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Chinese Herbal Therapy
Chinese
herbal medicine uses natural materials in the nature
Chinese herbal therapy is the main
therapy in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It uses
medical herbs for treatment, though it actually also using
animal parts or mineral stones sometimes. The herbs are mostly
from pieces of the plant parts, such as leaves, balks, roots, or
flowers. The herbs usually need different treatment, such as
drying, frying, powdering, rinsing with some liquid or juice
(such as ginger juice or honey), before use. The herb used can
be single ingredient, but mostly a mixture of more than four
ingredients. Sometimes, a herbal formula may contain more than
20 ingredients. The herbs may be used in the form of powder,
pill, tablets, but traditionally it is used as water cooked
“herbal tea”. The choice of the herbal form could influence the
healing effects.
Chinese herbal therapy has been
used in history for thousands of years. In the first book, Shan
Hai Jing, the herbs recorded are only 124 kinds. Now, it is
12772 kinds. Most herbs are collected from China, and some small amount, from
other countries. Most of the herbs have to be cooked in water to
get its water extracts. Patients then drink the herbal tea. Now
most of them can be precooked, then made into powder. Patients
need only to re-dissolve them into water to drink. Or they are
made into pills, tablets. Some are made into infusion form for
vein infusion.
In Chinese herbalogy, our daily
eating foods and beverage can also be used as herbs. Rice,
wheat, meat, beans, and also salt, vinegar, wine, sugar,
pepper….. have different effects on our body functions, so be
used in the clinic treatment too.
Chinese herbal medicine herbs also need specific treatment
before use
For more than thousands of years,
Chinese already realize that the pharmartheutical property of
different parts, such as from leaves, barks, roots, or flowers
of a plant could have different healing effects. Also,
processing of the herbs could also change their healing effects
or possible side-effect-inducing ability. Most of the herbs may
be processed by frying, drying, cooking with fresh ginger or
honey, or steaming, and so on. By this way, the healing effect
could be strengthened while the side effects by them be reduced.
This is one of the way to prevent side effects of Chinese herbs.
The old time Chinese also know that the same kinds of herbs may
have different healing property, if they are collected from
different seasons, years, from different geographic locations or
from different age of the plants. This variation of herbal
quality affects the clinic use somehow. Therefore the evaluation
of the quality of herbs has been a specific knowledge and
expertise area of the herbalists.
Traditional
Chinese Medicine focuses on clinic Syndrome (the
Zhen)
Because
the Traditional Chinese Medicine focuses on clinic syndrome, a
syndrome defined by the TCM can be seen in many kinds of
“diseases” defined by western medicine system. For this reason,
a given herbal formula may be used in largely various clinic
“diseases”, no matter if the diseases are caused by foreign
invaders, like bacteria or virus, or by exposure to extreme
physical or chemical influence, like the exposure to the cold
weather, or by inhale of chemical vapor, or intake of chemical
western medicine drugs.
Different TCM syndrome is caused
by different reasons. However, the TCM does not pay much
attention to if the syndrome is caused by bacteria or virus, or
which kinds of bacteria or virus. It pays much attention to if
it is caused by inside or outside reasons, and if the causing
factor is with the nature of Fire, Wetness, Cold, Wind, or
Dryness. This can be told by the clinic manifestation of the
patients. For instance, if the disease causing factor is in Fire
nature, the patients show fever, dry mouth, yellow urine, mucus
ulcer, bleeding, constipation or even coma. If it is caused by
Wetness, the patients show heaviness in head, arms, legs,
tiredness, lose of appetite, nausea or loss bowel movement. Once
it is known the nature of the causing factor, the TCM doctors
will use corresponding herbs to expel or eliminate the cause.
With the progress of a disease,
the body condition could change too. Long term disease exhausts
body’s defense system, makes patient weakness, with stagnation
of blood and vital energy flow in the body, and cause more
clinic troubles. So, the herbal formula should be changed
according to the change of the body condition as well.
Such a nature of Chinese herbal
therapy makes its use much more individual to each patient and
in each stage of a disease. But it is very useful in the
prevention and treatment of acute epidemiologic diseases,
especially when the pathological cause in remain unknown, such
as in a situation of SARS in Asia in 2005, at which time the
conventional medical system does not know how to prevent and how
to treat the patients.
Chinese herbal medicine works as unit, not just an active
ingredient
Under strong influence of conventional
medicine, in which an “active” ingredient is expected to work in
an herb or an herbal formula, much effort has been paid in last
30 to 50 years to seek such active ingredient, with the dream
that the active ingredient can be synthesized in a lab or
largely produced in a company. By this, human can escape from
the control of the nature to produce enough herbs for use and we
may use small amount of the active ingredient for the treatment
with higher clinic efficiency. This has been dreamed one of the
major way to modern the traditional Chinese herbal therapy.
The lessons we learned so far is
that:
(a). It is hard to find an so
called active ingredient in many formula. It is no strange to
know this, since herbs, once cooked, could extract hundreds or
more than thousands of chemicals from the herbs. The amount of
the expected active ingredient may be the same as, or even
smaller than, the most of other ingredients in the herbs. So, it
is difficult to isolate it from the complex.
