The 3 Kinds of Medicinal Herbs

One of the things that I'm most in love with about Chinese medicine is the sophistication in herbalism. Besides Ayurveda and some other ancient medical systems, I've never seen any kind of medical system that is continuous with as sophisticated a philosophy of how to use herbal formulas and when to use them. And just the very fact that Chinese medicine has formulas that range from one herb to 30 plus is just the most incredible example of both alchemy and chemistry that I've ever seen. Now in this video I thought I would share the three levels or kinds of medicinal herbs according to one of our most ancient medical texts. Hey guys, Dr. Alex Hein, author of the health book Master of the Day, doctor of Chinese medicine and licensed acupuncturist. So before we jump into this video, two very important links right below it. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, there's a few links right below this video to contact my private practice and reach out to me. And there's also a free guide, four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life potentially with Chinese medicine, and that's a free pdf right below this video as well. So one of our most ancient medical texts specifically dealing with herbalism as well as let's just say medicinal substances because they also include plants, rocks, insects, minerals, all these kinds of things, animal parts, it's called and it's loosely translated as the Divine Farmer's Materia Medica. Now the Shennong Bencaojing really talks about something that's very interesting, which is the three levels, this kind of hierarchy of medicinal herbs. Upper level, middle level, and lower level. Now this hierarchy is not something is better or worse, but it really shows at what stage of illness what intervention is required. So when we talk about the upper level medicinal herbs, we're talking about they really just have medicinal uses, some of them may overlap with being food grade, but really it's about minimal toxicity. And the lower level medicinal herbs are used to treat very serious illnesses, life-threatening illnesses, but also they do have toxicity. Now when I say toxicity, I just mean some of these herbs are toxic in their unprocessed form, but toxicity just in the same way as any pharmaceutical is toxic if you take it over a long period of time. You don't want to be taking steroids over a long period of time. You don't want to be taking antibiotics over a long period of time. You do not want to be taking benzodiazepines over a long period of time. There's absolutely toxicity to those. Now let's jump into what this actually looks like in each of these tiers. The first tier, the upper tier, the upper level medicinals are described like this. They are non-toxic and even when taken in large quantities or over a long period of time, they won't harm you. These herbs help to lighten the body, boost your qi, avoid aging, and extend your lifespan. Now an example of an herb from this upper tier category is ginseng, right. Ginseng is one of the most highly prized herbs on the market. It's very, very difficult to find wild crafted or wild harvested ginseng. Sometimes people get these as gifts, these incredible ginseng roots with the main root and then the smaller fine roots and they're just framed. You'll see them in herbalist shops sometimes. So this is one of those herbs that has a reputation for being able to take daily, frequently over time without major harm to your health for example. Now when it comes to the middle level medicinals, here's how they're described. These middle level medicinals, some are toxic and others are not. They're used to treat illness and supplement deficiencies. Now an example of this would be yin yang hua, horny goatweed. So a lot of these herbs in the middle tier are herbs that are, they're still safe, right. They're still clinically safe to use but they're not herbs you want to be taking at a high dose over a long period of time because you may begin to experience some side effects from them. Now the way I think about these in terms of medicines for example, we can really compare these to a lot of pharmaceutical medications that people use, right. The higher tier, I don't really know if there's a highest tier of pharmaceuticals necessarily that anyone would want to take every day over time. Maybe baby aspirin for some people potentially falls in that category but maybe some decongestants. But in general when we talk about middle level medicinals, we're talking about herbs, substances, medications that have a therapeutic effect but still you don't want to take it for the rest of your life if you don't have to. In my opinion you should not want to take herbs for the rest of your life if you don't need to, right. The highest level of medicine is always no medicine, there's always no intervention. If we can maintain the person's state and their health and their longevity without having to take anything besides just food, that's always the optimal state. So middle level medicinal, they are stronger herbs we could say potentially, stronger in terms of their ability to treat illness or disease but also may have more side effects taken for a period of time. Now when we talk about the lower level medicinals, here's how they're described. The lower level medicinals are used to treat illness, have stronger effects on the body, i.e. toxicity, and should not be taken over long periods of time. Now a good example here is fudza or aconite. Aconite is one of the most toxic plants in the world unprocessed but when processed we utilize some of the alkaloids and the aconitines in there to actually treat disease, treat illness in the same way that someone who's having severe anxiety or severe insomnia, a benzodiazepine is given or Xanax for example is given, but you would never ever ever want to be taking these daily over a long period of time. I'll leave you to read the research on that and what the withdrawal can potentially lead to. There are still patients that I see taking benzodiazepines daily on top of an antidepressant for years. It's dangerous. It's dangerous in conventional medicine and it's dangerous any way you cut the cake. Theoretically that's what's needed for some patients. I'm trying to draw a parallel here between aconite and for example a benzo but an example is that some pharmaceutical medications can cause for example seizures when it's not tapered down in a proper way and I have seen patients who've been scared of taking benzodiazepines who took themselves off them and then had serious withdrawal symptoms that they had to go get medical interventions to help with. So that's a perfect example of a low-level medicinal. It's absolutely necessary when and where it is necessary but you don't ever want to get on those if you don't have to and tapering off them by themselves can potentially be lethal. These are strong medicinals used to treat serious disease and you don't want to be taking them for a long period of time. That's where some of our herbs fall into that category. Not to that same effect but it's that general idea. So I thought I would share this with you today. I found it to be very interesting and I think it's a very useful piece of knowledge to know because in the same vein a lot of people in alternative medicine have this idea of just taking 50 herbs every day and you're going to live forever. Goji berries, superfoods, acai bowls and it's not really true because it's stages and grades of illness and intervention and the medicine should always match the stage of illness and the depth and the severity and if no medicine or intervention is required no medicine should be given right. That's the highest level of medicine. All right guys that's what I have for you here today. Before you go two related videos for you right there. I'll catch you soon.