Is libertarianism a reasonable approach to availability of nutrients--who tells us how to practice?

[Guest guest]

Thomas,

 

Though what you say is correct, I wonder if you find the status quo

acceptable: Come some time to the largest herbal store in Chinatown, LA, Wing

Hop Fung, and you will find lots of products from all over China, with varying

degrees of reliability, some quite recognizable and some completely unknown.

You will see all sorts or people looking through the shelves and you will see

helpful employees with little or no background ready to recommend whatever their

books or inserts recommend, many speaking very limited English. You have

unreliable quality herbs, sold by untrained salespeople to desperate consumers.

What would you suggest? Can you offer a more ethical, more reliable or more

available system. I hate the FDA's regulatory intrusion on what I can use or

have available, but how will the GMP recommendations reliably change this to the

better. My apologies for not clarifying my respect for the Western Herbal

tradition. I agree that there are indeed trained quality

practitioners, who also use sophisticated formulas to resolve illness

successfully. However, I would still claim that Chinese diagnostics better view

the interconnectiveness of the body and emotions, and as Chris stated require a

different way of thinking to be a successful practitioner. I feel that our

challenge is the integration of outside medicinal substances into the practice

of Chinese medicine. As far as chaparral and comfrey are concerned whether

labeled for external use only is not the issue: The issue is who tells us (and

to what degree) how to practice.

 

respectfully

 

Yehuda

 

wrote:

Yehuda, Chris, all,

 

I disagree! Patterns are made up of a complex of symptoms (and signs) that cause

a " disease " or illness, such as headache. If the label says something like: for

headache with red eyes, pain in the vertex, etc. then I think anyone with half a

brain can understand the difference between this and headache with pain around

the temples and stuffiness in the chest, etc.

 

I also disagree when you say that Western herbal formulas are more simple than

Chinese formulas, this is simply pure bias. Do you have training in Western

herbal medicine that would lead you to such conclusions? The jargon is

different, and I don't think the methodology is always as clear, but the end

result is the same. Western herbalists don't always recognize a connection

between some of the symptoms that Chinese herbalist put together in a pattern to

form a diagnosis, but their formulation ends up being remarkably similar, they

just use different plants, thus different formula. Furthermore, they often use

information we are not trained to use or simply chose not to use, which can add

remarkable depth to their formulation.

 

BTW: Last time I checked chaparral and comfry were still available, although

they have to be labeled " for external use only. "

 

Thomas

 

 

Honolulu, HI

 

www.sourcepointherbs.org