MICHAEL POTTER
ACUPUNCTURE & CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE
Bank Lane Practice, Totnes

Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) is one of the great herbal traditions of the world, with a recorded history of more than two thousand years. It has retained a strong presence in health provision in China today, where it is practiced alongside western medicine in state hospitals throughout the country, in the treatment of a wide range of conditions.

Treatment with CHM involves the use of combinations of herbs which are tailored to address the particular disharmony of the individual patient; the Chinese materia medica contains several hundred commonly used ingredients, including roots, stems, flowers, leaves and barks, together with some non-plant materials. This allows the practitioner to create prescriptions which match individual patients' patterms of disharmony, and which can be adapted to meet each patient's changing needs as treatment progresses.

The possible uses of CHM are wide and varied, and people of all ages and constitutions can benefit from it. Treatment may also include lifestyle and dietary advice, which is based upon the energetic and medicinal qualities of foods.

CHM is commonly administered in two forms;
 

Loose herbs;
At Bank Lane Practice, this is my preferred way of prescribing; by far the most effective way of prescribing CHM. Each prescription is tailor made to suit your individual needs, and modified as treatment progresses. On each visit, you may be given 7 to 10 bags of medicine; each bag usually provides medicine for two days. Herbs prescribed in this clinic are organically grown and ethically sourced.

Freeze Dried Granules/Powders;
Freeze drying herbs and making them into powders is a modern technological advance which has been developed in Japan and Taiwan during the recent past. This way of prescribing also offers both practitioner and patient flexibility. They can be prescibed in powder form, which is dissolved in warm water.

Alternatively the powder can be encapsulated and taken in much the same way as you would take medicines prescribed by your GP. These are also easily transportable; a small drum of capsules can be carried in your pocket.