Chinese Herbal Medicine, just like acupuncture, is a highly complex concept. Unlike Western medicine, and its views that one medication can rectify all types of headaches and migraines for example, Chinese Herbal Medicine, with correct and thorough diagnosis, gets to the root cause of the issue/s and doesn’t just treat the symptoms.
For instance: is it an Occipital Headache (the back of the head); usually caused by exterior wind cold getting into the back of the head and upper back, or kidney deficiency. Or a Vertex headache (top of the head); generally thought to be a liver blood deficiency – the type of pain, a boring sensation; blood stagnation, a heavy sensation; damp or phlegm and so on. We as acupuncturists and herbalists, would then utilise different acupuncture points and herbs to resolve each cause, rather than a one “pill” or “pin” approach to cover a broad spectrum of possible causes.
Throughout my life, from a small child, spending time and cooking with my granddad – I’ve always enjoyed food and flavour combinations that can go together. When I was poorly with a common cold for instances, he would always make me a drink, a “Hot Toddy”, consisting of honey and lemon with warm water (and a dash of whisky), which would pretty quickly make me feel better. Since commencing my TCM journey and learning about the thermal energetics of food and plants, or Si Qi, (Si meaning Four, Qi Energies) and the four main temperature traits being, Hot, Warm, Cold and Cooling, I can now understand how this seemingly simple home remedy actually worked.
The lemon being cold in energy, but also directed principally towards the lung meridian with its colour, as white herbs and foods are associated with the lungs and its sour taste making it also astringent, working inline with the Liver, a wood element. The lemon has the ability to circulate the Qi and blood, whilst also eliminating toxins, clearing heat and resolving phlegm. The sweet honey, Feng Mi, to soothe my throat but also nourish and tonify any Qi and Yin deficiency and moisten the lungs. The honey again, with its special properties of being able to circulate the blood and eliminate toxins. Similarly, the whisky, alcohol, has ascending and floating properties, which will lift and guide the other “herbs” to their intended meridian and organ.
Now if I was to ask any of my friends and family if they thought that this remedy was related to Chinese Herbal Medicine or any type of herbal medicine, then I’m pretty sure they would answer no, but I can now understand how very simple ingredients whether they be indigenous to China or not, have the ability to heal, as Chinese medicine works with the guidance of TCM theory and the vast knowledge we have now learnt from the many scholars that have come before us.
This may seem like a very simplistic view on Chinese and Herbal Medicine as a whole, but I feel that if I am able to break down a remedy or a “formula” down like this for my patients to be able to understand, then they will have more confidence in my work and more likely to actually carry on with the treatment, rather than by baffled by language that they cannot grasp.
This is also one of the reasons why I decided to study Chinese Herbal Medicine. For years now, I have seen family and friends taking Western medication, with no real understanding of what and why they are taking such medication. Some in their words have “been blindly taking the same medication for years” and “not knowing whether it was really making it (the illness) better or worse”. I would like to hope that by continuing to study Chinese Herbal Medicine’s vast complexities, that I will be able to continue to help many more people, and have some more human interaction between myself and my patients, in helping them understand what is going in with their own bodies and how we can naturally get it back into a more balanced system.
If we consider that all human, plant, animal, every living thing, are made from the same 108 elements, just in different quantities. Now consider, that if we, as humans, are deficient, in one or more elements that a certain plant(s) etc has in abundance, then taking that can once again bring our systems back to balance. I personally find this absolutely fascinating, and a principal that the vast majority of my patients also grasp quite easily and therefore embrace Chinese Herbal Medicine more readily.
In addition, looking at Chinese Herbal Medicine from a modern sustainability point of view, from my understanding, there is virtually zero or very little waste with each herb or plant. The Lotus Lian, is very important in China. It is associated with change and transformation; growing in very murky thick muddy soil but producing very beautiful flowers with a light energy and can be used in its entirety. From the Lotus Root, to treat pneumonia, heavy blood stasis and stubborn cough, the Lotus Stem, being a transportation highway and directing the components to the correct channel, Lotus Leaf; to aid in slimming, water metabolism and fluid/water retention, Lotus Seeds; for palpitations, Lotus Pods/Shells; Chest Pains (which has been used a lot to treat Covid 19 issues) and haemorrhoids.
I hope that in my practice and throughout my career, that I will be able to bring Chinese Herbal Medicine to more and more patients, so that not only does the art not die out with our ancestors, but people have a modern day understanding to something that they feel has been “forbidden” or alien to them in the past.
