Tag Archives: herbs

The Power and Beauty of Herbal Formulas

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When I initially started my adventure into the world of Chinese Medicine my plan was to study acupuncture only. I had been convinced that I should study acupuncture alone first, and then later, if I wanted or felt like I needed to, I could go back to study herbs. There’s one required herbs class at the school I go to whether or not you’re going to learn all about them down the road. After I took it, I fell in love and have been passionately learning about them along with acupuncture ever since.

The past 3 semesters I’ve been devoting many hours per-week to memorizing and creating a solid basic understanding of each individual herb. This involves memorizing the Chinese name, along with a pharmaceutical name (in latin), and the herb’s characteristics, functions, and indications. We also have to be able to identify the herbs in their raw form. This was an arduous task, but worthwhile, because now I have around 300 friends who I can (or at least will be able to soon) call upon to help people heal from their illnesses.

Unfortunately, for the most part, there’s not that much you can do with any single herb, because unlike in Western Medicine where you find and isolate one active ingredient to act on the body in one specific way, in Chinese Herbal Medicine, the idea is to take a number of herbs (each with many active ingredients) and blend them in a formula that can address the root cause of the illness and leave the patient with little to no side effects. However, I’m starting to understand that diagnosing a patient, and then coming up with a treatment, be it in formulating an array of herbs or a collection acupuncture points, is a delicate and intricate process – a form of art.

Today we started learning our first formulas – formulas that “release the exterior.” These are for acute common-cold type situations. The idea is that the disease gets lodged in the body and we need to “release the exterior” layer of our body and help it push the disease out. But here’s the rub, the common-cold isn’t just one disease with one herbal formula. The common cold as we call it, is an array of symptoms that manifest quite differently in different people, and we need to use different herbs for different manifestations.

This means that if a patient comes in with a cold, with fever and chills, and maybe they have an headache in the back of their head (because the location of the headache matters), maybe a stuffy nose, possible wheezing, and they’re not sweating, then we’ll prescribe one specific herbal formula. If they also have body-aches, we might throw in another herb to address that. Maybe a few days later the patient’s father gets a cold. The father’s symptoms are a little bit different; while he too has a common-cold, he’s a little bit more feverish, and he’s also pretty thirsty, very irritable, and has substantially different pulse. With that mildly different set of symptoms, we’re going to give him a very different herbal formula. Both formulas may share a number of herbs, but the differences have substantial affects on the way the herbs work in the body.

One of the coolest things about it all is that herbs are like different people. You know how a certain person might act one way when they’re hanging out with some people, and then act a little bit different when they’re hanging out with other people? Well, herbs are the same way! So, if you pair Herb A with Herb B than they’ll both focus more on Action X, but if you put Herb A with Herb C they’ll focus on Action Y (I’m happy to give concrete examples with herbs as my knowledge develops). And the dosage of the herbs, or how much space they get at the dinner table, will determine whether they gently blend into the conversation but mostly stay in the background, or whether they play a major driving force in guiding the conversation at the dinner table.

It’s a lot to learn. It’s a whole new language and along with it comes a new way to think, but it’s pretty fun when you have teachers who are passionate about it and an end goal of healing people. It’s interesting because my feeling is that a lot of people are apprehensive about taking herbs, perhaps even moreso than about acupuncture. I imagine that a lot of that has to do with how unfamiliar we are with them, and how much we’ve been taught not to trust them (no regulation, no scientific studies, no FDA approval). They can be very dangerous if used incorrectly, but they can do magic when utilized by a properly trained herbalist.

And the floor is open to questions…

Acupuncture and Herbs…

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or Herbs and Acupuncture?

Acupuncture and Herbs are two different Chinese healing modalities. They are based in the same fundamental theory and grow out of the same foundational ideas, but they were not necessarily always practiced by the same people, and require a different set of skills and knowledge. They can both heal a number of conditions, but in different ways.

I personally was attracted to Chinese medicine because of acupuncture and my personal experiences with it. I am a very hands-on person and love massage and touch. Initially, I was planning on going to a school that teaches only acupuncture because of a philosophical belief that one should master one medicine before learning a second. But, for better or worse (I think better) that is no longer the case. I still have the option of learning them sequentially, but I’ve been hearing from the school’s faculty and from some senior students to go ahead and learn it all at once. While I’ve heard plenty of practitioners who use only acupuncture say they don’t need herbs, I’ve also heard practitioners say they can’t imagine treatment without herbs (I’ve even had one student tell me that her perception is that those that learn acupuncture without herbs are not as good at acupuncture).

Now, I also tend to be the kind of person who wants to do it all at once, and while I was attracted to Chinese medicine because of acupuncture and the physical touch elements involved, I was coming from a background of ecology. My love of nature and of the plant and animal world is deep, and any opportunity to learn more and connect in new ways to the natural world is one I’m eager to pursue. This semester I’m taking my first herbs course (required for all students regardless of whether or not they’ll be studying herbs further down the road), and I’ve fallen in love. I am super excited about learning more, and about getting to know as many of the herbs as possible on a personal level by growing them (if anyone knows of seed suppliers please inform me, I have a few leads on some sources in North Carolina and upstate New York and will happily share more information as soon as it’s confirmed). I’ve also experienced first-hand the healing power of some of the herbal formulas (specifically a formula called Shao Yao San) and want to be able to share that with patients.

Which leads me to the next point of contemplation: will I end up using herbs therapeutically? While they are powerful healers, patient compliance is not always the highest (they’re often inconvenient to take, or taste bad), and they add an expense to any treatment (which isn’t an option for all patients), and depending on where I end up living and practicing, they might not be easily accessible.

Doing herbs with the Acupuncture program means 2 more semester, a fair amount more debt (which I plan on discussing in a future post), and most importantly a potential that I’ll be missing a little from both (the human brain can only absorb so much information at a time, right?). One thing I’ve noticed so far is that I’m spending a lot more time studying herbs than I am studying my acupuncture points. Part of that has to do with how my memory works, and I just happen to be able to get points right away, but I wonder what things will look like down the road.

There’s another little conundrum hiding it’s face amongst all these contemplations regarding my ability to take classes in the Classical Chinese Medicine while doing the full Traditional Chinese Medicine program, but I won’t go into that right now.

So there’s one of the many many things that’s been on my mind regarding my studies, As always, I’m open to hearing people’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

Shine on, and drink some dandelion tea to help heal the world (more on this soon enough).