Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbal therapy have their origin in ancient Taoist philosophy which views a person as an energy system in which body and mind are unified, each influencing and balancing the other.

Unlike conventional medicine which attempts to isolate and separate a disease from a person, Chinese Medicine emphasizes a holistic approach that treats the whole person. Many people have found Traditional Chinese Medicine and its healing modalities to be excellent tools for maintaining optimum health and preventing illness.

It is effective for physical, psychological and emotional problems.

History of Chinese Herbal Medicine

Shennong, whose name means “the divine farmer,” lived around 6,000 years ago and was credited for teaching China the practice of agriculture. He taught people how to cultivate grains as food and is said to have tasted hundreds of herbs to carefully test and record their therapeutic properties.

The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica, or Shennong Ben Cao, first compiled around 206 B.C., considered the earliest Chinese pharmacopoeia, contained 365 herbs.

In this classic, herbs are categorized into three groups. The first group is called food herbs which are eaten as part of one’s diet for health maintenance, longevity and illness prevention. The other two groups are called medicinal herbs that are dispensed to each patient as an individual formula based on one’s unique constitution, environment, and medical condition.

From 206 B.C. to the late 16th century, many more herbs were added to what became known as the Chinese Materia Medica, the book of Chinese herbal medicines. This increased the total to 1,892 distinct herbs and more than 10,000 formulas.

Over several millennia many Chinese physicians made new discoveries, theories, and classifications, often writing or compiling books that have become classics of Chinese medical literature and are still referenced today. New entries are continuously being added and the current edition of Chinese Materia Medica contains over 10,000 herbs and natural substances.

Chinese herbal medicine works in tandem with acupuncture and other Chinese Therapies by providing the nourishing support for the energetic reprogramming efforts of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The herbal lab at the Chinese Medicine Lady clinic contains more than 500 varieties of high quality individual raw, concentrated powder and liquid extract herbs as well as prepared herbal formulas in capsules and tablets. Many of our formulas have been passed down through 14 generations of Chinese doctors in our family.

How Does Chinese Herbal Medicine Work?

Each herb has been meticulously studied and recorded for its flavor, therapeutic property, and organ system in which it is active. Flavors include sour, bitter, acrid, salty, and sweet. Therapeutic properties span cold, cool, neutral, warm, and hot. The organ systems cover the various systems that make up our entire anatomy.

These attributes synergistically offer the Chinese medical viewpoint on an herb’s therapeutic actions. Each herb is then categorized according to its primary therapeutic action.

These include diaphoretics (cleansing through sweat), anti-inflammatories, diuretics (cleansing through urine), digestives, internal warmers, relaxants, tonics and many other categories. Given all this, herbs are then combined into formulas to accomplish several tasks simultaneously and these herbal formulas are categorized in the same manner as the singular herbs.

After evaluating a patient’s chief health concerns, we will construct a formula specific for each patient and their condition at hand. Every person that is evaluated will likely receive a different formula, even if the conditions are the same.

Since each body is different, the reason for a disorder’s existence will be unique as well. And each unique person requires different tools for healing.

Taking knee pain as an example, one patient may need more help circulating blood to alleviate pain and regenerate injured tissue, while another patient may need their immune system strengthened as their knee pain may only surface when they’re sick or when the weather changes.

Each herb has a multitude of active chemical compounds that are responsible for how an herb accomplishes its various tasks.

Studies abound on Chinese herbs and how they affect the body, subdue pathogens and infections, enhance circulation, and even slow aging. In an herbal formula, a veritable soup of hundreds, if not thousands of active ingredients stimulate the body to respond in a desired ways, depending on the design of the herbal formula.

Where Do the Herbs Come From?

For nearly thirty years Chinese Medicine Lady has been developing direct relationships with the growers and providers of our herbal products in high mountains throughout China.

Most American acupuncture clinics order their herbs through third-party companies that import and distribute them.

Due to our demand for the highest quality and the high volume of herbs used each year at Chinese Medicine Lady, we import our own herbs directly from suppliers in China.

This gives us even more control over the quality of our herbs. To ensure and uphold consistent quality, we visit China regularly to inspect and sample some of the 500-plus herbs our clinic uses for raw formulas and concentrated powders.

These regular trips begin with a flight to China then over a course of a week fly and drive to visit and inspect crops in remote herb farms in Sichuan, Yunnan, Anhui, Jiangsu and other provinces.

Herbs are harvested and transported to a state-of-the-art, GMP-certified (Good Manufacturing Practices) herb laboratory where each individual herb is washed and cleaned, sliced, dried, vacuum-sealed and packaged for international shipment to our clinic.

At the same lab other herbs are processed to produce the concentrated herbal powder extracts our patients use in their customized formulas or in our encapsulated products. The process of producing concentrated herbal powder extract is done by cooking large quantities of herbs in water using a low heat, then discarding the fibrous residues and dehydrating the remaining herb tea.

It typically takes 100 lbs. of raw herbs to produce 10-20 lbs. of concentrated powder extract. This concentrated extract ratio allows patients to consume in volume a fraction of the raw herbs in powdered form, along with the convenience of not having to cook the herbs.

China’s vast geographical makeup lends a variety of climatic conditions. This generates the unique characteristics and therapeutic properties inherent to each region’s herb crops. Overall, our imports span many directions across China’s vast rural landscape.

It can often take five years for an herb to go from planting in the mountainous fields of China to our herb lab here in America.

In that time Chinese Medicine Lady ensures that our herbs are grown only in soils that are tested and comply with safety standards for heavy metals. All of our herbs are grown on mountainous hillsides and far from cities, thus avoiding industrial pollution.

Once harvested, each herb is laboratory tested to ensure compliance with proper species identification, active compounds and heavy metal and pesticides standards.

Are There Any Side Effects?

One of the great advantages of Chinese medicine is the absence of serious side effects.

On the rare occasion where there may be some mild digestive upset or difficulty with the taste of the herbs we advise patients to take their herbs after meals, at a reduced dosage, or modifying the herbal combination.

Some herbs are available in pill formats for those who have difficulty with the taste of herb tea. Most conditions do very well with the use of regular herbal prescriptions, and taking them regularly is important for speedier recovery.

CONSULTATION

Call to make an appointment for a Consultation and let us help you set up a program for you to be proactive in maintaining your health the CHINESE MEDICINE WAY! (818) 280-9133