Chinese Herbs

Hi,

I am studying Chinese Medicine and have suffered flareups of Colitis in the past. My recent flare-up lasted 6 months and only seemed to heal when I started taking a simple herbal decoction. Chinese medicine is tailored to the individual, so usually I would not recommend for every person to take the same herb, because everyone is unique. However, I am extremely interested to see if these herbs would help anyone else. Please note that I am not a qualified physician and I strongly encourage you to do your own research before consuming any substance.

These are popular herbs so hopefully they won't be too hard to come by. They should be available in your local china town or health food store could order them in. I haven't looked but I'm guessing you could order them online if need be.

The herbs I use are Huang Qi (astragalus), He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum) and Fu Ling(Sclerotium of Tuckahoe, China Root, Poria, Hoelen). I used the actual herb and not an extract. The huang qi is a root that comes in slices, I just break it in half and throw it in the pot. The he shou wu is again a sliced up root, I throw a couple of pieces in and I use a small handful of the fu ling. I put all the herbs in a ceramic pot I bought from a herbal shop in china town. I think it's best not to use an aluminium pot as it may interact with the herbs. I cover the herbs with about 1L of water and bring to the boil and allow it to cook for 15 minutes. After that I let it cool off and have one cup. The rest of the decoction can be kept in the fridge for later in the day. The same batch of herbs can be reused the following day before discarding and starting fresh.

I know this sounds like a lot of effort and may be intimidating if you haven't tried anything like this before, but if someone has the energy to give this a go, maybe trial it for a week, I would love to hear whether it helped you or not.

Again my disclaimer though, I am not qualified to give health advice, please read up on everything yourself and stop taking the herbs if you experience any side effects.

I will just quickly point out that TCM is the style of Chinese or Oriental Medicine that I was taught. There are other styles that use different systems of diagnosis. For example, some schools of Japanese acupuncture use hara/abdominal diagnosis. I haven't been taught this.

I have heard the legendary stories where a great doctor in imperial times could diagnose a member of the royal family simply by examining one of their fingers (because they were not able to see or have direct contact with the whole person). I do not have this skill nor have I ever met anyone who can do this.

As a student simply asking all of the questions relevant to the whole person is the greatest starting point. Feeling the wrist pulse and possibly palpating the channels are plays a role. Tongue observation often plays a large role. Observation of the rest of the body is usually more general, we do take into account if someone has red eyes, or a flushed face, maybe pale skin, large dark purple veins, etc. To me as a student these help in diagnosis but the tongue and the wrist pulse are major areas of diagnosis with a great deal of research and literature written about exactly what they mean and what they can tell the practitioner.

I was not aware of the ability to predict the athletic ability of men. I will have to read up on this.

You could try this link: http://deepesthealth.com/2007/how-to-find-a-legitimate-chinese-medicine-physician/

 

I have been taking a Chinese herbal supplement since August of 2010.  The results have been spectacular, best thing I have ever taken.

I know whats in it but don't really recognise anything.  Not sure I would anyway.  I take three capsules per day.

  Beachlife, I am off of all prescript ion meds.  First time in 20 years and doing better than I ever have. This is the list of herbs.  From what I understand, these are anti-inflamatories that work as they transit through your digestive system.  Bai Wei Daqingyue Huang Qin Jiu Zhi Huang Lian Mu Xiang   I started taking these after a friend told me about someone else he knows that was taking them.  It was a risky proposition, and I was reluctant to do it.  I was desperate for something after Remicade quit working for me and I went into a full flare in the summer.  From what I understand, the guy who developed this has had UC for as long as I have and has been on this for over a year.

pauly123 said...
can one take take TCM and meds at the same time like imuran and mezavant xl? if so and one is in remission then it would b hard to know if the TCM is doing anygood,but i would love to come of the meds and give it ago.

I was told to stay on all meds (Asacol and 6-mp) when I started thaking the herbal capsules.  I quit taking them within a month after starting the herb.  I just never refilled the prescriptions because I didn't really need them and they are expensive.  Not to mention the long term use of 6-mp, I've been on it for at least 15 years.

Scarecrow - thanks for sharing the formula that you take. You said you take it in capsule form, is this something that a practitioner makes for you or is it a patent formula that can be bought by a certain name?

NotaDr, It is made by someone who has been working on this for a while.  It has been provided to me (at no cost) and a few others to gather information about effectiveness. From what I understand, the success rate is remarkable for UC, Crohns and proctitis.  It sure has been a miracle for me.  The next step for me was surgery.  I really dodged a bullet with this stuff.

I don't know the details but I believe it will be available soon. 

I am interested to explore the Chinese herbal route too. I currently reside in Shanghai, China so I'll see what I can find by seeing an eastern medicine doctor.

MaxMilian said...
I am interested to explore the Chinese herbal route too. I currently reside in Shanghai, China so I'll see what I can find by seeing an eastern medicine doctor.

Hi Max, did you end up finding anything in China?

I saw a TCM Dr here recently, I was impressed with his attentiveness and questions, but the herbs were nasty and didn't help. I was also surprised at the amount of herbs he wanted me to be mixing with hot water, a seemingly huge amount that made for a very thick nasty bitter drink.. For the enemas, the amount of water he suggested I use was even less, and I have no idea how I would have administered that… Anyway.