My new herbal Pharmacy

My recent project is to put together a herbal pharmacy for my clinic. Putting together a herbal pharmacy is no small task. First, you need to be able to see into the future (time to polish my 3rd eye), so you know what kind of herbs people would need. Second, you need to have a few hundred dollars to do an upfront investment. Third, you want to pray that patients can stomach it. :-) I ordered up granule herbs from various herbal companies here in the States. It's interesting to see that ever since the US Customs seized Ma Hauang (ephedra), lots of formulas with Ma Huang are currently "out of stock". This is quite a shame because there are around 18 formulas in Shang Han (Za Bing) Lun that contain Ma Huang. People are thinking about using Mormen tea (or Jing Jie/Fang Feng) to replace Ma Huang, but their properties are not quite the same. Mormen tea will make you want to pee more, plus it's not as potent as Ma Huang. [note: Shang Han Za Bing Lun is Chinese medical text authored around 2000 years ago, it is based on clinical experiences of Dr. Zhang Zhong Jing based on tens of thousand of patients in his career. Believe or not, all the modern illnesses can still be addressed by his work. ]

In Taiwan where I am from, people prefer to take Chinese medicine than to receive acupuncture. That's totally understandable because Chinese physicians would use much thicker and longer needles. In the US, people prefer to get acupuncuture treatment, most people don't seem to like the taste of the medicine. I think this has something to do with our taste buds -- how we are brought up. In America, most kids were fed with sugar and white flours. In Taiwan, back in 70's and 80's when I grew up, most parents incorpated Chinese medicine into the cookings and Chinese medicine don't taste that bad to the folks there. My mom used to pay me NT$5 (equal to around US$0.16) to reward me when I finish a bowl of Chicken soup with Dang Gui (Angelica) in the winter. She was a really smart and great mom!

Dispensing Chinese herbs takes years of training and dedication, since each individual is unique. In Chinese medicine, we always go through pattern differenciation and the herbs would be dispensed based on their corresponding patterns. Unlike western drugs that one drug treats all people, Chinese herbs are personalized. Hence, what a certain patient receive this week may be different from next week. Our body is dynamic and it changes constantly, so are the herbs

I am very particular about patient's feedback after they take the herbs because this is always a positive enforcement for me to witness mother nature does its wonders. Plus I would want to know exactly how to fine-tune the herbs for them so they receive full benefit of the Chinese medicine.

My husband joked with me often because he thought I am done studying when I graduated from school -- all those years of intense study. I smiled at him because I know practicing Chinese medicine is a lifetime endeavor. My passion with the medicine is what keeps me going and going...

More later,

-Sheh

A new beginning....

Well, this is a big step for me to start a blog. I always thought it's kind of cliche to do a blog. Just because everyone is staring a blog doesn't mean I need to start one, plus I am not sure what to say. I keep most of the thoughts in my head and that's good enough. However, lately I have more inspiration and my guidance told me it's time to start a blog, so here it is. I am not new to the publishing world because I am a professional translator and my work has been published in Chinese for years and read by thousands if not millions of people who own motherboards, chips, servers, printers, some software programs. Translating other people's work seems to be easy for me. Now I get to publish my own experience with the medicine, how exciting!

My love affair with Chinese medicine starts a few years back. The more I study, the more I am in love with it. The medicine is so powerful and complete and I can't seem to describe it with words. In my practice, I incoproate acupuncture with acutonic sound therapy as well as healing touch and herbal therapy. In my spare time, I would study Chinese medicine (especially herbs) and review various cases from various Chinese medicine doctors. I plan to post some articles that interest me that would only available in Chinese to this blog, so people in the western world can benefit from it.

More later,

-Sheh