedies because trying to keep on top of car payments and cover the rent means little money to spare for health insurance or doctor’s visits.
Medicinal products made from plants, like the tinctures Pratte makes from her garden, are nothing new – tradition is often part of the appeal. But as their use grows nationwide, some Mainers are also turning to them to fill gaps in the state’s strained and increasingly unaffordable healthcare system, despite potential health risks if products aren’t used carefully.
“People come in and they want an alternative,” said Pratte, whose own path to herbalism started as a child with health issues and a sensitivity to medicine.
She opened a small shop last year selling products she makes with herbs she grows organically, focused on addressing specific niche ailments. She also offers consultations for clients.
The majority of her clients want to stop having to take so many medications, she said, but about a quarter can’t afford other options. Some are insured; others do have insurance but can’t cover co-pays or the costs of multiple medications. A month’s supply of one of her products ranges from $10 to $30, compared to hundreds some pay monthly for prescriptions.
“People need to remember herbs were here before Western medicine,” Pratte said.
The country’s commercial herbal supplement market has grown to reach nearly $13 billion in sales in 2023, according to industry reports, though that’s largely made up of imported plants.
Numerous Maine companies sell herbal supplements, tinctures and other products made from plants, and Mainers also make their own products at home.
Earlier this year, the state expanded the ability of naturopathic doctors, who use natural supplements as part of their practice, to prescribe medications and use IV therapy. Multiple conventional healthcare professionals testified in support, saying the providers fill an important role in Maine’s shrinking healthcare landscape. They gave examples of patients unable to get timely appointments or preventative care otherwise.
Several medical groups also opposed the initial bill, highlighting different training standards for medical doctors.
Maine has an ongoing shortage of primary care providers that’s expected to worsen, with hospitals closing or cutting services across the state in recent years. Nationwide, health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable.
Jennifer May, an herbalist in Cherryfield, ventured into herbalism and traditional Chinese medicine about 30 years ago when conventional medicine wasn’t helping with her Hashimoto’s disease. A plant remedy reversed the condition in a few months and it never came back, she said.
Now, she focuses on helping people manage chronic conditions naturally. In particular, May approaches Lyme disease with flower essences – which don’t contain flowers themselves, but are supposed to use their energy to heal people – herbal remedies to support physical side effects and a third prong of “energy medicine.”
Last summer, she started free “holistic community care clinics” in Cherryfield, letting people meet with a rotating group of practitioners by donation or for free.
“I started them up here Down East because I don’t think people should have to choose between groceries and healthcare,” May said.
She previously organized similar events in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island, and has taught classes on making remedies with local herbs for the Maine Seacoast Mission.
May also sees people having trouble accessing healthcare Down East, ranging from waiting months for appointments to lacking access to specialists and struggling to pay for doctor’s visits. Locally, she knows people often go to urgent care in Ellsworth instead of a doctor because it costs less.
Still, May said herbalists and practitioners in her circles aren’t seeing the influx of clients they expected would follow from troubles in the healthcare system, though herbalists generally have lower prices and often want to work with people who need help affording it, she said.
She sees more interest from people who don’t feel they’re getting the level of care they need from doctors for complicated or chronic conditions. Some of her own clients are skeptical, but then find the products work, she said, an experience Pratte has also had in Richmond.
Neither are opposed to Western medicine, and both work with medical professionals, they said. In more extreme cases, they would send people to doctors.
Pratte’s clients start with a consultation, where she tries to narrow down one or two more severe ailments to address first, which she often finds helps alleviate others. She also works with doctors, refers clients to them for more serious ailments and encourages people to visit a clinic at least once a year if they can afford it, she said.
If they do have doctors, Pratte asks clients to bring an herbal plan for approval. For those without healthcare, she’ll talk about their ailments to figure out what may target those particular areas.
That language is carefully chosen: federal regulations bar people from claiming herbal products will diagnose, treat, cure or prevent diseases.
Maine practitioners have run afoul of those rules in the past, like a farm in Athens warned by the Federal Trade Commission in 2020 for recommending people protect themselves against COVID-19 in a variety of ways: through herbal remedies, spraying “beautiful aromas” into the air, burning herbs to kill germs, using amber oil as an “energetic shield” to protect against parasites, and wearing a protective amulet or carrying a “small magic bag” of protective herbs or stones.
Pratte attended the Academy of Natural Health Sciences in New Jersey, one of the few accredited institutions for herbal knowledge. She’s seen people be harmed by advice from herbalists with less formal training, she said.
Herbal products can also interact negatively with pharmaceuticals, and people taking them incorrectly or at the wrong dosage can cause new health problems.
Not everyone is drawn to medicinal plants because of healthcare costs or access; interest in medicinal herbs and mushrooms also overlaps with Maine’s homesteading and local food movement. That’s been the case for Andrew Millard, a mushroom grower and forager in Belfast who sells to local accounts and at the city’s farmers market.
He sells culinary mushrooms, powdered lion’s mane he grows from local wood shavings and a glycerin-based “wellness tincture” made with lion’s mane and locally foraged turkey tail and chaga mushrooms.
Some research has shown those mushrooms can help with immune and gut health, along with mental clarity and nerve support.
But Millard said he’s mainly focused on eating as locally as possible and introducing people to the world of fungi, which he sees as an underutilized food group.
He experienced people becoming more health conscious after the pandemic, he said, and has observed them wanting to know what they’re putting in their bodies, where their food is coming from and that it has a source they can trust. That’s also become a focus in people’s approach to their health, according to Millard.
“Maine is unique because people are more hands-on with their food,” he said.
