In our clinics Chinese Herbal Medicine is prescribed when necessary, in combination with acupuncture to treat a condition.  Chinese Herbal Medicine consists mainly of vegetable sources including leaves, flowers, twigs, stems, roots, tubers, rhizomes, and bark.  In addition, there are animal and mineral products used on occasion as necessary.  The clinics use herbal medicine in both raw and pill forms.  Raw herbs take some cooking and may taste strong or slightly undesirable.  However there is a saying in Chinese, "bitter mouth good medicine."  Herbal pills may be prescribed instead of raw herbs for less severe conditions.  The San Francisco clinic specializes in raw herbs taken as teas, while the Hayward clinic features a variety of herbal blends that can be taken in pill forms. 



More Information about Chinese Herbal Medicine
Many patients are curious about the nature of Chinese Herbal Medicine.  There are a few important things to understand.  Chinese Herbal Medicine differs from Western folk medicine in that it usually uses a larger variety of herb in each prescription.  While Western folk medicine typically uses one or a few herbs to treat symptoms, a Chinese Herbal prescription can contain 6-18 herbs.  Also, Chinese diagnosis includes not only a disease diagnosis, identifying the symptoms, but also a pattern diagnosis, identifying a person's pattern that is causing weakness and disease in them.  The variety of herbs is specially selected to deal with the person's immediate as well as long term problems. 

Most of the herbs used (about 80-85%) come from China with the remaining percentage having been integrated from outside China.  Although these herbs come from a different country, they have been proven to work for people in the United States and all over the world.  Pregnant women as well as children can take Chinese herbs as long as a licensed practitioner prescribes them.  They have no side effects, and if a patient does experience any unpleasant side effects the practitioner can adjust the amounts of herb in their mixture until there are no side effects.

The most powerful way to take herbs is in a decoction, which is boiling the mixture of raw herbs to make a small amount of tea that is drunk 2-3 times daily.  Usually, this decoction tastes bitter or unpleasant at first, because of the mixture of roots and other plant materials.  Often, the patient becomes used to the taste.  In this form, the herbs are most potent and can be easily adjusted for patient's changing condition.  For conditions that are more long term, herbs can be taken in pill or powder form.  Results from taking herbs can be immediate in acute cases, but will take some time in cases where the condition is chronic.  Slight improvements should be evident, however, right from the start.