Our New Herb Room!

I wanted to take a minute to show off our latest renovation of the clinic. It's still a work in progress, but it definitely looks great! We can display our herbs much more clearly now, and there's much more working space.

We always envisioned having a stove in the herb room in order to practice paozhi. Paozhi refers to preparation and processing techniques used to alter the medicinal properties of herbs. This may involve means such as roasting, dry frying, wine frying, honey frying, earth frying, vinegar frying, baking, or broiling an herb. It's a traditional way of enhancing an herb's characteristics or mitigating harsh properties. For example, cooking an herb in wine increases its ability to promote circulation, as the alcohol takes the herbal constituents to the blood level. Alternatively, ban xia (pinellia) is an herb commonly used to treat phlegm congestion. It is considered "toxic" in its raw form - toxic in the sense that it would probably causes a stomachache. To make this herb safe for consumption and remove irritants, ban xia is soaked in water and fried with ginger. It's important to point out that herbs which require this type of paozhi are never sold before they are prepared, so it is not up to acupuncturists to alter the herb - it's already been made safe. On our herb lists, you will always see zhi ban xia or jiang ban xia ("prepared" pinellia or "ginger-fried" pinellia).

Why should I use herbal medicine?

By the same token, you could ask, why are the practitioners at Meridian so crazy about herbs? Well, our college placed a lot of emphasis on herbology, both so that we'd become proficient herbalists and in order to make us understand the important role herbal medicine has played and continues to play in the development of Chinese medicine theory overall. Perhaps more importantly, each of us have seen the powerful effects and profound benefits of herbal medicine in our school clinic, as well as here at Meridian.

Here are the main benefits as I see them:

1) Taking an herbal formula extends the effect of your acupuncture treatment. You're only in my treatment room for an hour a week (and usually less often than that), but if you're taking herbs regularly, there's something acting on your body every day. It also allows us to space out visits once your condition is stabilized with acupuncture, so instead of coming in weekly, it can be semi-weekly or monthly, and herbs are used to fill in the gaps. This helps us keep patient costs down over time. 

2) With herbs, we can address multiple health concerns at once. If you have tennis elbow or back pain, we can treat those things with acupuncture which improving your mood or digestion with herbal medicine. Additionally, and what we're typically looking to do with herbs, we can treat the pain locally with acupuncture to offer some relief and write an herbal formula designed to address the underlying cause of the pain or what's going on in your body that's preventing you from healing faster.

3) There are actually some things that herbal medicine treats more effectively than acupuncture. Don't get me wrong; both are great and able to address just about anything on their own. But many Chinese medicine physicians believe that if your body is lacking a vital substance - qi, blood, body fluids, yin, yang - herbs are better at replenishing them. Acupuncture works to help the organs responsible for generating vital substances become stronger and more efficient, whereas herbal medicinals actually are substantial, so they add things to the body. Just like foods, they are full of nutrients, and they are full of qi!

4) There are some formulas that target very specific conditions for immediate relief. Acupuncture has similar unique uses as well, but it's worth noting that there are specific herbs that, when added to a formula, can treat things such as high cholesterol, night blindness, athlete's foot, kidney stones, goiter, and non-healing wounds, to name a few.

5) Taking an herbal formula is a great means of introducing Chinese medicine into your lifestyle in a real way. Chinese medicine is as much about living well as it is curing disease; drinking an herbal decoction is a gateway, a powerful yet simple first step towards other "nourishing life" practices that make up your daily routine and lead to health and happiness. Pretty soon you'll be striving to become a wise, contemplative qigong master. 

About the Blogger:

Colby is the blogger. He likes to stand in the herb room and blog about herbs. Unfortunately he favors writing too much over editing, and for that he apologizes...