It’s true that pesticide use in China has increased dramatically in the past decade, so that acquiring ‘pure’ herbs is more challenging. Responsible practitioners only use herbal formulas from companies that test for pesticides both before export (in China) and before sale (here in the US).
Chinese herbal formulas are intended to catalyze greater balance– several herbs are combined to (ideally) minimize negative reactions. However, a trained Chinese herbalist needs to use careful diagnostic techniques before recommending a Chinese herbal formula. Tongue diagnosis and Pulse diagnosis can provide important evidence of what is happening in a given individual. For instance, if a person is “depressed”, is the cause a lack of energy based on depletion and hopelessness or frustration and anger turned inward. One would treat these 2 conditions very differently. Z’ev Rosenberg, professor of Chinese herbal medicine has a very interesting article analyzing western pharmaceuticals from a Chinese ‘energetic’ perspective- http://www.acupuncture.com/herbs/pharma.htm
It’s true that pesticide use in China has increased dramatically in the past decade, so that acquiring ‘pure’ herbs is more challenging. Responsible practitioners only use herbal formulas from companies that test for pesticides both before export (in China) and before sale (here in the US).
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Chinese herbal formulas are intended to catalyze greater balance– several herbs are combined to (ideally) minimize negative reactions. However, a trained Chinese herbalist needs to use careful diagnostic techniques before recommending a Chinese herbal formula. Tongue diagnosis and Pulse diagnosis can provide important evidence of what is happening in a given individual. For instance, if a person is “depressed”, is the cause a lack of energy based on depletion and hopelessness or frustration and anger turned inward. One would treat these 2 conditions very differently. Z’ev Rosenberg, professor of Chinese herbal medicine has a very interesting article analyzing western pharmaceuticals from a Chinese ‘energetic’ perspective- http://www.acupuncture.com/herbs/pharma.htm
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