(b). In some cases, the
researchers did find and isolated an “active” ingredient. But,
once used in clinic, it shows lots of unexpected side effect,
though it may show similar or better healing effect, compared
with the original formula. A quite safe Chinese herbs therapy
becomes typical conventional medicine with unexpected side
effects. To us, we no longer regards the isolated ingredient as
Chinese herbs.
The researchers cannot understand that Chinese
herbs work as a unite, an team, as an army in a war. Each herb
in a formula has its own effect in the whole formula to make it
works without, or with very limited, side effect. Some
ingredient work in this aspect, and others in another aspects,
to correct the disorders of the body function. That a single
hero could save the world does not apply to the Chinese herbal
therapy.
Chinese
herbal medicine is to create the nature in the body
Chinese Medicine understands and
explains the illness in body as the phenomenon in the nature. In
the same way, it is to create a season in the body to correct
the illness. For example, if one feels cold in hands and feet,
prefers to dress lots, to drink warm water and his/her face
shows pale, tongue is also pale with little thin white tongue
covering, and his/her pulse feels weak, we say that the one has
Yang weakness, a condition similar to a winter. The herbs to use
will work to warm up his/her body, e.g. to create a summer in
his/her body. Similarly, if the body is under a “summer” season,
such as high fever, extreme dry in mouth, constipation, very
yellow urine, bleeding… a situation usually found in the middle
stage of epidemiologic disease, such as
Japanese encephalitis or some acute inflammation, such as
acute neumonia, we will use herbs to create a “winter” in the
body of the patient.
For people with high fever, we may
also use some herbs to let the patient sweat. Sweat can be
understand here as “rain” in nature. Under rain, can you fell
hot again? The sweating therapy can also be used in the
treatment of urine retention. Urine (water) in the uring bladder
can not excreted out through the urine duct, it can be removed
from the skin.
You can find many of such
therapies in Chinese herbal therapy, which mimic the phenomenon
in nature for the treatment of illness in human body.
The main principle to use the
herbs remains the same as thousands of years ago. Herbs have to
be used and formulated according to their taste and dynamic
nature to a disease. The dynamic nature means it, once comes
into the body, has Lifting, Settling, Expanding, or Contracting
effects. Different taste and dynamic nature bear different
healing effects.
Chinese herbal medicine has less side effects
Because the TCM is based on the
clinic syndrome, any change in the syndrome during the treatment
needs modification of the herb formula, so the side effects of
the herbal therapy will be corrected before it causes any more
or permanent problems (side effects). This is far different from
conventional medicine, in which a side effect may last for a
long time. This is because the medical drugs have to be used for
a long time.
For instance, many pain killers cause
constipation. Before we find the cure for the reasons that cause
the pain, the pain killer has to be used continuously. The
conventional doctor has to use additional medicine to correct
the constipation. If at the same time the patient loses
appetite, he/she has to give second additional drugs to improve
the appetite. Some time, the side effect may be not so easy to
correct and lasts as a life long problem, such as the deafness
caused by the use of
Chloramphenicol in children.
It is emphasized in the TCM that
nothing should be taken too much to be taken into the body. This
includes sugar, salt, water, not to speak of the herbs. Nothing
in the nature is “the more, the better”. One wants to avoid too
much disaster, but too much easiness in life is neither a good
thing to him.
Any herb is the tool in the hands
of the TCM doctor, just as any drug in the hands of conventional
medicine doctor. Use the herbs or drugs in a proper way will
reach the aim of healing. Otherwise, both may cause side
effects, temporally or permanently. The difference between the
two medical systems are: the way of the TCM allows it correct
the side effect soon without affecting the main goal of the
treatment, but the conventional medicine, in most case, have
stick to the treatment for a long time.
Chinese herbal medicine likes an art in the hands of doctor
Because the use of Chinese herbal
therapy is based on the Yin-and-Yang theory and the Five-element
theory, a given clinic disease (syndrome) can be corrected by
quite different ways. Readers can image: if you want to lift
something up, you can pull it from its top, you can also
push/hold it up from its bottom. Correct? In Chinese herbal
medicine, there are much more choices to build up the herbal
formula for the treatment, due to the rich mutual relationship
between the Five Element. For example, if one has Liver Fire
syndrome (Zhen), the
one feels bloating in the area of his/stomach, liver and spleen.
The one also feels bitter in mouth and is very irritable in
emotion. For this one, Chinese medicine may use the herbs that
works directly on the Liver system, but we may also use herbs
that works on the Kidney system, Heart system, of even the Lung
system too. Different doctor may use different formula for the
same patient. Some doctor takes the way to solve the problem in
a short term, but others may choose to remove the cause of the
syndrome in another way. The Chinese herbal therapy just likes
an art in the hands of doctor. In Chinese history, some famous
doctor may use only one formula for most of his patients with
only little bit modifications when used to individual patient.
Many times a difficult case may be cured by a doctor using a
herb that normally not used by most doctor in such clinic case.
It is surprising but it still follows the basic rule of the
guide of the TCM bible.
