Commonly Used Herbs

One topic that I have been meaning to write more about is Herbs and the significant part they play in TCM treatment, especially in China. Though I have recently used other TCM modalities, more than herbs, in treating my patients, I know the value they potentially can play in my treatment plan. Additionally, the advent of Insurance has complicated mattes with using herbs, as they ae not covered—but that’s a subject for a future blog.

In today’s blog, I want to touch more about how herbs are categorized and their uses. I am not going to write about Herbal formulas that are actually used to treat an ailment or the history of Chinese Herbology. Again, these are great topics for future blogs.

To get a full appreciation of this discussion, it would be nice for you to have a basic understanding of TCM diagnostic terminology, like Tonify, Bind, Cool etc.. I will use the Pinyin names of the herbs.

I have written extensively about how a deficiency of blood, as understood in TCM, has a great impact on many TCM diagnoses. Again, I’m not going to discuss the characteristics of blood deficiency here. Though, there are many herbs that can help tonify blood, the most common ones are: Gou qi zi, Sang shen and Bai shao.

Two of the most common diagnosis found in TCM concerns the Yin and Yang aspects. Deficient Yin is found in many heat related illnesses. Common herbs used to tonify Yin are: Tian men dong and Mai men dong. Deficient Yang is found in many cold related illnesses. Common herbs used to tonify Yang are: Rou gui, Hu lu ba and Xu duan.

Stress and anxiety are common ailments treated by TCM practitioners. In TCM, the shen is affected and, thus, needs to be pacified. Common herbs used to calm the shen are: He huan pi, He huan hua, Long yan rou and Ling zhi…