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The Chinese medical tool kit
What is Chinese medicine?
Herbal medicine
The Chinese materia medica incorporates hundreds if not thousands of herbs that have been tested and used over thousands of years. Herbal medicine in part developed out of the Chinese love of cooking and culinary ingredients. Indeed it is fair to say that as a first line of defence diet and diet therapy play a serious role in preventing illness and in it's treatment.
We use many common, everyday herbs that you may find in your garden, in your spice rack or at the Chinese grocer. These are herbs such as ginger and peppermint, cloves, citrus peel, peppers, yams and fruits such as loquats and persimmon. Other herbs are of mineral origin such as oyster shell and there are some animal products used such as the felt from deer antlers, farmed here in Australia.
With proper training herbal medicine is both safe and
effective. In general there are a lower number of side
effects than conventional drug therapy (Maciocia, 2003).
Most Chinese medicines sold in Australia are regulated by
the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
A word of warning
Just because a medicine is herbal does not automatically make it safe. Many of our modern pharmaceuticals are derived from herbal medicine. Herbs are safe when prescribed by someone with the appropriate level of training in prescribing and dispensing herbal medicine.
I had an interesting patient who came to me with a sports injury. He was skeptical, infact he told me that he 'knew' the acupuncture would be unsuccesful, but that someone had suggested he try it just the same. The day folowing his first treatment I received a phone call to say that he had become pain free and had completely changed his mind as to the postive effect of acupuncture. No placebo here, just pain relief.
Side effects
There are few side effects of acupuncture when it is
performed by a well-trained doctor of Chinese medicine.
The common ones include a small bruise at the site of
needling and a tiny droplet of blood once the needle is
removed, although these are relatively uncommon. There is
a risk of fainting, but this is often due to apprehension or
low blood sugar rather than by the acupuncture itself. It is
quite common to have a slight reduction in blood pressure as a
response to acupuncture. The risk of fainting is however
small should be well managed by the doctor. If you
feel at risk of fainting or feeling nauseous or dizzy make
sure you tell your doctor straight away. It is always a good idea to have eaten something prior to a visit to reduce the risk of fainting.
For some patients acupuncture may not be appropriate.
This may be due to needle fear, condition or constitution.
In these cases the doctor can opt for alternative treatments
or where Chinese medicine is unsuitable, refer you to another health care provider.
Granulated herbs
This is my preferred method to dispense herbal medicine. Granulated herbs have the same benefit of being tailored to the individual patient and put together as a raw herbal formula would be. The granulated herbs do not require any real preparation and are simply dissolved in hot water. The other aspect that I like is that the granules are prepared from the raw herbs in a laboratory, they comply with strict pharmaceutical standards, they are checked for contaminants such as heavy metals and are dosage accurate. While raw herbs are potent, it is not possible to tell how much active ingredient is being drawn out in the decocting process, whereas the granules are standardised and you can be confident in accurate doses.
Patent (prepared) medicines
Patent medicines tend to be based on classic formulas and are often in the form of pills. They are convenient and easy to take and don't have the flavour of either the raw or granulated herbs. However, the doctor has no control over the ingredients or the individual dosage of its constituents. This is a major flaw. The real value of Chinese herbal medicine is that it is tailored to the individual patient and not just an off-the-shelf product. For this reason alone the patent medicine tends not to be as potent or as guided in its actions.
Having said that they are useful for chronic conditions once they are under control and offer a cheaper alternative to raw or granulated formulas (although I suggest that this is often false economy).
Liniments, syrups, plasters and more...
There are many other medicines that are available. Chinese
herbal liniments are great for aches and pains, muscular injuries and arthritis, and are gentler than the commercial products sold at a chemist. You can also buy cough syrups and medicated cough lozenges, children's formulas (the teething one is especially good) and plasters which apply warmth over a period of time.
Most of these products do not need a prescription and can be purchased directly from our online herbal pharmacy.
We even have our own range of skin creams for common conditions such as ezcema, acne and psoriasis. Ask us for more information if you are interested.
