Chinese Herbology - The Art of Healing

If acupuncture is little known, Chinese herbology is almost unknown in the west.  This has led to the widespread misconception that acupuncture constitutes all of Chinese medicine.  In fact, the science of herbs is central to Chinese medicine.

During the last two millennia many more books have been devoted to herbology than to acupuncture.  And while chinese physicians tend to practice both medical techniques, physicians who practice only herbs are more numerous than those who practice only acupuncture.  Traditional chinese herbology usually define each entry in terms of how the various herbs and their combinations affect imbalance of the body.  The twentieth-century pharmacopoeias also describe how the substances are understood in terms of modern pharmacology, citing active compounds, and detectable, biochemical effects on microorganisms, animals, and humans.  After distinguishing a particular pattern of disharmony in a patient, the practitioner of the traditional chinese medicine usually chooses a prescription from a repertoire of some 500 common classical prescriptions that can rebalance various disharmony.  These prescriptions are learned from the great clinical manuals that exist alongside the pharmacopoeias.  Thus the physician is armed with knowledge that has been tested over the past centuries of chinese medical history.

Herbs are seldom used singly:  they are usually combined in prescriptions containing five to fifteen substances, the dosages average three to fifteen grams per herbs, most commonly, herbs are decocted into drink, but pills, powders, tinctures, and poultices are also widely used.  Because every patients body is unique, the physical begins with a general prescription as delineated in the classical texts, and then adjust the mixture to the patient by adding or deleting various herbs of by manipulating the dosages of the compounds to fit the precise disharmony.
 
 
 Does It Work?

Traditional Chinese medicine can be considered an art, and it can claim to be a science.  The important question to ask about a medical practice is:

Does It Work?  Is Chinese medicine just an interesting philosophical curiosity or is it a viable system of healing?  Can it treat what the West defines as real diseases?  And can Western science measure its results and appreciate its value?

Because of the unique history of modern China, traditional medicine has been the subject of comprehensive study and testing over the past thirty years.  To answer that question, the Chinese performed thousands of experiments and clinical studies during the fifties.  The result was that in 1958 the Central Committee decided to give traditional and modern medicine equal respect and place in China.