CHINESE HERBAL medicine is a major aspect of traditional Chinese medicine, which focuses on restoring a balance of energy, body, and spirit to maintain health rather than treating a particular disease or medical condition. Because of large number of Chinese herbs used and the different uses recommended by practitioners, it is difficult to comment on Chinese herbal medicine as a whole. There may be certain herbs or extracts that can play a role in cancer prevention and in treatment of cancer and other diseases when combined with mainstream treatment.
- A different concept
Chinese herbal medicine is not based on mainstream Western concepts of medical diagnosis and treatment. It treats patients' main complaints or the patterns of their symptoms rather than the underlying causes. Practitioners attempt to prevent and treat imbalances, such as those caused by cancer and other diseases, with complex combinations of herbs, minerals, and plant extracts. Chinese herbal medicine uses a variety of herbs such as astragalus, ginkgo, ginseng, green tea, and eleuthero in different combinations to restore balance to the body. Herbal blends are said to prevent ant treat hormone disturbances, infections, breathing disorders, and a vast number of other ailments and diseases. Some practitioners claim herbs have the power to prevent and treat a variety of types of cancer.
Most Chinese herbalists do not claim to cure cancer. They use a herbal medicine with mainstream treatments prescribed by oncologists, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. They claim that herbal remedies can help ease the side effects of standard cancer treatments, control pain, improve quality of life, strengthen the immune system, and in some cases, stop tumor growth and spread. One aspect of Chinese herbal medicine aims to restore or strengthen immunity and resistance to disease. Treathments undertaken with this goal are called Fu Zheng or Fu Zhen and are given as complementary therapy intended to reduce the side effects from mainstream cancer treatments.
- Right formula
In China, more than 3,200 herbs and 300 mineral and animal extracts are used in more than 400 different formulas. Herbal formulas may contain four to 12 different ingredients, to be taken in the form of teas, powders, pills, tinctures, or syrups. Chinese herbal remedies are usually made up of a number of herbs and mineral animal extracts. Typically, one or two herbs are included that are said to have the greatest effects on the problem being treated. Other ingredients in the formula are supposed to treat minor aspects of problem, direct the formula to specific parts of the body, and help the other herbs work better.
With the increase in popularity of herbal medicine, many Chinese herbs are now sold individually and formulas. It can be purchased in health food stores, some pharmacies, and from herbal medicine practitioners. Before choosing a mixture of herbs for a patient, the traditional Chinese practitioner will typically ask about symptoms and examine the patient, often focusing on the skin, hair, tongue, eyes, pulse, and voice, in order to detect imbalances in the body.
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