The Chinese materia medica incorporates hundreds if not thousands of herbs that have been tested and used over thousands of years. Herbal medicine in part developed out of the Chinese love of cooking and culinary ingredients. Indeed it is fair to say that as a first line of defence diet and diet therapy play a serious role in preventing illness and in it's treatment.
We use many common, everyday herbs that you may find in your garden, in your spice rack or at the Chinese grocer. These are herbs such as ginger and peppermint, cloves, citrus peel, peppers, yams and fruits such as loquats and persimmon. Other herbs are of mineral origin such as oyster shell and there are some animal products used such as the felt from deer antlers, farmed here in Australia.
With proper training herbal medicine is both safe and
effective. In general there are a lower number of side
effects than conventional drug therapy (Maciocia, 2003).
Most Chinese medicines sold in Australia are regulated by
the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
A word of warning
Just because a medicine is herbal does not automatically make it safe. Many of our modern pharmaceuticals are derived from herbal medicine. Herbs are safe when prescribed by someone with the appropriate level of training in prescribing and dispensing herbal medicine.
I had an interesting patient who came to me with a sports injury. He was skeptical, infact he told me that he 'knew' the acupuncture would be unsuccesful, but that someone had suggested he try it just the same. The day folowing his first treatment I received a phone call to say that he had become pain free and had completely changed his mind as to the postive effect of acupuncture. No placebo here, just pain relief.
Side effects
There are few side effects of acupuncture when it is
performed by a well-trained doctor of Chinese medicine.
The common ones include a small bruise at the site of
needling and a tiny droplet of blood once the needle is
removed, although these are relatively uncommon. There is
a risk of fainting, but this is often due to apprehension or
low blood sugar rather than by the acupuncture itself. It is
quite common to have a slight reduction in blood pressure as a
response to acupuncture. The risk of fainting is however
small should be well managed by the doctor. If you
feel at risk of fainting or feeling nauseous or dizzy make
sure you tell your doctor straight away. It is always a good idea to have eaten something prior to a visit to reduce the risk of fainting.
For some patients acupuncture may not be appropriate.
This may be due to needle fear, condition or constitution.
In these cases the doctor can opt for alternative treatments
or where Chinese medicine is unsuitable, refer you to another health care provider.
Granulated herbs
This is my preferred method to dispense herbal medicine. Granulated herbs have the same benefit of being tailored to the individual patient and put together as a raw herbal formula would be. The granulated herbs do not require any real preparation and are simply dissolved in hot water. The other aspect that I like is that the granules are prepared from the raw herbs in a laboratory, they comply with strict pharmaceutical standards, they are checked for contaminants such as heavy metals and are dosage accurate. While raw herbs are potent, it is not possible to tell how much active ingredient is being drawn out in the decocting process, whereas the granules are standardised and you can be confident in accurate doses.
Patent (prepared) medicines
Patent medicines tend to be based on classic formulas and are often in the form of pills. They are convenient and easy to take and don't have the flavour of either the raw or granulated herbs. However, the doctor has no control over the ingredients or the individual dosage of its constituents. This is a major flaw. The real value of Chinese herbal medicine is that it is tailored to the individual patient and not just an off-the-shelf product. For this reason alone the patent medicine tends not to be as potent or as guided in its actions.
Having said that they are useful for chronic conditions once they are under control and offer a cheaper alternative to raw or granulated formulas (although I suggest that this is often false economy).
Liniments, syrups, plasters and more...
There are many other medicines that are available. Chinese
herbal liniments are great for aches and pains, muscular injuries and arthritis, and are gentler than the commercial products sold at a chemist. You can also buy cough syrups and medicated cough lozenges, children's formulas (the teething one is especially good) and plasters which apply warmth over a period of time.
Most of these products do not need a prescription and can be purchased directly from our online herbal pharmacy.
We even have our own range of skin creams for common conditions such as ezcema, acne and psoriasis. Ask us for more information if you are interested.
