Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's always safe!

I hear it ALL the time. "It's natural, so it's safe, unlike 'x,' 'y' or 'z' medication." Just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's safe. Many natural substances are, in fact, poisonous. Occasionally we have learned a safe dose range, but that still doesn't mean that it should be used by everyone for everything.

For example, Foxglove is a very poisonous plant - beautiful, but poisonous. It has been used for many years, in the form of digitalis, to correct some heart rhythm problems. However, digitalis has a VERY narrow range of safe dosing, and isn't appropriate for all people with heart problems.

It makes me very nervous when I over hear people talking about how excited they are that they're treating themselves with "such and such" herb, without their doctor's consent, without discussing their use with any herbal professional and often without telling any of their health care providers that they are using said substance.

Some herbs have interactions with medications and these interactions can be very dangerous. Some medications may have their effects negated. Some medications may have their effects multiplied. In both cases, imagine the consequences being equivalent to not taking the medication or taking more than the prescribed amount. The results could be catastrophic for some patients!

Some herbs are not meant for all presentations of a symptom. For example: ginger. Read my personal story of Why you have to be careful with home herbal remedies, and you'll see how the side effects can be very uncomfortable and avoidable. I was lucky that I eventually recognized the problem, but what if you weren't aware of the possible side effects? You might suffer needlessly! Some people are even prescribed medications to counteract such side effects. This is so unnecessary!

It's great to use natural products, because the chance of side effects, when used properly and under knowledgeable supervision, is greatly reduced when compared to biomedicines. However, natural substances should be considered as medications, something that is prescribed with assistance from a trained professional.

Feel free to talk with your acupuncturist about any natural substances that you are taking or are considering taking. At least, you may save yourself some unnecessary side effects, at most you may save your life.

Chinese Herbal Formulas 101

Welcome class, take a seat and get comfortable! Today, we're going to talk about Chinese herbal formulas. There are three forms of herbs that you can take, each has its benefits and drawbacks.


Let's start with the simplest: Tea pills.
Teapills are little pills (about the size of BBs) that are pre-made in standard formulas. Because the herbs are already mixed and put together into these pills, there is no room for customizing the formula EXACTLY for each patient. Don't worry, though. Tea pills are often a pretty darn good match for many people, and most people won't experience any side effects from them. The best thing about tea pills is their convenience. You can take them with you, they're not messy and there's no preparation. There have been problems with tea pill formulas coming from China that include pharmaceuticals or heavy metals so make sure that the formula you are given is made in a Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) Certified factory.


The next step is the granular formula.
Granules are a substrate (a grain of some sort) that has been ground finely and had a Chinese herb decoction sprayed onto it. These granules can be single herbs or whole formulas. Because you can mix and match granules, you can customize the formula to each patient allowing for an exact match and no side effects. Granules are either dissolved in water and then swallowed, or some people prefer to place them on their tongue and "chase" the formula with water or their favorite juice. Granules are pretty convenient. You can bring them with you so that you can take them at the prescribed times. Granule formulas tend to have an "earthy" taste to them, with the exact flavor depending, of course, on the particular herbs used in the formula. A caution for those with food sensitivities: the substrate may be an allergenic grain (corn, wheat, rye, barley) so be sure to ask your practitioner if this is a concern.


The final type of herbal formula is a decoction.
A decoction is kind of like a tea that's made by boiling the actual dried herbs yourself at home. When I cook my herbs, I often find myself saying "Double, double toil, and trouble..." (and cackling. But hey, I'm an herb nerd!) However, you won't find eye of newt or toe of frog here - you'll usually find sticks, twigs, leaves, flowers, seeds, roots and berries. The ingredients are boiled for usually around 30 minutes, the herbs are scooped out and the liquid is what is consumed. Herbal decoctions are by far the strongest preparation of Chinese herbs, but they can take some time since you'll need to boil up a new batch of herbs everyday for the duration of the treatment. If you're vegetarian or vegan, and would prefer to not have animal products used in your formula, make sure to inform your practitioner, because there are occasionally animal products used in extreme cases.

No matter the type of Chinese herbal formula, make sure to talk with your practitioner about what will work the best for you. Remember, if you don't take your herbal formula because you didn't have the time to make it, that's not only money wasted, but health wasted!

Food IS Medicine

Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food." It seems as though we've lost sight of that very wise piece of advice. As a society we feed ourselves foods that are easy for on-the-go eating. These foods, in the name of convenience, have been stripped of their nutritional value and have had some very unhealthy additives included. It's no wonder we find ourselves in such a poor state of affairs. We're not taking our medicines!

Here are a few things that you can do to improve your health, not through medications, but through your food!

• Keep a food diary for one week. Be honest. Don't change your diet to make it look better on paper. This is meant to make you aware of what you're eating, not beat you up about it! Feel no guilt about the way you have eaten in the past, get excited about the changes you're going to make that are going to positively affect your health!
• Add one serving of fruit or vegetable a day. Yep, that's it! We're not talking making HUGE changes here. Baby steps! Add a banana to your morning cereal. Or Take an apple to lunch. Take a second serving of vegetables at dinner, or add a second type of vegetable. Do this consistently for two weeks, then add another serving.
  
• Stop consistently eating something that doesn't lead you toward health. For example: Greatly decrease the number of sodas you drink per day, or discontinue them completely. You can take this in baby steps as well. If you drink 5 sodas per day, decrease to 4 for two weeks, then decrease to 3 for two more weeks, etc. I'm not saying that you can't ever have the food or drink ever again. What I'm saying is, save it as a treat. All of a sudden this food that you ate everyday becomes the most luxurious treat you've ever consumed!

In Chinese medicine, every food has healing properties to it, much like herbs, only milder. Some are great for improving digestion (oats, corn, millet, rice), some are helpful with nausea (lychee, pomelo, orange), some are great at clearing a phlegmy cough (pear, eggplant).

If we all started to think of our kitchens as our pharmacies and only stocked the cupboards with "medicines" that will lead us toward health, just think how our lives could change for the better!

It's what the doctor ordered!

Synergy

So, I always thought that acupuncture worked best when used in conjunction with Chinese herbal medicine. I always thought that Chinese herbal medicine worked best when use with acupuncture. This was so much the case that even though some of my classmates vowed they would never use Chinese herbs in their practice and thus shouldn't have to learn all bazillion of them (this might be a slight exaggeration on my part of how many herbs we had to learn), I struggled and plodded along learning all of the flavors, temperatures and actions of all those darned herbs.
Why did I punish myself so? Because in my own experiences as a health sufferer, I found that while each worked alone, I REALLY liked the results that I got when I was treated by both methods. Sure, acupuncture helped. Yeah, Chinese herbs made a difference. But put them together and it was incredible! (Okay, so the treatment experience wasn't always pleasurable - the needles kinda hurt going in and the herbs are sometimes hard to get down, but it is SO worth those temporary inconveniences!)
Because of these beliefs, I was super excited to find in my e-mail box this morning a letter from an old classmate about a study that was recently published (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19001827?ordinalpos=15&itool=Email.EmailReport.Pubmed_ReportSelector.Pubmed_RVDocSum) showing that there seems to be some proof that acupuncture helps the absorption of Huang Qin (pronounced wong cheen)! How cool is that? The ancient Chinese healers have known for millenia that these two modalities compliment each other beautifully!
I'm sure as research continues, science will find that this is true not just with Huang Qin, but with many, if not all, of the herbs used in the Chinese formulary!