Demystifying Herbal Medicine

One of the most powerful tools in our medicinal arsenal is Herbal Medicine. Chinese Medicine has the oldest and one of the greatest herbal systems in the world. So it always makes me wonder, when some patients are hesitant about herbs. Unfortunately, I think it’s because some falsely equate its dangers to those of conventional medicine. Adverse drug events harm 2.7 million hospitalized patients in the U.S. annually, with over 106,000 deaths and that's just for hospitalized patients. When you look at TCM herbal formulas being properly prescribed by experienced and educated herbalists, the risk is virtually nil. Bias, fear and ignorance cloud a paradigm that has stood the test of time.

Here’s why TCM herbs are so much safer: Chinese Herbal formulations of anywhere from 3- 12 herbs create elegant combinations, called formulas. They’re designed to work together synergistically to address your imbalances based in TCM diagnoses. This is the difference between individualism and community. Combining herbs mitigates side effects by creating a balanced movement vs a unilateral force. Treating the actual diagnosis vs ‘disease’ makes treatment more safe and effective - and can even have side benefits vs effects. It’s also much less likely to have interactions with other drugs because you are now in a more balanced state to metabolize other inputs.

This is in stark contrast with the reductionist disease model of conventional medicine and even western herbalism using the “X for Y’ model based on trials. “Show me the nature of a thing, not the results of the system that appointed itself to interpret it. ” Pixie Lighthouse’s quote sums up well our obsession with evidence based research and missing the point. The trial model doesn’t apply well to individualized medicine for obvious reasons- we treat based on diagnosis, which may be different for everyone with the same disease. Still, we get results with TCM herb trials but it doesn't really do our medicine justice.

Fear of the unknown: Chinese or Latin names of herbs sound foreign- Remember, the herbs we use are mostly plants like roots, flowers, fruits such as ginger, cinnamon, licorice, clove, mint, dandelion, orange peel ….. a plant is a plant, not so scary, right? There are thousands of species of plants with therapeutic value that, when used in a formula towards a correct TCM diagnosis, can be revolutionary. Being sick or suffering is an invitation to do things differently. May your healing journey be as sweet as to be blessed with herbal medicine.