Ah, wwh, cut of troy some slack. She makes a very good point about medicinal patches. They work. I know from personal experience--and those patches sure ain't the work of herbalists. I find them to be pretty amazing in how they work. In fact, my mother recently had a break-out of shingles, and the I learned in my research on her behalf that the AMA highly recommends a medicinal patch for relieving post-neuralgic pain associated with shingles.

Another personal account: My grandmother's family doctor completely credited her with saving one of her children from application of mustard plasters when the child had pneumonia.