I saw a new client today who has tried so many pharmaceutical medicines to help her various complaints ranging from sinus congestion to fibromyalgia pain, but all to no avail. Based on her overall constitution, her seemingly mish mosh of symptoms made sense in Oriental Medicine pattern diagnosis. I suggested herbs because she fit several patterns and based on my experience i know she would start seeing results with her body better than with just acupuncture alone. She was hesitant because her MDs put the fear of God into her about herbs. This is unfortunate because she's not going to try something that can potentially help her tremendously in her body''s balance.
People fear what they don't know. So i understand when MDs steer away from OKing herbs because they are not educated in it for the most part, and you can't recommend something that you know nothing about. I also understand that people (who are not properly trained) have misused herbs for the wrong reasons, as with ephedra for weight loss when it is a brilliant herb for short term asthma use.
The media also likes to blow out of proportion the stories of "herbs gone wrong" that occur mostly out of untrained usage of these herbs. They never report when these herbs work amazingly without side effects, which happens more often than not.
People are more willing to try a pharmaceutical that has the funding for "scientific studies" that prove one thing or another. When you talk to scientists, they will tell you that you can pretty much create studies to prove one thing or another. Studies can be severely flawed and some can be stellar.
The fact is, we don't know the long term effects of taking pharmaceuticals. Look at the pain meds and fen fen that they had to pull off the shelves after it started killing people. And if it's not killing people, we don't know the effects of chronic use of meds even though their initial symptom has disappeared.
Chinese herbs have been used for over 5000 years...tested on people! What has survived in the materia medica today is a result of successful results on people over thousands of years. Things don't survive if they don't work.
Bottom line is, there is no harm in taking these natural substances when it is administered by a trained Oriental Medicine practitioner. Especially if these practitioners are mindful of the sources of their herbs as well. There are many quality herb companies that test their products for heavy metals and toxins. However, not all do. So it's wise to ask your acupuncturist.
If you're willng to put steroids in your body to help your sinuses and horse urine for hormonal disorders, how harmful can roots and twigs (from tested sources and trained professionals) be? Think about it.
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