How can we encourage the use of Chinese herbs in America?
Americans love immediate gratification. Whether it’s cash, a compliment,
nicotine, high-fructose corn syrup or caffeine, a flash in a pan is as good as gold. In
this way, many Chinese herbs have become household items for Americans looking
for a magical cure for their fatigue or low libido, for example. However, without a
thorough appreciation and understanding of Chinese medicine and all properties of
herbs, Americans will never value Chinese herbs. For instance, Western science has
proven the chemical efficacy of Chang Shan as an anti-malarial herb1 and Ren Shen
as an energy booster but what about the herbs’ other indications, not to mention
contraindications? We could market particular herbs for their wonder-drug quality
but we as Chinese Medicinal health practitioners would be doing a great disservice
to our patients and the medicine. An effective way to encourage the use of Chinese
herbs in America is to carefully integrate Western medicine into Chinese medicine
by way of writing an integrated materia medica and aggressively pursuing
integration. With the growing cultural inclusivity and waning validity of Western health
practices in America, Chinese herbal practitioners and authors should consider these
changing tides as a proverbial call to arms.
Since Mao Zedong’s valiant, though subservient, efforts to preserve Traditional
Chinese Medicine, mainstream China and its hospitals have maintained an admirable
balance between modern medicine and traditional herbal medicine. Unfortunately,
Western medicine does not have the capacity to understand or value the dynamic
qualities of Chinese herbs in their multi-functional and energetic context. However,
Chinese Medicine has the capacity to understand Western drugs on said deeper level.
Because of this, I’d like to propose a borrowed course of action once attempted by the
Chinese-Western Integration School (zhong xi huitong pai) at the turn of the 19th century.
The collective vision among the associated physicians and philosophers was that of
integration of Western medicine into Chinese medicine and not vice versa. Among the
efforts of these men, were those of Zhang Xichun’s integration of western
pharmaceuticals into Chinese herbal formulas namely Aspirin and Gypsum Decoction.2
Xichun successfully integrated the two medicines in practice by adopting Western drugs
and their energetic properties as additions to his herbal repertoire.
How does the adoption of Western pharmaceuticals as “herbs” in our materia
medica encourage the use of Chinese herbs in America? By way of officiating
Western medicinals and therapies as “herbs,” Chinese herbalists can better market a
palliative care to physicians and their patients, while educating with a standardized
vocabulary of herbal properties. This would require the following two steps to be
taken: a materia medica must be written for the purpose of tending to the untreated
side-effects of Western medicine including integrated formulas; and Chinese
herbalists must consider specializing and becoming masters of integration in
treating a demographic congruent with that of a Western medical practitioner as is
1
Huihao, Zhou, Litao Sun, Xiang-Lei Yang, and Paul Schimmel. "ATP-directed Capture
of Bioactive Herbal-based Medicine on Human TRNA Synthetase." Nature (2012)
2
Xichun, Zhang, and Heiner Fruehauf. "On the Relationship Between Medicine and
Philosophy." Classical Chinese Medicine (2009)
done in China. While working with biomedical practitioners, Chinese herbalists can
explain to them why certain pharmaceuticals, derived from common herbal constituents,
have certain negative side effects and how certain herbs can safely palliate those effects
alchemically. Whether surgeons, primary care physicians, midwives or oncologists,
cooperative Western health practitioners and their patients are a vital resource in
encouraging the use of Chinese herbs in America. The possibilities are as boundless as
the powerful ingenuity of Chinese herbalists.
A Chinese herbalist’s greatest ally in encouraging the mainstream use of Chinese
herbs in America is the Western medical health practitioner. Chinese herbalists know
how to expertly integrate herbs into medical treatments yet countless Western physicians
do not refer to herbalists for integrated care. Because most American physicians, for
example, do not have time to become trained Chinese herbalists I propose that herbalists
entertain a discounted or free herbal consult for open-minded physicians in exchange for
your opportunity to educate them.
An integrated materia medica with a focus on pharmaceuticals would give
herbalists a standardized vocabulary with which to educate patients. By focusing on
educating patients, an herbalist can build his or her patients’ confidence and ability to
tell others something educated about herbal medicine, particularly how it relates to the
pharmaceuticals they are taking. For instance, when a patient of Western medicine takes
an antibiotic, a Chinese herbalist might protect the middle, expel residual pathogens and
restore the patient’s original health. Without herbal therapy, Americans tend harbor
residual pathogenic influences and develop chronic health issues from aggressive
pharmaceutical treatments.
Often times, the complexity of Chinese medicine is dismissed as mystique
because it is inaccurately distinguished from “real” medicine. Traditional Chinese
Medicine students tend to struggle with the stigma that Chinese medicine could never be
anything like Western medicine even though neither is mutually exclusive nor entirely
different in approach or intent. I believe that this stigma leads to an irrational fear of
integration whether or not one has distaste for Western medicine. A new integrated
material medica could resolve this divide and legitimize Chinese herbal medicine in
America.
To “encourage the use of Chinese herbs in America” implies a strategy that is
proactive beyond the current system of practice and farther reaching beyond nonspecializing Chinese herbalists and their loyal patients. The steps beyond the current
system of Chinese herbal practice are ones that exist outside the box and are perhaps less
comfortable to pursue. However, with an integrated materia medica focusing on
pharmaceuticals, we can effectively encourage the use of Chinese herbs in America by
bridging the understanding gap between Western medicine and Chinese herbs.