Herbal Medicine
According to experts, herbal medicine has been around as long as humans have, and most modern medicines had their roots in herbal medicine. While science gave herbal medicine a new name, phytotherapy, its use has largely been replaced by pharmacological chemistry. The reason for this replacement had to do almost exclusively with measurements: whenever an herb is used, its chemical composition would vary, and most of it is cellulose. These variations make herbs’ therapeutic effects lesser or greater, but in pharmaceutical chemistry, every ingredient is measured with 99.9% accuracy. At the same time, scientists often find out what chemical compounds have medicinal effects from herbal therapy traditions from all over the world. They isolate the compound that is believed to have healing properties and run experiments with that compound, measuring when what, and how that particular compound can treat a disease. At the Advanced Holistic Center’s Downtown Miami herbal medicine and Miami Beach herbal medicine locations, our therapists use primarily traditional Chinese herbal medicine, but they also pay close attention to the latest scientific discoveries, so our patients can take advantage of the most effective methods known today.
What Is Herbal Medicine?
Essentially, herbal medicine is using specific parts of specific herbs to treat corresponding conditions. The reality, however, is much more complex. In order to have the most powerful healing effects, herbalists need to know when, where, and how they should collect each plant. In modern times, on one hand, we have access to most herbs on the planet, but on the other hand, we have to trust the skills of herb producers who prepare those herbs. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, however, goes far beyond western medicinal herbal practices. Firstly, traditional Chinese herbalists rarely use single herbs. They typically mix herbs into formulas, which usually consist of between 3 and 11 herbs. The reason for creating formulas was to boost individual herb’s healing effects and reduce or, in some instances, eliminate unwanted effects. At the Advanced Holistic Center’s Downtown Miami herbal medicine and Miami Beach herbal medicine locations, our herbalists have experience working with certain herb-manufacturing companies, whose products helped our patients in the past.
What Conditions Is Herbal Medicine Used for?
Certain herbs are effective in the treatment of specific conditions, and the list is very long. From the traditional Chinese medicine’s standpoint, and this is the system that’s behind traditional Chinese herbal medicine, physicians should not treat a condition; they should treat an individual because when that individual’s organism is strong enough, it will heal itself. The approach to treatment is the same as it is in acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, or other traditional Chinese modalities: practitioners need to identify the pattern of imbalance among the solid and hollow organs in each individual patient, and then they select and adjust a time-tested herbal formula to restore the organ balance in that individual for best therapeutic outcome. So in theory, herbal medicine can be used for any condition. While research has shown that it is more effective in treating some conditions more than others, new studies demonstrate different findings, and combining herbal medicine with other modalities of traditional Chinese medicine opens up even more potential for this ancient therapy. At the Advanced Holistic Center’s Downtown Miami herbal medicine and Miami Beach herbal medicine locations, our herbalists rely primarily on the classical methods of herbal healing, but they also review the latest scientific findings and offer our patients the best-known treatment methods.
What Are the Benefits of Herbal Medicine?
There are many benefits of herbal medicine, too many to list. Typically, herbs’ effects don’t appear suddenly, as they do with modern pharmaceutical drugs, and herbs can be used as a stand-alone treatment as well as an additional therapy. What makes traditional Chinese medicine special, it’s that the time-tested herbal formulas that are traditionally used can and should be modified to each individual patient, according to his or her personal circumstances, thus improving the herbs’ therapeutic effects as well as reducing any unwanted side effects. The practitioners at the Advanced Holistic Center’s Downtown Miami herbal medicine and Miami Beach herbal medicine locations have extensive training in traditional Chinese herbal medicine, and they also tend to combine its benefits with the ones that other traditional Chinese medical modalities can offer in combination with each other. They are also trained to use traditional Chinese herbal medicine as well as traditional Chinese medicine’s other methods and techniques as part of integrative medicine, so they can work well with other forms of treatment that individual patients of ours might be receiving.
Something Else
Advanced Holistic Center is a NYC based acupuncture and holistic healthcare clinic. Advanced Holistic Center has more locations and longer open hours than almost any complementary and alternative healthcare facility in all of NYC. With four offices manned by our fully licensed and board certified acupuncturists and herbalists, a team of highly-qualified: assistants, meditation teachers.
Is Herbal Medicine Safe?
The chemical compounds that provide therapeutic effects are less concentrated in herbs than they are in medications, and so are the toxins. At the same time, traditional Chinese herbal medicine is one of the oldest medical systems on earth, and any possible unwanted effects have long been discovered and described. Of course, there is always a small chance of human mistakes or mistakes in the manufacturing process, but it is small. The greatest concern is possible interactions among herbs and various pharmaceutical drugs that people may be taking. This is why it is crucial that when you receive a treatment at the Advanced Holistic Center’s Downtown Miami herbal medicine and Miami Beach herbal medicine locations, you tell your therapists of any medications that you are taking, so we can take them into consideration. Much literature has been published on drug and herbal interactions, but in order to take advantage of that information as well as improve our patients’ safety, our therapists must know what the drugs are, and then they can reduce or eliminate the potential of any possible drug-herb interaction.
Does it hurt?
Advanced Holistic Center is a NYC based acupuncture and holistic healthcare clinic. Advanced Holistic Center has more locations and longer open hours than almost any complementary and alternative healthcare facility in all of NYC. With four offices manned by our fully licensed and board certified acupuncturists and herbalists, a team of highly-qualified: assistants, meditation teachers.