As practitioners of life cultivation, when we are sick, we may visit a herbal medicine doctor to seek professional help. Learning some basic theories of herbal medicine and some technical terms of herbal medicine will help us to choose a herbal medicine doctor, understand what the herbal doctor said, understand the disease, and cooperate with the doctor to find faster and better recovery under the guidance of the herbal doctor.
Herbal medicine and Western medicine are two different systems of medicine. In layman’s terms, herbal and Western doctors use their own set of skills, and the methods are different, but the purpose and effect are the same. Western doctors use a method of meticulously analyzing the human body layer by layer to check for lesions, so various checkups are performed, and the more inspections become more detailed.
The method of herbal medicine practitioners is just the opposite. It cannot analyze layer by layer, but uses the method of observing the external manifestations of the patient’s whole body (such as changes in expression, tongue, pulse, etc.) to infer the patient’s internal lesions.
Therefore, herbal medicine practitioners need to look at the patient’s external systemic comprehensive reaction. This is called a syndrome in herbal medicine, and it will be treated. This is what traditional herbal medicine doctors often say about syndrome differentiation and treatment. Facts have proved that as long as the symptoms of the systemic reaction are cured, those local diseases will also be cured to varying degrees.
02 Important Issues
There are several very important issues that we should know in order for us to benefit from visiting a traditional herbal medicine doctor for our health problems. They range from how to work with a herbal doctor, the technical terms used by the herbal doctor, health scams for the unwary, and so on.
01 Single-herb Prescription and Proven Prescription
Some Single-herb and proven prescriptions are indeed effective and can be used. In particular, some herbal medicines are often reputed to have miraculous effects. It applies when this is a disease with a simple condition and prominent symptoms. The single-herb prescription and the proven prescription are like outstanding surprise soldiers will indeed have an immediate miraculous effect.
For example, if a patient has a common cold accompanied by cough and phlegm, then almond platycodon can be very effective. This almond platycodon is an example of a single-herb and proven prescription.
However, if the cough is one of the complex symptoms of chronic diseases, it may not be effective. For example, if it is a cough caused by tuberculosis or chronic bronchitis, then other related herbs must be added in addition to the single-herb prescription.
Proven prescriptions can often cure simple diseases, but syndrome differentiation is still required for complex conditions. How to differentiate? In a word, it must still be applied under the guidance of herbal medicine theory.
In fact, what is recorded in ancient medical books are all single-herb and proven prescriptions. They have been naturally selected for use for generations after thousands of years of testing.
For example, Dushen Decoction, Buzhong Yiqi Decoction, Xiangsha Liujun Pill, Liuwei Dihuang Pill, Guipi Decoction, etc. are good examples of prescriptions that have been handed down for generations. But when they are used in today’s environment, they should be dialectically clear before they can be effective, because many lifestyles have changed and therefore our body constitution has changed too.
Traditional herbal medicine is empirical medicine. Every piece of herbal medicine was originally a so-called herbal medicine with a single-herb prescription or a proven prescription. Once it was used time and again, its properties and efficacy were clarified and recorded into medical records, and became a Chinese medical herb.
According to ancient and modern test cases, most of the medicines used in successful cases are common medicines, and there is no panacea. Why are they particularly effective? It is the result of clear diagnoses and accurate medication.
In some cases, a patient may bring a certain prescription for his friends to copy and use it, saying how good it is. Some may tell legendary stories. Some are mysterious and exaggerated. A legend said that a herbal doctor was sentenced to death. But then he disclosed a medical prescription and cured many people, so he was spared the death.
Of course, this is an exaggeration in a mysterious way. No herbal prescription can cure all diseases for the simple reason that a herbal doctor has to make diagnoses and do addition and subtraction of herbs in a prescription before it can be effective.
Of course, for a well-known and proven prescription handed down from generation to generation, the curative effect must have been high and broad, so it is reasonable to choose it first to treat a patient with similar symptoms. Just like we will take an aspirin for pain in Western medicine.
02 Secret prescription
In herbal medicine, there is a term called secret prescription. This is a unique concept. Someone will claim that he had a secret prescription, usually from his ancestry, that will cure a certain disease. When asked why nobody knows about it, he will answer that it is a secret. It is one of the methods used by charlatans to swindle and deceive the ignorant public in the name of traditional herbal medicine.
However, there are still believers in secret prescriptions. There are at least two reasons for its popularity.
First, because there are still many contents and usage in herbal medicine that cannot be explained by modern science or modern language, but they are very effective, so it becomes a loophole used by unethical herbal doctors or swindlers in the world.
Second, some people have used and achieved some highly curative effects for a certain prescription. They deliberately keep it as a secret to themselves. Why? They want to keep it as his golden job or golden cash cow.
The common belief in herbal medicine is that the secret prescription will not cure all diseases. The prescription still needs to be added and subtracted based on syndrome differentiation.
We should have some basic knowledge of herbal medicine, so that we will not be easily deceived when we run into a crook.
03 Medical record keeping
A herbal medicine doctor usually does not keep our medical record because we may change a doctor anytime, so we as patients will keep our own medical record. We will have to bring the original medical records with us for follow-up visits, because the system information is recorded on them. During follow-up visits, the herbal medicine practitioner would follow up on the previous data and train of thought analysis, and then modify the prescription.
We do not put the pressure on our herbal doctor and insist that he remembers us and our health issues. That is almost impossible because he has many patients. Therefore, we should keep our medical records in a safe place and bring them to the doctor when we re-visit him. We may then remind him on our health issues.
Similarly, if we switch a doctor, we should bring the medical record for him to review. He would perform essentially the same process so there is a continuation in our treatment process.
End of part three of a multipart series of posts.
If you want to be notified of any new post, give us your email below:
MUSTANG HOLISTIC WELLNESS 