Introduction to Chinese Herbs

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This is a very basic introductory article on Chinese herbs on the Institute

for Taditional Medicine website. You'll need an Adobe reader to access this

article. If you don't have one, you can download one from the ITM website.

 

>http://www.itmonline.org/pdf/herbintr.pdf

 

One of the most important ideas in the article is that clients are monitored

regularly and treatment may be changed many times as the condition changes.

TCM never takes the approach of " take this indefinitely. Treatment is very

fine-tuned.

 

The article also points out that the longer someone has been sick and gone

without treatment or without proper treatment, the longer it takes to

correct the imbalance. Some people may require maintenance dosages

indefinitely because of a problem that went on too long without treatment or

because of age or because of a genetic tendency to certain imbalances (like

Yang Deficiency).

 

The article lists 15 commonly used Chinese herbs. This article does not go

into the TCM syndromes that the herb is used for or the TCM

contraindications for most of the herbs. For example, it doesn't tell

readers that astragalus is a Qi tonic (increases Qi in the body), that it's

especially good in cases of Protective (Wei) Qi Deficiency (the person is

prone to catching infections easily and/or is very weather sensitive), that

it's also tonic to the Blood, and the herb is contraindicated in cases of

both Deficiency Heat (Yin Deficiency) and Excess Heat. (Acutally you can

take it in cases of Yin Deficiency; you just have to be very careful about

mixing it with other herbs in order to not increase Heat in the body.)

 

The article does touch on adverse reactions to herbs. What the article does

not mention is that a lot of the adverse reactions to TCM herbs in the West

are caused by improperly using the herbs. This means not using the herbs

according to which TCM Syndromes the person has (i.e., Qi Deficiency,

especially Protective Qi Deficiency in the case of astragalus) and ignorning

TCM contraindications (for example, the person being too Hot). BTW,

something that herbalists need to be aware of when recommending any of the

Qi tonic herbs (astragalus, ginseng, Chinese wild yam, licorice root,

solomonseal rhizome, etc.) is to consider the possibility of Qi Stagnation.

If there is a blockage to Qi flow (Qi Stagnation), one can create or worsen

problems by using Qi tonics. You're adding Qi to the body, but because of

the blockage, the Qi is building up behind that blockage and creating

problems, in particular localized Heat problems. In addition, the person is

still Qi Deficient even though Qi is being supplemented with the Qi tonic

herb, it's not getting to all parts of the body because of the Qi

Stagnation. If a person is both Qi Deficient and Qi Stagnant, both Qi tonic

herbs and herbs to invigorate Qi (get it moving) will need to be included in

a formula.

 

Victoria

 

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