One of the main modalities of Chinese medicine, herbal medicine has been developed over thousands of years—refined by millennia of meticulous clinical observations, and, in more
presenting patient. Each formula is carefully balanced, so that the patient is supported and his or her health protected while the condition or disease is resolved.
Are Herbs Safe?
I recommend Chinese herbs primarily from KPC, a leader in the United States in terms of setting safety standards in herb manufacturing and importing. When recommending raw or vacuum-packed formulas, I use the Chinatown pharmacy Sanh Hoa Long, a family business established over twenty years ago, with a reputation for excellent herbal quality and customer service.
To learn more about herbal safety, visit the website of the Institute for Traditional Medicine (ITM) (www.itmonline.org). The founder of ITM regularly publishes on safety issues and serves as a valuable watchdog and information source for practitioners of herbal medicine. On their website, you can read articles that address specific concerns you may have regarding safety issues ranging broadly from such topics as herb-drug interaction to controls in the manufacturing process, from the veracity of reports in the news to cautions around supplements during cancer therapy.
Herb-Drug Interactions
Herb-drug interactions are remarkably rare, but always on the mind of the practitioner. There has not been an extraordinary amount of research on this topic, for the obvious reason of there being little motivation for pharmaceutical companies to fund it. However, some research has indeed been done, and more has been learned from systematic observation.
The majority of the research has focused on Warfarin (Coumadin), resulting in an extensive body of knowledge which is easily accessible and which we always use to cross-check ingredients before recommending herbs, if you are on this drug.
The other substance of much interest to researchers is St. John’s Wort—a substance not within the pharmacopeia of Chinese medicine, and remarkably problematic in combination with other medicines.
Your safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to me. Although extremely rare, to minimize the risk of an herb-drug interaction, please be sure to fully update me as to any additions or changes to your medications and supplements. In the unlikely event that you have an adverse reaction to herbs, call me immediately and/or stop taking the herbs. Of course, just as with biomedical drugs, in the rare event of a severe reaction, call 911.
Contact Virginia Mims, LAc
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recent decades, scientifically validated by
myriad international research studies, particularly in China.
Both the beauty and the strength of herbal medicine lies in its rich history ~ which has provided us with thousands of time-tested formulas and case studies ~ as well as in its theoretical framework, which requires an intricate balance of ingredients and functions.
In the practice of Chinese herbal medicine, there is a traditional directive to customize a classical or “guiding” formula to the unique needs of the
