Everyone’s passed a Chinese herbal medicine shop and wondered what all those bizarre ingredients were. Well, wonder no more! Dr. Maryam Mahanian from The Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Clinic of Vancouver took me on a field trip to the Sunny Day Herbal Store in Chinatown to help demystify them. In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Mahanian shows us some commonly prescribed Chinese herbs. She explains what they look like, what they do, their benefits, how to use them, and the disorders they are used for.

There are about 5,000 different species of herbs and of these, about 2,000 are used as medicines. Some are more frequently prescribed than others and a typical dispensary will stock about 500 herbs.

Chinese herbs are very rarely taken as single herbs. Dr. Mahanian presents individual ones in this segment to simplify the introduction of this type of medicine and will explain in Part II how they are combined together in a synergistic way to treat a specific ailment.

Safety Precautions: Consult a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor before taking herbs. It is advisable to get a prescription and not to self-prescribe. Even though it is “natural medicine,” it doesn’t mean that there are no side effects or contraindications. Don’t exceed the started dose for the herbs; start with a small dose and work your way up.

For a detailed summary of the featured herbs, read on… Read the rest of this entry »