The history of medicine
that is rarely discussed
Uprooted Medicine is the story of how natural healing traditions were pushed out of mainstream medicine — and why it happened. Written by a doctor who spent 25 years practising in both worlds.
RELEASED 2025
Deeply researched
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Decades of clinical practice backed by rigorous historical evidence
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Written by a doctor
A qualified medical doctor and herbalist - someone who has been a dual practitioner
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Pro-patient
An argument for the best of both worlds - not against one discipline or the other
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Readable and accessible
Academic rigour, written for anyone - not just healthcare professionals
WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT?
A different story about medicine — and why it matters
Most of us grew up with a simple version of medical history: science arrived, tested what worked, discarded what didn't, and pharmaceutical medicine emerged as the clear winner. Natural and folk medicine traditions faded away because they were inferior.
But that story isn't quite true.
When Dr. Dílis Clare and Tim Morrissey began researching the history, they found something more troubling: natural healing traditions weren't abandoned because they failed patients. They were marginalised because of professional politics, commercial interests, and ideology. Evidence had less to do with it than most people assume.
Uprooted Medicine tells that story — in detail, with rigour, and with the authority of someone who has spent 25 years practising in both worlds. It is not an anti-medicine polemic. It is a call for honesty about what medicine knows, what it doesn't, and what patients deserve.
"The story generally told — that patient outcomes justified replacing folk and natural medicine with synthetic medicines — has been largely an invention."
Adrian McDermott,
Co-founder, Heartwood Professional Course in Herbal Medicine
WHAT'S INSIDE
The ground the book covers
From the history of how medicine was organised in the 19th century, to what the evidence actually says about natural healing today, Uprooted Medicine covers ground that most medical histories ignore.
Theme 1
How natural medicine was pushed out
The political and commercial forces that shaped which medicines were sanctioned — and which were sidelined — in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Theme 2
What the evidence actually shows
A clear-eyed look at what clinical evidence says about natural and herbal medicine — beyond both the sceptics and the true believers.
Theme 3
The cost to patients
What patients lose when they are told their only options are pharmaceutical — and the real-world impact Dr. Clare has seen in 40+ years of practice.
Theme 4
A better way forward
What collaborative medicine looks like in practice — and how a healthcare system could evaluate every tool on its merits, not its origin.
WHO IS THE BOOK FOR?
This book is for more people than you might think
You don't need a medical background to read it. Dr. Clare has written for anyone who has ever felt there was more to health than a prescription — and anyone who wants to understand why the healthcare debate so often feels stuck.
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Patients and health-conscious readers
If you've ever felt conventional medicine didn't have the full answer for you, this book gives you the context and confidence to advocate for yourself.
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GPs & healthcare professionals
A rigorous, evidence-grounded challenge to assumptions most of us absorbed in training — written by a colleague, not a critic.
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Herbalists & integrative practitioners
The historical and scientific backing for a practice many of you have been arguing for intuitively — now in a book you can point to.
WHY THIS BOOK MATTERS
This isn't just history. It's happening now!
The forces that shaped medicine in the 19th century are still shaping it today. Treatments are still evaluated — or dismissed — based on who stands to benefit financially, not purely on whether they help patients. The ideology that marginalised natural medicine hasn't disappeared; it has just become the default assumption most of us never think to question.
Uprooted Medicine makes those assumptions visible. It gives readers — whether patients, practitioners, or simply curious people — the tools to ask better questions, and to expect better answers from the healthcare system.
That is what this book is for. And it is long overdue!
★★★★★
Uprooted Medicine is a brilliantly researched deep dive into collaborative medical history. I realise that as a non-medical reader, I have been waiting for this book for a long time. This is not just a standard history text; it offers a fresh and well-researched perspective.
★★★★★
"Contains a wealth of historical detail backed by solid academic research and informed by decades of clinical practice. It argues forcefully for a gentler approach to patient care."
Adrian McDermott
Co-founder, Heartwood Professional Course in Herbal Medicine
"We are not anti-medicine. We are pro-patient!
This book is our argument that patients deserve everything that works — not just everything that sells."
Dr. Dílis Clare, author
READY TO READ IT?
Order your copy of Uprooted Medicine
Available now!
Dr. Clare will also be signing copies at HerbFeast in May and the FMC Ireland Conference at Croke Park in November.