Unless you have a trained herbalist whom you trust and depend on for advice or your doctor is knowledgeable about herbal medicine, you'll have to educate yourself about which herbs to take, how much, and how often.

Not only are hundreds of different herbs available in the marketplace, they come in many different forms. Understanding the different preparations and how they're made will help you decide which one is best for you.

Eighty percent of all herbal supplements are sold in capsule form. They're not necessarily better than other forms. They are, however, convenient, palatable, and portable. Some are made from gelatin, while others are made from vegetable sources.

But capsules do have some disadvantages. They contain dried, ground herbs, and when herbs are that finely chopped, they can lose their potency more quickly. If you're taking whole herb capsules, not a concentrated extract, you may have to take quite a few capsules to get enough of the herb.

If you choose capsules, it's important to buy them from a reputable manufacturer, for the bottle to be safety sealed, and for the label to contain a future expiration date.

If you garden or harvest wild herbs (which you shouldn't do unless you're certain of your ability to identify a particular species), then you have ready access to fresh herbs. Some herbs just taste better fresh; others are more effective that way, whether the herb is cut from your garden, grown in commercial farm fields, or plucked from a wild hillside (a practice known as wildcrafting).