Herb Safety
A few articles highlighting the commonly used herb in Chinese Medicine, Jin Yin Hua, or Honeysuckle Flower – a powerful antibiotic and antiviral:
Micheal Tierra article on Honeysuckle Flower
Honeysuckle Flower Reference on Acupuncture Today
Jake Fratkin article (one of my teachers) – Modern Applications for Antiviral Therapy
I purchase all of my Chinese raw, dried herbs, which I use in customized formulas and tinctures both, from Spring Wind Herbs. This company is considered the premier supplier of quality Chinese herbs and is owned by Andrew Ellis. All herbs are tested for pesticide residues, and increasingly more and more are even available as USDA Certified Organic. I usually try to purchase the organic version also, unless the cost difference is extremely high (but typically isn’t the case at all).
For more information, see
Spring Wind Herbs or
Spring Wind Herbs Quality
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is the world standard of herbal medicine and these guidelines are used, amongt testing for heavy metals, pesticides and bacteria, by Evergreen Herbs, a family-run business with 3 generations of Chinese herbal scholars bringing quality medicine to practitioners and patients alike. Keep in mind also that most herbs are coming from Taiwan, so why the quality is so high. Evergreen Herbs and Herb Safety The formulas are fantastic and bring my patients much healing! The pharmacology tomes written by John Chen and Tina Chen are a boom to phytomedicine worldwide and research is the basis of this materia medica. Order book: Chinese Medical Herbology and Pharmacology from Evergreen Herbs or Amazon.
Look at all the research showing Traditional Asian Medicine is an important medicine that works – the 8 branches of this medicine are Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, Tui Na Massage and other manual therapies (cupping, gua sha), Dietary Therapy, Astrology and Caligraphy!!!! (And I think I am somehow missing Feng Shui but it may fit into the Astrology branch.) The last two are very important, unique arts, and therefore, medicinal themselves!) All are represented here: Qi Journal and Traditonal Chinese Medicine Research
Red Yeast Rice Extract is a supplement used in natural medicine to help reduce cholesterol levels. However, it is one of the few over-the-counter supplements that should be used under the direction of a natural medicine healthcare provider! It can affect the liver, so liver enzymes should be routinely monitored via blood chemistry panels. Additionally, it can have the serious side effects of myopathy and/or myalgia (muscle weakness and/or muscle pain) and peridontal disease. These side effects are the same as with statin drugs, but to a lesser extent (statin drugs originally came from research on Red Yeast Rice). To counteract the possible side effects of Red Yeast Rice Extract, one MUST take CoQ10 with it, as with statin drugs.
Therefore, in my office I only sell a product of Red Yeast Rice combined with CoQ10 (in one bottle). Additionally, I typically will try safer natural remedies first to lower cholesterol and resort to using Red Yeast Rice Extract only when other efforts have failed.
Reference for the skeptics:
Dr. Weil’s comments on Red Yeast Rice for Cholesterol Control
For more info on CoQ10, please also see my general CoQ10 post for the CoQ10 Monograph (research summary).
This is an article about the safety of Chinese herbs and the misinformation that the medical profession continues to tell patients why not to use an herbal medicine that has a safety record far surpassing pharmaceutical drugs!
‘Concerning “Chinese Herbal Nephropathy”
This is an article I wrote which was published in the local Lotus Guide, Directory for Healthy Living in Fall 2005: Safely Combining Prescription Drugs with Herbal Remedies