CHINESE HERBAL CARE
Chinese Herbal Medicine consists mainly of vegetable sources including leaves, flowers, twigs, stems, roots, tubers, rhizomes, and bark. There are animal and mineral products used on occasion as necessary. Most of the herbs used (about 80-85%) come from China with the remaining percentage having been integrated from outside China. Although these herbs come from a different country, they have been proven to work for people in the United States and all over the world. Herbal products come in different forms – raw, powder, pills, tablets, tea.
Many patients are curious about the nature of Chinese Herbal Medicine. There are a few important things to understand. Chinese Herbal Medicine differs from Western folk medicine in that it usually uses a larger variety of herb in each prescription.
While Western folk medicine typically uses one or a few herbs to treat symptoms, a Chinese Herbal prescription can contain 6-18 herbs. Also, Chinese diagnosis includes not only a disease diagnosis, identifying the symptoms, but also a pattern diagnosis, identifying a person's pattern that is causing weakness and disease in them. The variety of herbs is specially selected to deal with the person's immediate as well as long term problems. They have hardly any side effects, and if a patient does experience any unpleasant side effects the practitioner can adjust the amounts of herb in their mixture until there are no side effects.