Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese Herbal Medicine is one of the oldest medicines in the world.
Some of the ancient herbal formulas can be dated back to 400 B.C;
Chinese textbooks on herbal medicine used today were written 2000 years ago.
The aim of Traditional Chinese Medicine is to restore health rather than simply eliminating symptoms; since the treatment focuses on the constitutional health, more than the illness, the patient, feeling much stronger may sees all the symptoms disappear quickly, and the possibility of relapses are less likely.
Chinese herbal medicine, when practised as part of TCM, is based on an individualized pattern diagnosis as well as a disease diagnosis.
This means the TCM patient receives a custom written herbal prescription designed to treat both the symptom or disease and also their individual pattern.
Such a TCM pattern is made up of a person's signs and symptoms as well as their emotional temperament and bodily constitution.
Chinese Angelica (Dang Gui)
Herbal prescriptions consist of a mixture of various organic herbs (roots, bark stems, leaves and seeds), which are boiled to make a decoction. Usually half a cup of the herbal 'tea' is taken two or three times a day.
Pills and powders are good for prolonged administration in the case of chronic disease where formulas do not have to be very potent or changed on a frequent basis.
Pills and powders are also commonly used to consolidate therapeutic results after a successful course of therapy with decoctions.
TCM practitioners use ingredients from all three kingdoms, i.e., vegetable, animal, and mineral.
However, in my practice, I only use ingredients from vegetable sources. Leaves, flowers, twigs, stems, roots, tubers, rhizomes, and barks are some of the vegetable parts used.
Most of the medicines in the Chinese materia medica have a very low toxicity compared to even common, over the counter Western drugs. When they are prescribed according to a correct TCM pattern diagnosis, they should have virtually no side effects besides beneficial healing results.
In acute conditions, sometimes results can be expected in a matter of minutes.
Panax Ginseng (Ren Shen)
In chronic conditions, some results should be seen within two weeks. Chronic conditions may require taking Chinese herbal medicine for a long time, nonetheless, signs that the medicine is working should be apparent to patient and practitioner alike almost from the very start.
Pregnant women can take specific formulas to help them during the pregnancy and after childbirth
Children respond very well to Chinese Herbal Medicine, often in cases of eczema, and asthma when the only option available is long term use of steroids with all their side effects