03 June 2006
This article has been viewed 2870 times.
Chinese herbal medicine, along with acupuncture and tui na massage, is based on the concepts of Yin and Yang. It aims treat the ways in which a person's Qi or life force energy may be depleted or blocked. Practitioners prescribe herbs based upon symptoms that reflect an imbalance. However, the tradition as a whole places great emphasis on lifestyle management (diet, exercise etc) in order to prevent disease before it occurs. Chinese medicine recognises that health is more than just the absence of disease.
In the same way that people have unique Qi, so do herbs. Successful treatment comes from matching the herbal Qi with the needs of the body.
There are three main ways to describe the qualities of herbs.
Temperature Specific temperatures correspond to specific types of illness. Cold herbs treat hot conditions such as fevers or infections, whereas hot herbs are used to treat cold conditions such as some types of bladder problems or constipation.
Taste There are six groups into which all tastes fit; they are, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and bland. The first five tastes relate to the five elements (Earth, Wood, Water, Fire, Metal respectively) and the five yin organs (Spleen, Liver Kidney Heart Lung respectively). Bland tasting herbs would have neutral qualities: ie, neither warm or cool and not relating to any specific organ.
Organ Herbs are prescribed specifically to act on certain organs, with certain temperatures and tastes. So, for example, Xin Yi Hua (Magnolia flower), which is a pungent herb, affects the lungs and is used to treat cold conditions such as a blocked nose due to a cold.
Chinese Herbal Medicine courses in the UK In the UK, it is possible to study in Chinese Herbal Medicine from scratch (4 years) and also as a qualified TCM practitioner (2 years). It is advisable to study accredited courses which will give you automatic membership of the RCHM, the Register for Chinese Herbal Medicine. There are also courses in patent herbal medicine – where a particular blend of herbs is made into a patent herbal pill to treat a specific condition.
What is a typical treatment like? A session may last anything from half and hour to an hour and a half for a first treatment. Practitioners will usually take a detailed case history, take your pulses and ask to look at your tongue. They give the practitioner a very detailed picture of your state of health. On the basis of these things, and your discussion, you will then be prescribed herbs in one of several ways. You may get raw herbs, which you will need to boil up into a tea and drink (or apply to the skin for some skin conditions). Alternatively you may get herbal tablets or capsules (patent herbs) which are based on a standard formula. Finally, you might be given concentrated powders, which are either stirred into water for drinking or put into capsules. Your herbalist may recommend that you return for treatment once a month or as regularly as once a week, depending on the nature of your condition.
All rights reserved. Any reproducing of this article must have the author name and all the links intact.
Author: Susanna Dowie MA, LicAc, MBAcC, HonMRCHM,
Susanna is a College Principal and widely experienced in many aspects of complementary medicine, including homoeopathy, therapeutic massage and reflexology. She has worked as consultant and contributor with various publishers and co-authored a series of sixteen books on 'Health and Healing the Natural Way'. Susanna joined LCTA as senior lecturer in 1993 and has run the College since 1995. She has worked on the Executive Committee of the British Acupuncture Council and on the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board. Susanna has been in private practice as an acupuncturist for over twenty years in the UK and Australia and currently sits on the BAcC Code of Safe Practice Committee and the BAcC Research Group.
Please use this form to contact
Susanna Dowie
** This form is intended for those with genuine enquiries/questions.
Disclaimer and Terms. This article
is the opinion of the author. WorldwideHealth.com makes
no claims regarding this information. WorldwideHealth.com
recommends that all medical conditions should be treated
by a physician competent in treating that particular condition.
WorldwideHealth.com takes no responsibility for customers
choosing to treat themselves. Your use of this information
is at your own risk. Your use of this information is governed
by WWH terms and conditions.
