How To Take Chinese Herbs
What is Chinese Herbal Medicine?
The use of herbs to restore the system and cure ailments. — Herbs have been used medicinally since the Stone Age, but it wasn’t until the framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine was formed over 2,000 years ago that herbal use started to become more structured.
It’s development has blossomed over time based in the concept of Yin and Yang, in efforts to understand and assist Qi blocks. Practitioners may use herbs, acupuncture, diet therapy, lifestyle changes, movement (such as tai chi or qi gong) and others to address illnesses. Diagnoses are based upon patterns of symptoms and the body is looked at as a whole; the goal is lifestyle management and illness prevention. Chinese herbs are now integrated over the whole world for its phenomenal benefits.
How are Chinese herbs taken?
Herbs can be taken by any person of any age or constitution, with the okay of your health care practitioner.
The herbs are traditionally steeped in hot water and drank as a tea, but more often you’ll find them compressed into capsules or tablets, distributed by the bottle. This is most likely what we will suggest you take them as.
Herbs need to be taken. They work by remaining in your system continuously. They will not have an opportunity to work if they are taken only once; you will not see results.
Usually you will be instructed to take several capsules daily and return in a couple weeks to talk about the results. It truly does take this much time for integration into the whole system and lifestyle change for you to bring herbs into your life and body.
A big part of taking herbs is setting an intention for change. It’s a commitment, and the results can be full-healing. This is why it is considered a wellness practice as well. Chinese Medicine looks at the whole, no part of you is left out or disregarded when you seek Herbal Medicine care.
How long does it take to see results?
Sometimes, the results are immediate and significant.
Other times, it is slow to start and slow to change.
Your experience could stand anywhere on that spectrum, depending on millions of little factors that make up your unique anatomy and the types of herbs taken.
Excerpt from Banyan Botanicals:
Courting a Relationship with Your Herbs
"Taking herbs is a fundamentally different process than taking pharmaceuticals. When we take herbal tablets, our bodies are developing an intimate relationship with the plants that have been dried and prepared in each tablet. These plants have an intrinsic intelligence and life-force energy (prana) that they are lending to us—as we ingest them—in service of our optimal health and well-being. Ultimately, the tastes, qualities, and unique capacities of each herb serve to activate our own bodily intelligence, catalyzing a synergistic relationship that invariably deepens over time."
(To dive deeper into the understanding of the relationship with Chinese Herbs, I highly suggest reading the rest of their article, here.)
Questions about herbs? Call us at 541-639-8911 and ask for Ileana, our acupuncturist and Herbal Medicine guru.