Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine - Actions & symptoms of Chinese herbs

SARAH HAUER: Hi, I'm Sarah Hauer. SIG HAUER: And I'm Sig Hauer and we're professional practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. SARAH HAUER: We're here on behalf of Expert Village. SIG HAUER: And welcome to our video. We'll also talk about the actions of the different herbs. For example, gou qi berries, gou qi zi, we say this--the action of this herb is to tonify blood and to help calm the spirit. And then we'd further talk about what are the indications, what kind of things, specifically what kind of signs and symptoms could it possibly treat; for example, insomnia. Now, this by itself isn't going to help you sleep, but in combination with other herbs it will. But that's one of the indications that you could see with gou qi zi. We'll also talk about cautions with the herbs and what contraindications there are with herbs. For example with some herbs, for example with huang lian, if someone is considered yin deficient, we have to be very aware of that as we make the formula for using this herb that we do not damage that person's yin. So, it's very important to... SARAH HAUER: And huang lian is a strong herb and it's very cold. So, people who tend to have a frail constitution and a lot of cold, that's not an herb you want to do in large doses or long term. It may not be the best choice for that type of constitution to begin with. So, and when we talk about an herb being cold, it is--a lot of people will say, "Well, I warmed it up." It's not the same energetic. If you put--here's a good example. Cayenne pepper; everybody knows cayenne pepper. If you put it in a refrigerator, it's going to be cold but when you eat it, it's still going to taste hot. That's the kind of energetic we're talking about. This cold, in this herb, is the type of cold that if it was used incorrectly, it would make you urinate frequently all the time. It would give you very, very weak digestion as well. You wouldn't have enough good fire to digest your food. You get a lot of bloating and gas. So, this herb, wrongfully administered, can do some damage. You may not notice it right away or you may notice it right away depending on how frail or deficient your constitution is. So, we need to be very careful on how we administer and prescribe.