Herbs
Green physicians
Mighty messengers of life
Rooting their wisdom
Into our bodily turf.
Verdant offerings
Remember us to mend
With gentleness, compassion
Bring us to blossom end.
From seed to flower
All a bouquet of power
To grow the planted memory
Of our nature divinity.
— J. Shamosh1
Herbal medicine has been the medicine of necessity and choice from the beginning of history. About 80% of our planet’s population still actively uses herbal medicine as its foremost source of health care.
Herbs are living, life-sustaining foods that stimulate our receptors and influence the chemical reactions in our body systems. According to biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972), living systems function with a “flowing balance.” That is, in living systems the structure is relatively stable, but within it there is a constant flow of energy and matter.2
Herbs, in a brilliant, but gentle way, restore the essential flow of energy and substances in our body / mind systems so our innate intelligence can re-establish its own unique, flowing balance.
Whereas acupuncture excels in moving qi and blood, the daily use of herbs provides the nutrition (yin) and energy (qi) to support the move toward flowing balance of a healthier systems response between acupuncture treatments. Consider that herbal medicines are nature’s reprogrammers of the body-mind connection.
Over thousands of years, Eastern herbal medicines have precisely documented how different combinations of herbs affect the different body systems, the condition being treated, the potential side effects, and the all-important response pattern of the person. Eastern herbal medicines have documented the mutual counteractions, suppressions, antagonisms, and incompatibilities of the herbs in their extensive materia medica. It is an incomparable art and science unto itself.
Why Acupuncture, But Not Herbal Medicine?
Historically and in Asia today, acupuncture has been used to support herbal therapy. At least 80% of Asians use herbal medicine before ever using acupuncture. Eastern medicines have, over thousands of years of careful observation, given us the precise actions and indications of using herbs.
With the amazing abilities of herbal medicines to nourish yin and increase qi, why aren’t more acupuncturists using herbal medicine in their practices? Why has herbal medicine taken a back seat to acupuncture?
In America, most people know acupuncture only for its pain-relieving effects. Rarely do Americans consider acupuncture as an adjunct to health care. If your practice is focused on treating pain, consider that there are many herbal formulas which are excellent at alleviating pain. By using them, your patient can continue to be free of pain between appointments.
Think about stocking some of these formulas for your patients. Explain what the formulas do and what results the patient can expect. It is an opportunity to educate your patients to think differently about the value of Eastern medicine and preventive health care.
Using Herbal Medicine to Counter the Drug Culture
Many Americans are also on numerous drugs. The concern of acupuncturists about using herbal medicines in these cases is the possibility of herb and drug interactions. However, in my 30 years of experience using Eastern herbal medicines, I have never seen drug-herb interactions in correctly administered formulas.
That said, always use caution when your patients are on blood-thinning drugs and those who are pregnant so as not to use blood-moving herbs or downward acting herbs, respectively, in herbal formulas.
There is also the opportunity for the acupuncturist to begin replacing pharmaceutical medications with herbal formulas as the patient’s system is re-establishing the flow of qi, blood, and substances, and re-establishing interrelationships and interdependence within. In this situation, always refer the patient to a pharmacist or their doctor about reducing or eliminating medications.
The problem with pharmaceutical medications is that they are lifeless, foreign and antagonistic substances to the body – chemical compounds that do not give the body-system a choice as to how it may respond. As if it were a machine, the body-system is forced to react, as opposed to respond, without the system’s intelligent input.
In addition, drugs do not contain nutrients to sustain the body to support the unnatural changes they provoke. These forced changes deplete the body’s nutrients and energy resources, producing further undesirable reactions that we know as side effects. Eventually, the sustained reaction (as opposed to intelligent response) will burn out the supporting substances of the body’s systems.
Lacking the organic, life-sustaining and nourishing compounds of herbal medicines is one reason why drugs are so depleting to the body.
Having said the above, drugs do save lives in acute situations. However, continuous use of them is detrimental. Once the system is stabilized, their use should be gradually declined while using herbal formulas, lifestyle changes, proper diet, and acupuncture to support the system and replace the effects of the drugs. Explaining these facts to your patients helps to build rapport and trust.
Formulas to Stock – for Patient Benefit and Added Income
Finally, consider having a small stock of herbal formulas you would frequently use. These herbal formulas can not only help your patients between acupuncture visits, but also can increase your income. Consider formulas such as:
More to Discuss...
In the next article, I will discuss how Eastern herbal medicines combine the dynamic science of modern physics and the actions and experiential effects of the five phases (five elements) to influence the mind, body and consciousness. It is the actions of the five phases inherent in herbal medicines that transmit, through the eight experiential effects and the five tastes, the chemical actions or potency of herbs and foods into our bodies to help us heal.
References
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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