WHAT IS CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE?
As early as 4,000 years ago the Chinese recorded their knowledge of herbal medicine on bones and tortoise shells. Today's modern preparation methods, which are still guided by the historical wisdom underlying Chinese herbal medicine effectively release the healing powers stored within the herbs. Up to date many clinical studies have indicated that Chinese herbal medicine is extremely effective for treating medical disorders in a wide variety of areas including cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, reproduction, oncology, behaviour, respiratory problems, and sports medicine. For example, new evidence supports using herbal medicine to treat and even prevent gastric ulcers in horses. Herbal medicine has helped increase the quality of life in geriatric patients especially those diagnosed with terminal cancer. A range of clinical studies have indicated that a spectrum of anticancer activities from various herbal medicines can be detected. Many owners report that their animals have an improved quality of life while receiving Chinese herbal medicine.
CHINESE HERBAL FORMULAS
During the early development of herbal medicine, the ancient practitioners used individual Chinese herbs (Zhong-yao) to treat diseases. When the herbal healers later found that combining several Chinese herbs is more effective, the concept of Chinese herbal formulas was born. A traditional Chinese veterinary formula contains different quantities of several Chinese medicinal components as guided by Traditional Chinese Medicine principles. A typical Chinese herbal formula contains between 4 and 15 herbs each of which may have an assigned role within the formula.
WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF HERBAL TREATMENT?
Goals fall in 4 categories:
1. To cure the disease
2. To stabilise and prevent a disease from advancing
3. To mediate the side effects or increase the effectiveness of Western medical treatments
4. To promote quality of life and increase the well being of patients who have debilitating diseases
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO SEE THE RESULT?
In generals herbs may take a few hours or up to a month before improvement is appreciated. Clinically herbal medicine is effective in 95% of cases provided:
1. The correct Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine diagnosis has been identified
2. The appropriate herbal formula has been selected via TCVM pattern differentiation
3. The appropriate dosage has been administered for a sufficient amount of time.
Generally acute excess conditions will respond quickly, whereas a chronic condition may take 1-3 weeks before clinical improvement is seen. treatment may last from 1 to 6 month in chronic conditions, while some chronic conditions in geriatric patients may require lifetime maintenance.
DR. XIE'S JiNG TANG HERBAL
I work mainly with Dr. Xie's Jing Tang herbal formulas. Dr. Xie has 25 years of veterinary clinical practice and is a third generation Traditional Chinese Medicine herbologist. As a result of this personal history he has developed over 300 formulas to use in various veterinary clinical conditions. All Jin Tang herbs are monitored by a university laboratory to confirm their quality and purity. They meet GMP standard and their quality control protocols use independent laboratory testing. Jin tang is strongly against the use of any endangered animals. In fact, animal parts are used rarely because good herbologist can always find a good herbal substitute.
