Chinese herbal medicine is another important branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Chinese herbs are different from western herbs. Jean will prescribe Chinese herbs if she feels it is necessary to enhance the acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture is very good to regulate your body’s energy flow, but sometimes when you are deficient in one or more of your vital substance (ie. Blood, Qi, Yin or Yang). The advantage of the use of herbs is to put the missing vital substance into your body quicker and more directly. That is why Chinese herbal medicine is considered such an important healing modality along with acupuncture.
Another very distinct way how Chinese herbal medicine works is that different herbs are prescribed together as a formula. This is like selecting different soldiers according to their particular strengths and putting them together as an army to defeat a specific enemy. This careful combination of herbs will eliminate the possible side effects of the single herb. That’s why Chinese herbs are very safe to use.
When prescribing the Chinese herbal formulas, Jean will take the herbal-drug interaction into consideration to make sure the herbs will not interfere with the western medicine you might be taking currently. Also, all the herbal formulas used are GMP (stands for current Good Manufacturing Practice) certified.
Most herbal formulas the practitioner uses are either in a pill form or powder form making it very pleasant and convenient to take. The raw herbs are not used here because a lot of people have an aversion to the raw herbal taste. Herbal pills are advised to be taken in quantities around 10-15 pills each time and two-three times a day since they are pure herbs, not like the western medicines which are synthetically made. Therefore, a certain amount of herbal pills need to be taken by the patient each time to ensure to achieve certain goals. The best time to take most herbal pills is half an hour to one hour after meals unless otherwise advised by Jean.