09/11/2025
Why Use Chinese Herbs?
Concerns over dangerous side effects, the high cost of pharmaceutical drugs, and the desire for greater control over personal health have led many people to turn increasingly toward natural remedies.
With centuries of careful observation, research, and documentation, more is known about Chinese herbal medicine than any other system of natural medicinal substances.
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A Long History of Effective Use
While high-quality, potent, and safe herbs are grown worldwide, the unique advantage of Chinese herbs lies in their rich history, the depth of accumulated knowledge, their application within a sophisticated medical system, and their unparalleled variety.
Human beings have used plants for healing since prehistory, but the Chinese cultivated this knowledge within a highly developed medical tradition that has survived into the modern era and continues to evolve today.
Balance and Health
Chinese medicine views the body as a subtle balance of interacting energies. These energies vary in concentration, direction, affinity, and function. Highly concentrated energy manifests as physical tissue, while the most immaterial form of energy is qi (vital force or animating principle).
The natural state of the body is one of balance and harmony. However, environmental factors, poor diet, extreme emotions, stress, or trauma can disrupt this balance and lead to illness.
A Sophisticated Medical System
In Chinese medicine, herbs are categorized by temperature, flavor, action, and affinity for one or more organ channels.
For example, the well-known gynecological herb dang gui (tang kuei, angelica root) is warm, both sweet and pungent, and has an affinity for the liver, spleen, and heart channels. Its primary actions are upon the blood. The sweetness of dang gui corresponds to its blood-nourishing properties, while the pungent flavor is associated with its ability to invigorate circulation. Additionally, dang gui moistens and unblocks the bowels.
Safety
A hallmark of Chinese herbology is that herbs are rarely used individually. Instead, they are combined into harmonious formulas designed to address multiple aspects of a personās conditionātreating both symptoms and root causes.
When constructing formulas, the actions and properties of each herb are carefully considered. For example, a cough-relief formula might not only contain herbs to clear congestion and suppress coughing but also include ingredients to āfree the chest,ā provide antibacterial or antiviral effects, moisten the lungs, protect lung tissue, and strengthen the immune system.
Combining herbs in this way increases both safety and effectiveness.
Treating the Person, Not Just the Disease
Chinese herbal treatment emphasizes the individual constitution and circumstances of the patient rather than the disease itself. Diagnosis focuses on identifying patterns of imbalance as they manifest and evolve.
The same disease may progress differently in different peopleāor even within the same person at different times. Treatment strategies aim to restore balance by clearing excess, supplementing deficiencies, warming what is cold, cooling or draining what is hot, moving what is stagnant, resolving accumulations, eliminating external pathogens, or protecting organs and vital substances.
Whole Plant Parts, Not Isolated Chemicals
Chinese herbs are typically used as whole plant parts, not isolated chemical compounds. Traditional medicine holds that nature provides everything necessary to sustain life and health.
Chemical isolates can be overly harsh, suppress beneficial physiological responses, or even damage organ function. Whole plant parts, however, contain multiple constituents that work together: some temper harsh effects, while others enhance or complement the intended action.
This synergy allows whole herbs to support and fine-tune normal physiology and immune responses more effectively than single compounds.
A Safe, Broad-Spectrum Anti-Microbial Approach
Chinese herbs offer broad-spectrum antiviral and antimicrobial benefits. Modern pharmaceutical medicine provides limited options for treating acute viral infections, often relying on vaccines rather than direct treatment.
By contrast, Western herbalism tends to prescribe single herbs, each with a relatively narrow range of effects. Chinese herbal formulas, however, combine multiple ingredients that strengthen and modify one another, resulting in a safe and comprehensive antimicrobial strategy.
Support and Prevention
Chinese herbs excel as tonic medicines. For thousands of years, tonic formulas have been used to support organs, tissues, fluids, and functions throughout the body.
Over more than two millennia, countless observations and refinements have produced a vast body of knowledge about how different substances can supplement and strengthen the body. The hundreds of formulas and their variations, passed down through this long, rich tradition, are one of historyās great gifts to the modern world.
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For more information about Chinese herbs and how they may benefit you, contact your local practitioner of Oriental medicine.
To find a practitioner, visit: www.NCCAOM.org
Acupuncturists and Training
Certified TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) schools offer programs ranging from three to five years in both theory and practice. Graduates must pass national board exams through the NCCAOM (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), as well as state-level requirements.
To maintain licensure, practitioners must complete continuing education courses.
