Question: I am new to Chinese Medicine and have taken my adult-sized 13 year old to an Acupuncturist who has prescribed Plum Flower brand Jade Screen Tea Pills for her (Yu Ping Feng San Wan). She has been directed to take 12 pills 1X daily to help her with her immune system and allergies. It is distributed by Mayway and has huang qi, bai zhu, and fang feng. I am trying to investigate these herbs to determine if they could harm her in any way. She is currrently taking Allegra and Nasacort, a steroid nasal spray, for allergies. Do you have any info or recommendations of sources of info for me? Many thanks! -Marjie

A: Marjie, that is a great question!

I'm glad you are trying to stay informed- a bit of skepticism toward any medicine makes sense these days... There is a lot of weird stuff that gets passed under guise of 'Alternative Medicine.'

Welcome to Oriental Medicine! Chinese herbal medicine is quite different from western pharmaceutical medicine. I am glad that you are seeing a practitioner for herbs- herbal self-prescription can be dangerous. If your acupuncturist has been trained in herbs (the degree of herbal training varies by school and by state), then they should know what they're doing.

YPFS (Yu Ping Feng San) is often prescribed for exactly purpose you described. It is also commonly taken to prevent colds, especially if they are chronic. It may take 1-5 months for effect to take hold. YPFS is indicated for people with symptoms of: aversion to drafts, spontaneous sweating (without exercise), recurrent colds, shiny pale complexion, and these signs: pale Tongue with white coating, floating deficient soft Pulse.

Explaining actions of any herbal formula can be as complex as one of those pharmaceutical package inserts with all biomchemistry, drawings of molecules, etc. Oriental Medicine is its own complete system of medicine complete with its own set of terms and concepts. But I will attempt to explain YPFS to you in regular English:

Both Western and Chinese medicine could be accused of focusing too much on disease treatment, rather than wellness. Practitioners from both medicines are taught to be problem-solvers and disease-curers instead of wellness promoters.

You can't blame Western medical docs - most of their preventive advice is to avoid negative things. They don't really have a deep and powerful system of prevention. No wonder they don't see prevention as paramount.

We can't blame patients for not striving for optimal health. Most of time, humans just do their daily thing until something keeps them from sleeping, working, or enjoying life.

We only think of medicine when we need a cure. We don't live preventively.

Ignoring Minor Symptoms

We tend to ignore minor problems (like dull headaches at end of day, itchy eyes, morning grogginess) until they get worse. The prevailing medical system has conditioned us to only think of medicine for major problems, and to take a symptom-relieving pill for minor ones. We take aspirin for headaches, allergy medicine for eyes, and drink coffee for grogginess.

Continuum of Disease

Chinese medicine sees illness as a continuum. What do itchy eyes have in common with migraines, or hepatitis? What does grogginess have in common with Alzheimer's? Dull headaches with life expectancy? Western medicine would say nothing. But sometimes there is a connection, and Chinese medicine can explain it.

Minor symptoms can lead to major illness. Reversing imbalances sooner can keep you in good health longer.

Chinese Medicine Prevention and Wellness

Many Chinese medicine practitioners do study prevention and wellness wisdom of Chinese medical literature. They don't just give acupuncture and herbs, but they also recommend dietary changes, exercises and lifestyle modification based on same personalized diagnosis used by acupuncture and herbal treatments.

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (from 250 B.C.) says, "In past, people... understood principle of balance... They ate a balanced diet at regular times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided overstressing their bodies and minds, and refrained from overindulgence of all kinds. They maintained well-being of body and mind; thus it is not surprising that they lived over one hundred years."

Is Your Health Optimal?

So, if minor symptoms are imbalances that should be addressed too, what does health look like? How does a healthy person feel? Is it just an absence of illness?

I decided to put together a chart of symptoms and signs of illness and wellness. It's based on multi-system questions a Chinese medicine practitioner asks a new patient. Inquiry, or asking, is one of our Four Examinations, or ways of gathering information about your health. The other three examinations are touching, looking, and listening.

Holistic Medicine and Irrelevant Questions

Holistic means looking at whole, not just parts. Everything in us is connected - mind and body. Holistic medicine looks at and treats whole person.

We're made of systems and organs that work together - digestive system, nervous system, immune system, muscles, bones, mind, etc. The ideal medicine includes all of these, and understands how they're interconnected.