| Celery has long been recommended in traditional chinese medicine for lowering high blood pressure, and experimental evidence bears this out. In one study, injecting laboratory animals with celery extract significantly lowered their blood pressure. In humans, eating as few as four celery stalks has done the same.
VVV Garlic (Allium sativum). This wonder herb not only helps normalize blood pressure, it also reduces cholesterol. In a scientifically rigorous study, people with high blood pressure were given about one clove of garlic a day for 12 weeks. |
| Also known as dang-quai, Chinese angelica is revered in traditional chinese medicine as the leading treatment for gynecological complaints. It's often called the female ginseng. But Chinese angelica also has mild sedative, pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic properties that make it a good herb to try for sciatica.
In China, physicians inject their patients with Chinese angelica extract to treat sciatic pain. |
| Celery seed has a long history of use in traditional chinese medicine as a treatment for dizziness.
V Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). Some herbalists I respect claim that pumpkin seeds help relieve dizziness. If I were going to take this remedy myself, I'd have some pumpkin seed butter.
V Assorted herbs. Recipe writer that I am, I can't resist combining all of the anti-dizziness herbs with a few flavor herbs in a Stomach Settler Tea. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
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 Dong quai has been used in traditional chinese medicine for thousands of years, mainly for female disorders. It is used to treat menstrual disturbances, such as infrequent menstruation and abnormal menstrual bleeding. It is thought to work as a blood tonic, that is, to "build up" the blood and "invigorate" the circulation. Other benefits attributed to Dong quai are a laxative action for chronic constipation of the aged and debilitated and usefulness in the treatment of headaches, abdominal pain and arthritis.
Many pharmacologically active substances have been isolated from Dong quai. |
| Astragalus
("Body Energizer" and Immune Stimulant)
Astragalus, derived from the root of Astragalus membranaceus, a perennial of northern China, is a mainstay of traditional chinese medicine. It is used in nearly half of all Chinese prescriptions. It has a reputation for being a potent energizer and immune stimulant. Chinese researchers report success in using it in cancer patients—to offset some of the immune-suppressing effect of many Western cancer drugs and radiation. |
John Heinerman
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 Now a researcher from the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica of the China Academy of traditional chinese medicine, who had been perusing ancient medical texts in search of new antimalarial drugs, decided to find out if soaking this wormwood had been done to avoid the loss of antimalarial properties by boiling or brewing it instead. She and her colleagues not only proved this to be a fact, but also were able to actually test the herb on humans afflicted with the malaria parasites. The clinical results turned out to be very good. |
Josef A. Brinckmann and Michael P. Lindenmaier
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 Chinese medicine for treatment of hiccup, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, epigastric and abdominal pains [14].
Making the tea: Not applicable.
Tea preparations: Cloves are almost always included as a component of spice mixtures used in the preparation of mulled wine.
Phytomedicines: None. Several combination products with various indications contain clove essential oil.
Regulatory status
Canada: Clove and/or clove oil are approved active ingredients in nearly 20 Schedule OTC Traditional Herbal Medicines (e.g. Thunas Dyspepsia Balsam), basic lotions and liniments (e.g. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 1Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Dictionary of traditional chinese medicine. Hong Kong: The Commercial Press. 1984: p 342
5. Veith I. The Yellow Emperor's classic of internal medicine. University of California Press. 1949
6. Maoshing Ni. The Yellow Emperor's classic of medicine. Boston, MA: Shambala. 1995
7. Unschuld PU. The classic of difficult issues. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 1986: p 3-4
8. Unschuld PU. Medicine in China, a history of ideas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 1985
9. Unschuld P, ed. Approaches to traditional Chinese medical literature. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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 Rather than relying on concepts such as the body types of Ayurvedic medicine or the vital life force concept of traditional chinese medicine, naturopaths study conventional anatomy and other medical sciences. They use X rays, order laboratory tests, and apply physical examination techniques as do conventional physicians.
Naturopathy and conventional medicine differ, how-
Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Techniques and Areas of Care
•Therapeutic nutrition
?Homeopathy
?Plant substances
?Manipulation of muscles, bones, and spine
?Natural childbirth (not in hospital)
? |
Robert S. McCaleb, Evelyn Leigh, and Krista Morien
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 According to the principles of traditional chinese medicine, these plants are bitter and cooling and have the ability to dispel heat, counteract dampness, and remove toxins from the body. Berberine-containing plants found in these countries—especially Chinese goldthread, Coxitis chinensis—are employed for many of the same purposes as the American plant goldenseal. Currently, goldenseal is one of the few popular American herbs not commonly used in Germany, although a good deal of it is imported each year to the United Kingdom. |
Rudolph M. Ballentine, M.D.
