Chinese herbal medicine has been practiced for over 2,000 years. Chinese herbal medicine is a primary component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which also includes acupuncture, massage, dietary principles, and therapeutic exercise and movement.
The main difference between Chinese medicine and Western medicine is its view of disease and illness. In Western medicine, a physician prescribes specific drugs to correct a specific disease. The drugs are evaluated for how effective they are for a specific condition. These medications are subject to safety concerns due to the risk of side effects from chemicals that are “foreign”, or “new” to our bodies.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it views a disease or illness as the result of “imbalances” within the body, or between the body and various environmental factors. The purpose of Chinese medicine is not to prescribe an herbal agent to treat a specific manifestation, but to help the patient’s stressed organ systems function in a more natural, balanced state. When the body is said to be in a balanced state, there will be no disease or illness.
It is important to note that in Chinese herbal medicine not everyone with the same condition is given the same herbs. This is because each person is looked at individually. Each person has a unique constitution and relationship to the environment. Some people are more excess (Yang) some are more weak (Yin). This is taken into consideration and all herbal formulas are evaluated before an herbal prescription is recommended. For example, if two individuals are suffering from low back pain it is usually related to a Kidney imbalance. So, the Kidney organ and pathway is evaluated.
One of the individuals might have low back pain accompanied with night sweats, constipation, depression, and feels hot in general. These are patterns of Kidney Yin deficiency. The other individual might have low back pain accompanied with frequent urination, tiredness, felling of coldness, cold hands and feet, decrease sex drive, and frequent stools. This patient has patterns of Kidney Yang deficiency. Even though both might have the identical low back pain, after further evaluation, they are caused by two different means. If the person with Kidney Yin deficiency is given a herb for Kidney Yang deficiency, or visa versa, the herbal formula will not work, or even worse, symptoms will be more pronounced.
There are more than 20,000 herbal formulas from plants, minerals, and animal products that TCM have recognized. Today some 2,000 herbs are currently used either singly or in formulas. These herbs are currently being used in research studies in the People’s Republic of China as well as the Western world to find scientific explanations. A TCM practitioner seldom prescribes a single herb, but instead offers individualized combinations based on time-tested formulas. These are called Chinese patent herbal medicine. These are time-tested formulas that harmonize the imbalanced systems that cause disease and illness. These patent Chinese formulas come in different forms. It can be in raw herb form (Tong) where a tea, or soup is made and drunk, powder form (San) where it can be mixed with water and drunk, or placed in capsules and swallowed with water, a tablet (Pian), and lastly in tea pill form (Wan). All the forms are effective, but the tea pill form is the easiest to ingest, readily available, and cheapest form. Typically 4-12 tiny pills are taken three time a day.
With the rise in popularity and availability of Chinese patents in the United States, agencies are taking a closer look at them. Many have been found to contain undeclared western drugs, toxic metals, undeclared toxic plant matter. Many companies have adopted GMP’s (Good Manufacturing Practices) in order to product quality and safe products for today’s modern markets. This is a must with Chinese Herbs. All herbal medicines sold here are GMP Certified.
Although it has received less attention in the popular media, the use of Chinese herbs goes hand in hand with acupuncture and is an essential part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Chinese herbal formulas treat a wide variety of conditions by stimulating the body’s natural healing process, and have shown excellent results in hospital studies with patients who failed to respond to conventional pharmaceuticals. Unlike most single-ingredient herbal supplements administered by Naturopathic Doctors or those sold in health-food stores, Chinese herbs are more commonly taken in formulas, which combine two to eighteen different herbs. Most herbal formulas used by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners have been in use for over 2,000 years, and the herbs in these formulas have been found to work synergistically together to increase their healing power while simultaneously reducing the potential side effects of the various herbs involved. Traditionally, Chinese herbal formulas were taken by boiling dry herbs and drinking the “tea” that resulted. At the Center for Preventive Medicine, we understand that most patients in the United States lead busy lives and may not have the time to boil herbs for hours each day. Therefore, our herbal formulas are in convenient pill, tincture or powder form. Our herbs are all GMP approved, of high potency, and sold exclusively through the offices of Traditional Chinese Medical practitioners.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, all phenomena (including all aspects of the body and health) can be described as either Yin or Yang. Yin describes what is cool or cold, more interior, calm, slow, and chronic. Yang describes what is warm or hot, more superficial, active, fast, and: acute. Health, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is a result of balancing the Yin and the Yang. In using Chinese herbs, therefore, an Oriental Medicine practitioner will use yin herbs to “cool” conditions, which show an excess of yang, and so forth. Moreover, any medicine that is too yin or yang will be unbalanced, and therefore will cause side-effects. Chinese formulas, therefore, have been perfected over thousands of years so that those herbs in the formula which are too yang are “cooled” by other herbs in the formula, and vice-versa, reducing side-effects and maximizing effectiveness.