If we
want to test and tell if the Chinese herbal medicine works or
not, we should use it its own way. Other wise, conventional
medicine drugs could also be garbage if we use it in a way as
Chinese herbs!
After 20 to 50 years of trying to
combine the TCM with the conventional medicine, many
conventional medicine doctors learned the function of some TCM
herb formula. They know which herb are used for which clinic
“diseases”. Therefore, along with their prescription of
conventional drugs, they also prescribe such herbs that supposed
to use in such diseases. On surface, it seems expanded the use
of the Chinese herbal therapy, but it actually damaged the TCM:
once the herb is used in a way as conventional medicine, it is
no longer a TCM herb, in terms of side effects. The herb should
match the clinic syndrome, not the disease! As we mentioned
above that the Chinese herbal therapy is for clinic syndrome,
not the disease. Forgotten this natural difference, one can
hardly use the herbs as they are supposed to, neither the clinic
effect they supposed to show. If so, how can we say that the TCM
herbs don’t work? If a foot soldier drove jet fighter, he said
that the jet fighter is no use in a war compare with the weapon
he is used. Do you agree with him? If you cook Chinese food, not
in Chinese way, but in a way as you did at home in western
style, you let your friend taste it. Your friends said that the
Chinese food is not good. Do you agree with them? Don’t try to
omit to tell your friends that your “Chinese” food is not
CHINESE food!
If we are realistic and neutral in
compare some things, we must compare them in their original
forms, shape, functions, and so on.
Finally, if you really want to understand the Chinese Herbal
Medicine, you have to first clear you mind and be realistic to what
you know and what you have not known.
The
Chinese Herbal Medicine might be new to you and you may bring a
critical attitude to it. Before
you make any comments on it, I suggest you to prepare yourself
first. Just as if you have to quiet down your mind first before
you are going to a read a book. If you are in a angry motion,
how can you “read” the book in your mind?
(1). You have to admit that what
you, and we human being, only know little about the nature, as
well as our body. Therefore, we should, and had better to keep
our enseutheastic attitude to learn new things. Don’t let your
current knowledge block your learning to new thing. We should
ask us the question, why the Traditional Chinese Medicine can
exist in the other side of the earth for more than five
thousands of years? The readers should also know that in April
12007, the Chinese government announced that it will use the
Traditional Chinese Medicine as its main medical and health
force to solve the healthcare crisis nowadays in China, after
having trying the conventional medicine for more than 50 years
there!
(2). In the world, many things can
show us different information if we change the view or direction
to see it. Here is a famous picture (Fig. 1). If you pay attention to the
white color, you see it as a wine cup. But if you pay attention
to the black color, you can see it as the lateral faces of two
people! Traditional
Chinese Medicine doesn’t go deep to the cells and genes, but it
focus more on the body function. On the other side, the
conventional medicine focus on the structure of the body to the
cells and gene levels, but it still missed the meridian system.
Even today, it is still difficult for the conventional medicine
to understand many phenomenon linked to the meridians in the
body.
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Fig. 1. |
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Fig. 2. |
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What you see from the Fig. 1? I asked one of
my friends. She said that she can see the lateral side of a
head. Oh, she added, the lateral faces of two people! I remind
that what she can see if she looks at the white part of the
picture. She said, yes, it is a stool or a flower container.
Now, what you can “see” from the Fig. 1?
When you turn to see the Fig. 2. Can you “see” the face
of a person? Or, you may only be able to image a container or a
stool. Do you?
The view of the first picture
suggests that the feeling of a man to a given thing is affected
by his attention to the picture. Pay attention to the black part
or the white part gives different imaging of the picture. You
may not see a plan in the sky if you did not pay attention to
see it. What you did not see doesn’t mean it does not exist! The
second picture suggests us that for the same thing, if we view
it in a different direction, the result could dramatically be
different!
This the truth for the
conventional medical system and the Traditional Chinese
medicine.
(3). To understand the Chinese
Medicine, you need also understand the Chinese philosophy. The
Chinese philosophy influences the Chinese in many aspects: their
culture, personal relationship, the relationship between the
individual and the whole nation, between the human being and the
nature. It also influences the Chinese in their painting, drama
show, film, novels, poem, music, diet, dressing, language
(writing and speaking), and,
to the meaning of the life! Chinese philosophy pays more
attention to the “overall” aspect of a thing, while the western
philosophy, the “detail”. This can be well exampled by comparing
the Chinese painting and western oil painting. See the two kinds
of paintings below:
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Fig. 3. |
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Fig. 4. |
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Fig. 3, is the water-color painting of Chinese
style. It leaves empty space in the painting. You can still
image to know that the empty space means clouds or fog. You can
even image that there could be something behind of the fog. Fig.
4 is the typical western style oil painting. The oils are
painted on all parts of the painting paper. Everywhere!
Traditional Chinese medicine pay
more attention to the overall functions of the body, whereas the
western medicine, the detail of the body. Once we come into
detail we may lose the whole. This is just the case.
In above picture, do we need to know the exact chemical
contents of each color spot?
With all of these mind
preparations, you are ready to UNDERSTAND the Traditional
Chinese medicine.
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