Water, Drinking It (June 10, 2014)
The acceptance of acupuncture into the mainstream of health care has increased remarkably in the last couple of years. Despite that, I’ve never thought that Chinese herbal medicine, the other major treatment method used by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) would achieve a similar level of acceptance, even though the use of herbs is a familiar form of treatment.That is because herbal medicine directly encroaches on the territory claimed by pharmaceuticals, a special interest that is very difficult to overcome. So I was delighted to read that the Cleveland Clinic has made the use of Chinese herbology part of its integrative medicine program.
The Cleveland Clinic is not a fly-by-night pain clinic like the ones that come up when you Google “epidural injections for pain (city)”. It’s considered (U.S. News and World Report) to be one of the top four hospitals in the U.S. Their use of herbs is still very limited -- they have exactly one herbalist on staff who sees patients on Thursdays only, they are using the herbs only for a few limited applications, and they consider them to be a last resort, rather than a portal of entry treatment. Nevertheless, it’s a big step in the right direction for people’s health.
"Western medicine does acute care phenomenally.... but we're still struggling a bit with our chronic-care patients and this fills in that gap and can be used concurrently." stated Melissa Young, an integrative medicine physician at the Cleveland Clinic. What Dr. Young probably meant by 'struggling a bit' is that conventional medical care is one of the top leading causes of death in the U.S. and that they can hardly do worse by trying something that has been used safely and effectively by hundreds of millions of people for thousands of years.
Chinese herbology and acupuncture are so strange and exotic to Westerners that it is hard for us to appreciate what effective, safe and powerful tools for healing they are. Despite my snark I am genuinely glad that the Cleveland Clinic has been able to put prejudice aside long enough to begin to use them. Another easy next step for TCM in the U.S. would be for the standard herbal preparations that are used to treat colds, flus and fevers appear on drugstore shelves the same way that some homeopathic preparations now do. Those particular herbal prescriptions do not require any expertise to use and are amazingly effective. I hope to see them commonly available within the next few years.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014
The acceptance of acupuncture into the mainstream of health care has increased remarkably in the last couple of years. Despite that, I’ve never thought that Chinese herbal medicine, the other major treatment method used by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) would achieve a similar level of acceptance, even though the use of herbs is a familiar form of treatment.That is because herbal medicine directly encroaches on the territory claimed by pharmaceuticals, a special interest that is very difficult to overcome. So I was delighted to read that the Cleveland Clinic has made the use of Chinese herbology part of its integrative medicine program.
The Cleveland Clinic is not a fly-by-night pain clinic like the ones that come up when you Google “epidural injections for pain (city)”. It’s considered (U.S. News and World Report) to be one of the top four hospitals in the U.S. Their use of herbs is still very limited -- they have exactly one herbalist on staff who sees patients on Thursdays only, they are using the herbs only for a few limited applications, and they consider them to be a last resort, rather than a portal of entry treatment. Nevertheless, it’s a big step in the right direction for people’s health.
"Western medicine does acute care phenomenally.... but we're still struggling a bit with our chronic-care patients and this fills in that gap and can be used concurrently." stated Melissa Young, an integrative medicine physician at the Cleveland Clinic. What Dr. Young probably meant by 'struggling a bit' is that conventional medical care is one of the top leading causes of death in the U.S. and that they can hardly do worse by trying something that has been used safely and effectively by hundreds of millions of people for thousands of years.
Chinese herbology and acupuncture are so strange and exotic to Westerners that it is hard for us to appreciate what effective, safe and powerful tools for healing they are. Despite my snark I am genuinely glad that the Cleveland Clinic has been able to put prejudice aside long enough to begin to use them. Another easy next step for TCM in the U.S. would be for the standard herbal preparations that are used to treat colds, flus and fevers appear on drugstore shelves the same way that some homeopathic preparations now do. Those particular herbal prescriptions do not require any expertise to use and are amazingly effective. I hope to see them commonly available within the next few years.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014