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 Practitioners of traditional chinese medicine often formulate their understanding of a patient on the basis of an analysis of the interaction of the Five Elements (or Phases, as they are more often termed in this context), and do elegant work on this basis. Though the study of human nature through the lens of the Five Elements is rich and full of insights, I find the concept difficult to use as a clinical tool. The interactions of five factors is a lot to keep up with; I can't seem to keep all the permutations and combinations straight in my head. |
| The Plan, which is there (or not) to guide your life, is the mental/spiritual expression of liver energy in traditional chinese medicine. The spiritual alienation of modern man often leaves him feeling trapped in a job or life situation that he hates, and frustrated and angry at the way his ego-oriented Plan isolates him—so he's not a happy "liver" of his life!
In fact, if we were to design a lifestyle that maximally stressed the liver, it would look very much like the urban life of the late-twentieth-century man with his deficient diet, high intake of toxins, and angry frustration. |
| Vedic scholar and teacher David
Frawley, who is trained in both Ayurveda and traditional chinese medicine, examines the basic concepts of Ayurveda. There are also sections on the treatment of specific diseases, and a materia medica of both classical and modern Ayurvedic formulas. From time to time, Frawley draws parallels and connections between Ayurvedic and Chinese approaches.
Charaka Samhita, 3 vols., Ram K. Sharma and Vaidya B. Dash, eds., Jamnagar, 1949. The classic reference work in three volumes. |
| This husband-and-wife team has produced what is, at this point, the most understandable and comprehensive view of the Western practice of traditional chinese medicine. Excellent sections on the Five Phases or Elements, on acupuncture, on herbs, and on the TCM approach to diet. Highly recommended.
The Essential Book of Chinese Traditional Medicine. 2 vols., Liu Yan Chi, Columbia University Press, New York, 1988. The most authoritative, comprehensive, and well-organized book by a respected leader of traditional medicine in China that will be found in English. |
| For those who wish to approach traditional chinese medicine in terms of the Five Elements and to probe the subtler psychological aspects of the system, this book is unique. Thoughtful, philosophical, and poetic, it is written by an American psychoanalyst with decades of experience in acupuncture. The understanding of the Five Elements that emerges from this book can be applied to Ayurvedic as well as Chinese medicine.
Chinese Herbal Patent Formulas, Jake Fratkin, Institute of Traditional Medicine, Portland, Ore., 1986. |
| These qualities are often considered yin or yang, but unfortunately different schools of Eastern thought use those terms in exactly opposite ways when referring to the expansive and contractive qualities. traditional chinese medicine considers contractivity a yin quality, while macrobiotics, a Japanese Zen school, sees it as yang. With writers on diet coming from both of these schools, the confusion can get pretty thick. I tend to follow the lead of my
DIETARY PRINCIPLE NO. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Like Western medicine, traditional chinese medicine is used to treat a wide variety of ailments with several basic therapeutic tools.
Acupuncture involves the insertion of needles at specific, predetermined points on the body, called acupuncture points or acupoints, which correspond to the meridians through which qi is believed to flow throughout the body. Acupuncture is discussed in more detail in Chapter 1.
Moxibustion involves burning a small mound of tightly bound leaves of an herb known as the Chinese mug-wort, or Artemisia vulgaris. |
Leo Galland
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 Ayurveda, which means "wisdom of long life," has always emphasized the promotion of health and prevention of sickness, an endeavor that Western clinical medicine willfully cast aside at the beginning of the nineteenth century, much to its detriment.
In traditional chinese medicine, the fundamental relationships are expressed through the concepts of yin and yang. Yang is that aspect of being that is warm, expansive, bright, or unfolding. Yin is that aspect of being that is cool, receding, dark, or infolding. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Today, herbal remedies (see Chapter 11) and other traditional techniques (see Chapters 20 and 40) join acupuncture as central components of traditional chinese medicine.
What It Is
Acupuncture is a medical therapy developed in China more than two thousand years ago. It involves the placement of hair-thin, disposable needles of varying lengths into the skin (Figure 3). Ancient acupuncture needles were made of bone, stone, or metal including silver and gold. Modern needles are made of stainless steel. |
Stephanie Beling
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 These powers are probably why traditional chinese medicine has long prescribed this PowerFood as a tonic, to suppress tumors, to inactivate viruses, and to enhance longevity.
What appears to be one of the key sources of this power is a phytochemical called lentman, a booster of the immune system that exhibits strong antitumor activity and enhances resistance to bacterial, viral, and parasite infections.
A Mushroom Sampler
There are an estimated 38,000 varieties of mushrooms, many of them highly toxic and even fatal. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Homeopathy (see Chapter 4) is a system of medicine involving the use of very small amounts of a symptom-causing substance to treat the condition that produces similar symptoms. traditional chinese medicine (Chapter 3) applies techniques developed in ancient China to treat disease, and acupuncture (see Chapter 1) involves the insertion of needles in specific points on the body to cure or treat disease. For hydrotherapy or spa therapy, patients are sent to spas for periods of rest and rejuvenation. |
| Ancient healing systems such as India's Ayurvedic medicine and traditional chinese medicine (Chapters 2 and 3) include dietary remedies. Plants and herbs were the first medicines in every culture. Modern alternative remedies, such as the diet- and coffee-enema-based metabolic therapies as well as other unproven cancer regimens, also include special diets.
