Chinese Herbs in the Hospital?
Go to the hospital and come home with Chinese Herbs? Yes you can with a new Chinese Herbal Medicine Program at the Cleveland Clinic.
While many hospitals are now incorporating integrative medicine clinics that include acupuncture, in 2013 the renowned Cleveland Clinic went a step further and set up a full scale Chinese Herbal Medicine treatment center which stands alone from their acupuncture program. Their goal is to create a reproducible model of the Chinese Herbal Medicine clinic that can be utilized by any hospital while being compliant with the particular rules that govern that hospital system. This is a huge step forward for the advancement and integration of Chinese Medicine because we as a public are now very accepting of acupuncture but many still remain skeptical of Chinese herbal therapy.
At the Cleveland Clinic, patients are referred to the in-house Chinese herbal clinic where they meet with a practitioner of Chinese Medicine who diagnoses them and prescribes an herbal formula. The herbs are then dispensed by the pharmacy in the hospital just as any other medication. Patients are being prescribed blends of Chinese herbs based on research that has shown benefit when used to manage diabetes, decrease cold/flu symptoms, manage chronic pain, increase energy, and improve breathing, digestion, sleep, and menopausal symptoms. The doctors involved are pleasantly surprised at the success their patients are experiencing.
Chinese herbal medicine is tried and true – it has been used for thousands of years to treat both acute and chronic conditions and continues to be utilized across the world today. There are over 500 herbs in the Chinese pharmacopeia, each with their very own physiological effect. The art and science of Chinese herbal medicine is the ability of a qualified practitioner to choose the correct herbs and blend them into a formula specific for each patient. This requires advanced study of how the herbs interact with each other, and how by altering the doses of herbs in any given formula you can achieve different results. The advantage to herbal medicine is that it is individually formulated to address the health concerns unique to the patient.
We generally refer to ourselves as Licensed Acupuncturists here in NC and the United States. By leaving out our Chinese Herbal Medicine qualifications, this is a misrepresentation of the actual training that most acupuncturists undergo during a Master’s level Traditional Chinese Medicine program. We log 3,500 hours of training, which includes both acupuncture and herbal medicine equally. At Triangle Acupuncture Clinic we use herbs frequently to treat everything from cold symptoms to managing the menstrual cycle. The particular brands that we use are very high quality and most formulas have very low incidence of unwanted side effects. And our patients enjoy taking the pills or teas we prescribe because of the fantastic results.
As Cleveland Clinic’s new herbal program continues to grow, we hope the acceptance of Chinese herbs across the country and also here in our community flourishes as well.