Meet the Expert : Interview with Professor Kerry Bone
Interviewer | Stephen Clarke
Professor Kerry Bone has written seven text books on herbal medicine and authored more than 40 scientific papers on herbal medicine research . He is on the editorial board of the journal Phytomedicine . He is Adjunct Professor at Northeast College of Health Science in New York . He maintains a busy herbal practice in Toowoomba , Queensland .
Tell me about your background – why did you choose to become a natural medicine practitioner ? I developed an interest in natural medicine during my university years . A few of my friends were studying medicine and I realised that appealed to me more than my then current course , which was chemistry . Also , I had developed an interest in yoga and had become aware of natural medicine , so it seemed like a logical step to start studying naturopathy .
Where did you study ? Initially part time at the Southern School of Naturopathy , but when the subjects I needed to do were only available during the day I decided that I should look more broadly at my education options if I was going to give up my well-paid job as a research scientist . Following advice from a medical doctor to study overseas and do more of a specialty , I then began 18 months of letter writing and eventually found the School of Herbal Medicine in the UK , which suited my needs perfectly .
Did your education prepare you well for your professional career ? Yes , it was an excellent course because it focused on clinical herbal medicine and I was very well taught in straight medicine as well .
Why did you choose herbal medicine ? As per my answer above , it was really about finding the right specialist course , which happened to be in herbal medicine . I later realised that , given my chemistry background , this suited me perfectly . But at the time I was also looking into other courses such as Chinese medicine and homoeopathy . I did in fact study homoeopathy while I was in the UK for one year while I was doing the herbal medicine course .
You have been in practice for over 35 years . What has kept you in practice ? Has your practice changed over the course of your career ? If so , in what ways ? By 2025 I will have been in continuous practice in Toowoomba for 40 years ! What ' s kept me in practice all these years is the concept of service . To me there is no greater reward than helping someone solve a problem that is impacting on their lives , in this case a health issue . The corollary of that of course is that I have seen some amazing outcomes with the use of simple natural treatments .
The greatest way my practice has changed over 39 years , and it is a really big change , is the availability of so many more herbs and indeed herbs of much better quality than at the beginning of my career . Also , now we have much more evidence to both inform and back up our choice of treatments . And this applies not just to herbs of course , but to supplements and also to our much greater understanding of the many factors that drive human disease . By way of example , the microbiome was little thought about
39 years ago . We didn ' t have Ginkgo biloba in Australia and the Echinacea root that was being sold at the time was a substitute from a completely different species .
Do you have a referral network with other natural medicine practitioners / other health practitioners ? Not really . If I can ' t help someone , I certainly do refer them on though . Of course , I have maintained a great network of colleagues through my work in manufacturing and education . When COVID came along I realised I needed to extend my lines of communication , and so I am now active on social media with a Facebook page and a YouTube channel for starters .
What is your opinion about the integration of natural medicine with mainstream medicine ? I think that natural medicine can complement mainstream medicine in so many ways for the benefit of patients . However , this is being hampered by vested interests and a lack of education on the part of mainstream doctors .
JATMS | Spring 2024 | 167