I understand your question, Dr. H., and reason for it. Most doctors expect herbs to act just like pharmaceuticals. If there is a beneficial healing effect, they reason, there must also be side-effects. Conversely, if there are no side-effects, then there can be no healing effect. This expectation makes sense in pharmaceutical medicine where you treat with just one active ingredient (why?) at a time. But, chinese herbal formulas make use of more than one herb 99.99% of time. Oriental medicine has been prescribing multiple-agent compounds for thousands of years. This practice is similar to recent drug 'cocktails' developed for HIV and HCV.

Each herb in and of itself is composed of more than one ingredient, plus other 'buffers.' I suppose you could think of a pharmaceutical as a lone-gunman; he is effective in what he does, but abrasive and dangerous. An herb, on other hand, is a more balanced and complex person. The herbs in a formula work together as a team. Each herb has strengths and weaknesses, but whole team can do amazing things! (I could say something really tacky now like, "There's no I in TEAM, but there is an I in SIDE EFFECTS and PHARMACEUTICALS," but I won't subject you to that kind of writing. Not directly, at least.)

Problems with Drug Treatment

To see difference between biomedical and chinese herbal prescription, let's look at an example: You go to see your MD or DO for sinus problems and they prescribe you guaifenesin. You come back a year later with anxiety, and they prescribe you Paxil (you know it's working if you're not anxious about its side effects…). Then, you develop serious heart palpitations, but they tell you it's just in your head. After demanding more tests, you get back a normal EKG or cardiac stress test. Then they really think it's in your head. I know, this is oversimplified, but bear with me - I do have a point; end result is that you end up on several drugs, some of which try to fix side-effects of your primary prescription.

Often Biomedicine Knows But Cannot Do

You didn't know that biomedicine is incomplete? Consider how many diseases in biomedicine have names but not treatments. In oriental medicine, we can see your constitutional tendencies ahead of time and balance herbal formula so that it doesn't worsen any pre-existing conditions. We can see more subtle imbalances than biomedicine can or will detect with its tests (there may be appropriate lab tests or visual studies, but if disease has not progressed very far just try to get insurance company to approve them!). We have ways of seeing gray areas of imbalance that precede serious disease. To be fair, in long run, micro-approach of biomedicine will sharpen oriental medicine, and broad effectiveness and insights of oriental medicine will guide and inform biomedical discovery.

Oriental Medicine is Not a One-Size-Fits-All Medicine.

It's not a one-herbal-formula-fits-all medicine. It's not a one-acupuncture-point-fits-all medicine. Oriental Medicine is a get-to-know-you medicine.

In oriental medicine, we can predict and prevent side-effects because

* We understand of causes and nature of diseases, and * Our understanding of diseases and herbs is integrated and interwoven

Chinese Medicine has a system of five body-mind-emotion types. This article explains one of those types.

Strategic planning for success is a trademark of Wood Personality Types in Oriental Medicine. They are driven with ambition to win. One unhealthy fuel for inspiration is coffee (espresso, caffeine). The effects of caffeine on this personality profile are negative. You can improve health and in a positive way with solutions in this article I Didn't Want To Quit Espresso

I did everything I could to avoid it. I tried different kinds. Drinking it at different times. Taking herbs to offset side effects. Giving myself acupuncture for headaches. Nothing worked. I was too irritable, too sound-sensitive. I had migraines and eye pain. I had to quit coffee.

I Needed Espresso

Actually, I quit espresso not coffee, because by that time, coffee wasn't good enough for me. I thought espresso was 'purer,' a better drug. I thought I needed it. I was too groggy in morning, and I needed to be inspired! Never mind that part of my grogginess was because I couldn't sleep that well, even if I only drank coffee in morning. Never mind that there are better ways to be inspired.

Wood Types and Coffee Don't Mix

The fact is that, constitutionally, I am a Wood type. I'm assertive with a tendency toward aggressiveness. I enjoy competition and ambition. I make quick decisions, I am disagreeable, direct, and stubborn. I don't like to be wrong. I take lead out of impatience with others. I like taking risks. I drive fast and I climb rocks without safety equipment. I loved how espresso made me feel powerful and invulnerable.

But I Didn't Really Need It

A Wood type like me doesn't need coffee. I have plenty of drive, inspiration, and creativity without it. In fact, someone like me needs balance in other direction. There are chinese herbal formulas that help… ones that move liver qi, calm shen, and protect spleen. For example, xiao yao san or its modification dan zhi xiao yao san are good. Even bitter and cold formula, long dan xie gan tang, is occasionally (in short-term) appropriate.

Are You A Wood Type Too?

I'm not trying to be self-centered and just talk about me. There are other Wood types out there - they're type A personalities, power-drivers, always-on and frequently-irritable types. If you relate, you may find out how to find balance for yourself. A wood type's stagnation can show up in a number of ways: it can attack earth leading to digestive symptoms (e.g. nausea and loss of appetite), or metal affecting breathing or elimination (shortness of breath, asthma, constipation). Stagnation of wood element qi can also rise upwards leading to headaches, red eyes, migraines, eye pain, insomnia, irritability, frustration, and anger.

First Do No Harm - Stop Hurting Yourself

I've heard it said that in treating disease, first thing you should do is STOP anything that makes it worse. Stop hurting yourself! I know… easier said than done. There's always a reason why we do what we do. Even if it hurts us, it fulfills some other need we don't think we can get met elsewhere. This is kind of like side effects; drugs often fix one thing, but cause imbalance elsewhere. Chinese herbal formulas are better at avoiding this phenomenon. If you are interested in obsession/compulsion/addiction angle, you may want to read my articles about addiction or food cravings.

The Four Categories of Knowledge

To explain how to deal with your wood type constitution, I first need to divide your knowledge into four categories:

1. What you know you know (your known abilities) 2. What you know you don't know (your known limits) 3. What you don't know you know (your hidden abilities) 4. What you don't know you don't know (your hidden limits)