Chinese Herbal Therapy
Like acupuncture, herbal medicine is an important pillar of Chinese medicine. The Chinese pharmacopoeia lists over 6,000 different medicinal substances in relation to their beneficial properties for the human body.
Today we use about 600 herbs that are classified into two major groups. The first group refers to the grass temperature: hot (热 – re), warm (温 – wen), cold (寒 – han), neutral (平 – pin) and aromatic (香 – xiang). The second group refers to the flavor of the herb: sour (酸 – suan), bitter (苦 – ku), sweet (甜 – tian), spicy (辛 – xin) and salty (咸 – XIII).
The different options in temperature and taste the herbs give certain characteristics that can influence the energy patterns of yin and yang of the body. For example, bitter tastes, sour and salty are related to the yin, while the sour and sweet flavors are attributed to yang. Herbs are extracted from assets which, among other things, heat, cool, detoxify and promote digestion. It is therefore important to understand that herbs do not possess a single quality. The combination of features and temperatures can benefit all body systems.
The warm herb can be used with people with disorders in their body temperature warm. However, be mixed with cool or cold herbs to balance also fresh herbs can be used with people suffering from cold disorders, while maintaining the overall balance of the mixture in a warm state. Neutral herbs are those that are neither hot nor cold, so they are considered gentle herbs. In the herbal pharmacopoeia there are not many neutrals.
Bitter: reduces and merges. The bitter herbs are usually recommended for cases of sweating, chronic cough, chronic diarrhea, urinary and seminal, spermatic fluid seepage, and other conditions related to hypometabolism (malfunction). In traditional Chinese medicine, these evils are known as cold defects or patterns.
The bitter taste has the function of appeasing the heat, purging the bowels, lowering the qi, reducing excess moisture. Bitter herbs are used usually in intense heat patterns, such as the acute stage of infectious diseases and patterns warm humid or damp-cold, such as in case of arthritis.
The sweet taste: it has the function of toning, improving, moistening and harmonizing many of the systems of the body as the digestive, respiratory, immune and endocrine systems. The sweet taste also inhibits pain and that makes a constrictive action on the muscles. They are commonly used to treat dry coughs, gastrointestinal tract dysfunction, the spleen and stomach ailments.
Herbs pungent allow the circulation of Qi and vitalize the blood. This group of herbs stimulate the sweat glands, activates the organs and promotes blood circulation. Overall, spicy herbs tend to activate and improve metabolism. It is generally used in the treatment of external standards (flu), when the function of organs is weakened and obstructs blood flow. In traditional Chinese medical terminology, this is the stage of stagnation of Qi and the onset of blood contamination.
Salted Herbs: have the function of smoothing the firm masses and fibrous adhesions. The salty taste and purging the bowels unstuck. The agents are commonly used salt for sores, swellings, cysts and proliferation of connective tissue.
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