I started out this blog thinking about taking care of colds and flu/winter respiratory challenges, which I get back to thinking of EVERY winter. This winter nearly all the patients walking through our doors are either currently sick, just over something, nursing a family member or two, or about to be the next ‘victim’. Patients ask if acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines can get them healthy and keep them healthy and protected. The answer is YES! I wish I could say that being prepared is the best prevention but that is not exactly or always true. Being prepared means knowing how to take care of what comes your way. Being prepared means stocking your medicine cabinet and your first aid kit well. Being prepared can prevent you from getting sick at all, sometimes. Taking quick action with proper remedies will definitely ward off your becoming really sick and that will certainly help to get you through as quickly as possible. I am the great proponent of home remedies and I will encourage you all in being able to take care of most of what ails you at home.
On my way to talking about how to fill your medicine cabinet, I took a couple of really important side-roads to discuss antibiotics and fevers. Being well informed and understanding both of these will make all the difference in the confidence with which you can then use the medicines and remedies we are about to discover.
Honeysuckle ***Jin Yin Hua
THIS is where I get to rave (and carefully explain) all about our awesome arsenal of Chinese herbal patent medicines, formulations with so much experience and in fact, research, behind them, that you can be amazed. And cured.
When a patient comes into the office with an acute infection, what we usually see is sore throat, common cold, influenza, earache, bronchitis, herpes simplex and herpes zoster…all viral in nature. When it comes to bacteria, we see strep throat, pink eye, minor wound infections, bladder infections and UTIs. The serious bacterial infections (meningitis, e. coli, TB, Lyme disease) require medical attention and/or hospitalization. Patients go to the ER or directly to the hospital; we do not see them first.
Effective herbal alternatives for the treatment of common infections – epithelial tissue infections – colds & flu and sore throats – exist and are available in our clinics as over-the-counter patent medicines. When we recommend against the use of antibiotics for treatment, we are NOT recommending NOT to treat. We have a significant number of formulas, some with specific focus and some with wider application, to address the various acute symptom presentations. We are confident in the recommendation of our well-used and result-proven formulations. We can even say that not only are the Chinese herbal medicines for acute infection as effective as prescription antibiotic treatment, but that they may be even more effective because they do not have the serious ‘side-effect’ of destroying the ‘good’ and necessary bacteria in the gut right along with the destruction of illness-causing bacteria. They work for our patients time after time, year after year.
Let’s have a look at our herbal pharmacy offerings. Coming in our next blogposts.