Herbal medicine, also called botanical medicine or phytomedicine, refers to the use of any plant’s seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers for medicinal purposes. Traditional Chinese herbs include minerals and animal products. See my post about silkworms. Long practiced outside of conventional medicine, herbalism is becoming more mainstream as up-to-date analysis and research show their value in the treatment and prevention of disease. See http://www.itmonline.org for more information on current Chinese herbal reseach.

Asian healing arts, including diet, medicinal herbal treatments, and bodywork such as massage and acupuncture, have been highly valued by people living in Asia–approximately one out of four people on the planet–and others throughout the Americas and Africa. Asian herbal medicine uses besides plants minerals and animal ingredients. An Asian herbal treatment is chosen to improve your specific problem and may vary according to your condition, symptoms, age, sex, or the climate and season. Laboratory testing of an herb may not give the best results of whether or not an herb will work for you.

To remove an herb from its healing tradition–that is to test it on animals in a laboratory–may not give the results you need to successfully use that herb. The herb should work for you. Herbal treatments, in other words, are individualized and should vary as your comfort and needs change.

If you wonder whether you, living in North America, can use an Asian herb, the answer is YES. Anyone can use any herb that successfully treats an illness or discomfort. For example, cinnamon can grow as a tree anywhere in the tropics, even in south Florida, and in China, where it is dried and powdered. We add cinnamon to teas and cookies. No one thinks of it as an Asian medicine. But traditional herbal doctors know that cinnamon enhances circulation, increases sweating to prevent hypothermia, and eases menstrual cramps when used by girls who feel weak and have chills. Asian herbalists appreciate the energetic value of herbs. They study how a food or herb or a combination of them affects our energy. That traditional energetic approach will be our point of view on this blog.