Healthful eating keeps us in good shape and prevents many illnesses. However, aside from diseases of nutritional deficiency, there are no proven dietary cures for serious illnesses. |
Dr. Gary Null
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 Prophylactic and Therapeutic Effects of Acupuncture on Simple Obesity Complicated by Cardiovascular Diseases," Journal of traditional chinese medicine, 12, no. 1 (March 1992): 21-29.
The active principle in refined rhubarb is an obesity-reducing drug known as Jiang-Thi Jian-Fei Yao (JZJFY). Research on rats shows that JZJFY reduces food intake, prolongs stomach evacuation, and accelerates intestinal movement.
H. M. Jin and D. H. Jiao, [Effect of Jiang-Zhi Jian-Fei Yao on Gastro-lntestinal Movement and Adipose Cell of Abdominal Wall], Chung Kuo Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih, 14, no. |
| Wang, "Clinical Observation on the Effects of Combined Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Therapy for Excessive Suppressive Syndrome," Journal of traditional chinese medicine 14, no. 4 (December 1994): 247-53.
ACUPUNCTURE
A study found that auricular acupuncture was capable of producing results comparable to those of drug therapy in the treatment of infertility.
I. Gerhard and F. Postneek, [Possibilities of Therapy by Ear Acupuncture in Female Sterility], Geburtshilfe Frauenheilke 48, no. 3 (March 1988): 165-71. |
| Gao, "TCM Treatment of Adolescent Functional Uterine Hemorrhage—A Clinical Report of 105 Cases," Journal of traditional chinese medicine 10, no. 2 (June 1990): 118-21. lo. MIGRAINES
Twenty-three million Americans suffer from migraines. One in five women are affected, as compared to only one in twenty men, making women four times more susceptible to this widespread health problem.
Causes
It is now believed that these headaches occur when sudden dilation of blood vessels create pressure on the brain. There are numerous triggers for migraines. Dr. |
| Clinical Observations on Tripterygium Wilfordi in Treatment of 26 Cases of Discoid Erythematosus," Journal of traditional chinese medicine 3, no. 2 (1983): 131-32.
In a study, 103 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were successfully treated with daily doses of 20-45 g of the Chinese herb Triptergyium ilfordii over one month. Over 90 percent showed improvements of symptoms, laboratory findings, and immunologic changes.
Q. Wanzhang et al., "Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Report of 103 Cases," Chinese Medical Journal 94 (1981): 827-34. |
| Combining Western and traditional chinese medicine treatment for amenorrhea produced significantly better results than using Western treatment alone.
X. L. Ge, "Treatment of Secondary Amenorrhea and Oligohypomenorrhea with Combined Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine," Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih 11, no.11 (November 1991): 661-663, 645.
Black haw bark is effective in treating amenorhhea, as well as dysmenorrhea and threatened abortion.
Mowrey, The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine (New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing, 1986): 111. |
| Therapeutic Effect of Crataegus Pinnatifida on 46 Cases of Angina Pectoris—A Double Blind Study," Journal of traditional chinese medicine 4, no. 4 (1984): 293-94.
Crataegus given to patients with decreasing cardiac performance produced significant improvements in exercise tolerance, heart rate, and overall well-being.
V. M. O'Conolly et al., [Treatment of Cardiac Performance (HYHA Stages I to II) in Advanced Age with Standardized Cratageus Extract], Fortschr. Med. 104 (1986): 805-8.
Glucomannan reduced total cholesterol and triglycerides in patients with high blood pressure.
G. C. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Importantly, traditional chinese medicine has changed relatively little over the centuries. This contrasts with Western medicine, which is constantly in flux, changing as new information and data clarify understanding of health and illness, and as research evaluates the effectiveness of therapies and generates new treatments.
The cornerstone concept in Chinese medicine is qi, which is conceptualized as energy that flows through the body along pathways known as meridians. In Chinese medicine, ailments are attributed to an imbalance of qi. |
Lesley Tierra
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 Books on acupuncture, traditional chinese medicine theory, herbology, massage, natural medicine, homeopathy and more.
Herbal Resource Guide
The following is a list of resources for purchasing herbs and herbal products.
Western Herb Suppliers
Attar Herbs and Spices, Playground Rd., New Ipswich, NH 03071. They specialize in essential oils.
East-West Herb Products, Box 1210, New York, NY 10025, 1-800-542-6544. Retad mad orders of various Chinese, Ayurvedic and Western herbs and distributor of Planetary Formulas.
Frontier Co-op Herbs, Box 299 Norway, IA 52318. |
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