Chinese & Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine

The first article I chose was titled subtitled “Modernising  Herbal Medicine” (2007).  It talked about India’s efforts to bring its system of traditional medicine into the mainstream.  Their system is based on the Ayurvedic system. To this end the Indian government is spending 40 million dollars to study the herbs they use scientifically. This is not an easy task because there are 80,000 Ayurvedic treatments used there involving 3,000 plants and there are 7,000 firms that make herbal compounds for medical use (The Economist, 2007). (No wonder they need to spend 40 million dollars). The purpose of the studies are to make herbal medicine itself more scientific by conducting clinical trials of traditional treatments for more than 20 conditions.  They are enlisting the help of drug companies and it is encouraging that at least one drug company at the time of this paper has opened a small research and development division for herbal medicine. They are studying how herbs are grown and harvested to try and establish a standard for them so that they might be patented. They want to protect the herbs from extinction as most of them are harvested in the wild and are endangered.  The idea behind this project sounds great, but I am not sure that I want my herbs to be patented because it sounds like they are trying to make them more like drugs.  Clinical trials are great, but I don’t want to have to get a prescription for them.

The other article that I looked at entitled “Herbalism, traditional Chinese” from the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Chinese Herbalism is one of the major components of Traditional Chinese medicine whose aim is to treat the whole person and illness is seen as an imbalance. It is interesting to me that in China it is also being modernized to insure quality and is considered safer for self-treatment because they are also standardized. They are sold prepared for use with instructions for dosages. The basic goal of Chinese herbalism is to put the individual not the physician in charge of their own health. It also offers advice about which food can help and which foods can hinder and the herbalist helps the patient find out which foods they might be allergic to. Chinese herbs also help support the immune system and provide essential nutrients. The article pointed out that these treatments take time as their aim is to gently nudge the system back into shape not to produce an immediate reaction. They also pointed out the herbs are not compatible with certain drugs, foods and should not be taken during pregnancy. To me it seems that all this modernization that is going on is trying to make herbs fit more into the drug model. What do you think?

References:

Growing wiser; Herbal medicine.(Modernising herbal medicine) The Economist (US). August 18, 2007 v384 i8542 p71US. retrieved from Hw205-01, unit 8 reading, Kaplan Online University, 2/3/2012

Skinner, Patricia, Herbalism, Traditional Chinese, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. retrieved from Hw205-01, unit 8 reading, Kaplan Online University, 2/3/2012