The Power of Herbs

By: Dr. Linda Wright

People who are looking for drug-free and surgery-free answers find properly-targeted Chinese herbal formulas surprisingly effective.

The philosophy of Chinese medicine is to help people take better charge of their own health, to restore the ability of the patient’s body to heal itself. Traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, focuses on getting to the underlying, fundamental issues.

TCM talks about the branch and the root, meaning what is a symptom versus what is a cause. Put another way, this is called “getting to the root cause.”

Let’s say you have carpal tunnel syndrome. A Western medicine surgeon is likely to do surgery to make your carpal tunnel symptoms go away. But maybe what caused it is that you were low thyroid. Or maybe you had tightening of muscles up by the elbow. If you do not address the underlying root problem, the symptoms return, or other “diseases” appear.

Or let’s say you have pain, especially back pain. Western medicine’s answer is to give you anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants. These are meant to relieve your symptoms. In Chinese medicine, though, herbs are used to address pain on a more fundamental level. TCM has an expression: “Where there is free blood flow there is no pain, where there is pain there is no free blood flow.” We’ve seen really good results with an herbal formula called Invigorate the Collaterals, or Huo Luo Xiao Ling Dan. The idea behind it is that the body’s arteries and veins are its highways, and the smaller capillaries are the collateral roadways. If we can improve circulation in the capillaries (collaterals), then blood flow through the painful area is better, and pain is diminished. Better blood flow brings the elements for fundamental healing.

Western medicine tends to be one-size-fits-all. It’s reductionist – reduce things to one question, one answer.

Traditional Chinese medicine is customized for each person – that has always been its great forte.

Western medicine tends to be one-size-fits-all. It’s reductionist – reduce things to one question, one answer.

Traditional Chinese medicine is customized for each person – that has always been its great forte.

Formulas Handed Down Through Millenia

The Chinese know their herbs incredibly well. They use traditional farming methods but have never genetically modified the herbs or otherwise altered them. An herb grown in one part of the country will have somewhat different effects than the same herb gown in another province. Chinese pharmacists know this well. The formulas are built up out of pairs, triplets, and quadruplets of different herbs, which have been proven to work well together over millennia.

Chinese use herbal formulas but almost never use single herbs. Why? Because human beings are complex, and it takes something with some complexity to address things that go wrong with people.

Simple formulas are often used with Chinese peasants and farmers – those living close to nature. When they get sick, a simple herbal formulation will work. But city folk are different; they have stress, pollution, processed food, etc. Living in a more complex environment often requires a more complex herbal formula.

When the diagnosis is spot on and the remedy is spot on, it is like a key in a lock, and the situation that may have been going on for years resolves very quickly.

I was drawn to TCM because of its elegance in resolving fundamental issues. My partner, Joseph Garner, was also drawn to Chinese medicine. I had a busy practice, so I was unable to finish the long course of study. But Joseph did, and then some. He went on to become a licensed acupuncturist, obtained his certification in Chinese herbology, and used herbal formulations in clinical practice.

Read his explanation of how TCM zeroes in on issues and solutions.