Western pharmaceutical drugs capitalize on a single biologically active ingredient to produce a specific physiological effect. This accounts for their potency and also for their secondary or side effects. Although drugs may control symptoms, they often do not treat the pathological process (i.e., antibiotics may eliminate bacteria but do not improve a person’s resistance to being infected; diuretics rid the body of excess fluid yet do not improve kidney function; aspirin controls arthritic pain without altering the degenerative course of the disease). Sometimes further aggravations or adverse side effects result (i.e., yeast infections may follow a course of antibiotics; kidney damage may result from long-term use of diuretics; lengthy use of aspirin may cause the lining of the stomach to erode, triggering internal bleeding).
Herbs can be used for both prevention and cure – like vitamins or food supplements, they maintain our health; and used medicinally they redress acute and chronic ailments.
With herbs, active ingredients are enfolded within the whole plant; this tends to buffer their side effects. Also, herbs are often blended together to counteract undesired effects and enhance intended results. Chinese herbs address the underlying condition as defined by traditional diagnosis and when used properly rarely cause disagreeable consequences.
Here are some examples in which Chinese herbs either complement or provide an effective alternative to Western drugs:
Within our own household, Chinese herbs have become as fundamental as the potatoes and rice in our pantry. Spreading across our kitchen counter, small dark bottles of concentrated herbal extracts multiply as prolifically as the shrubs in our garden. Oblivious of boundaries, our herbs nestle comfortably in our kitchen, medicine cabinet, and clinic pharmacy.
–Harriet & Efrem
Many herbs are nutritive and cannot be distinguished from food. Like food they can be eaten because they are good for you rather than because there is something wrong and you feel ill. Other herbs do not taste particularly pleasant and function in ways we do not associate with food, such as ridding the body of something unwanted, like Heat (anti-inflammatory) or Dampness (diuretic). Herbs tend to have greater concentrations of non-nutritive compounds than foods (i.e., glycosides, resins, alkaloids, polysaccharides, and terpenes), and this contributes to their effectiveness as medicine, that is, a substance capable of promoting a desirable biological process or altering a pathological one.