On this inaugural day of the New Era here at Deepest Health, I would like to offer something long overdue. You may remember a particularly engaging podcast interview series with Arnaud Versluys PhD, LAc who practices here in Portland, OR but teaches Chinese herbal medicine all over the world. He has recently created the Institute for Classics in East Asian Medicine (ICEAM) which I hope to be working with for the rest of my days. If you haven’t already, I recommend you sign up for and participate in his forum, and check out his upcoming class offerings.
In case you lost the links:
The first part of the Arnaud Versluys interview
The second part of the Arnaud Versluys interview
And now, without further delay – listen to the final portion. It is a shorter section, focused on a couple of topics very dear to my heart. First, what to do when you cannot secure the herbs you need (for instance, Mahuang and Xixin). Second, what about growing our own herbs locally and using them in Chinese herbal formulas? I think you will find the listen worth your time.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tags: local herbs, herbal regulation, Podcast, Chinese herbs, arnaud versluys
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Heyyy…better REALLY late than never.
Not sure if it’s just me, but the volume was really soft when I listened to it. Had to pump up my speakers. Really interesting conversation. Though I am wondering if just because the botanical tradition here in the US is very young, not having had the testing of centuries upon centuries, if that’s necessarily an argument against forging ahead with that experimentation and development. Chinese herbal science had its beginnings too, right?
Hey Jason,
I had to wear headphones to listen to it clearly.
Actually, the process has already begun. A few authors have published books in the last several years on classifying Western herbs according to Chinese energetic classifications. I also am for the idea of growing Chinese herbs here, if done correctly like Arnaud suggested. I am very interested in this for several reasons including: lack of quality herbal products coming from China, the ban on importing certain Chinese herbs, and of course a little worry about the future supply and demand. As China is producing less and less herbs, but yet the medicine is gaining popularity all over the world. How long will China be able to supply Chinese herbs to the world instead of just China? Or what if FDA banned the importation of herbs from China someday for some reason? Slim chance, but what if China and US stop all commerce trade between the two nations as they becoming competing world powers? Ok. Enough with the far-fetched scenarios, but you get my point. The sooner we start to grow Chinese herbs here in the US and really learn to classify our own plants the better. Who knows, we might even get BETTER clinical results in the future if we use more locally grown Chinese and native herbs. Since the plants come from the environment we live in, we could then say we are more cosmically aligned with them compared to plants being grown in China and imported. That might be one reason that inspired these authors to write such books about integrating the Chinese herbal theory with Western botanicals.
Sorry for the audio quality. For some reason, when I imported this from where it was, it changed the file in ways I couldn’t alter. Next podcasts will be stereo, nice and loud, and beautiful to behold. ;)
Jason : Sure. Two things – first, I think that Western herbalism will grow and change quite a bit in the coming centuries. I know several great Western herbalists who are pushing the limits of their tradition, developing it and finding good results. I salute them. Second, if a person feels drawn to experiment with using Western herbs in a CM formula way, or combining Western and Chinese herbs, or anything similar – I say go for it. However, it is my desire simply to know the Classical formulas as deeply as possible, following the example of the Classical texts and the guidance of my teachers. Arnaud has a similar orientation, which guides what he was expressing. If you feel drawn to something else – go for it, and then come write some guest posts about it here! :D
Delli : We are in agreement, in general. The greatest thing about this idea of growing Chinese herbs in local areas is simply : it’s SUPER FUN to grow things. So, at least we’ll have that. I’m interested in the idea of local herbs having a greater degree of “cosmic alignment” with people who live in the local area. I’m interested in the mechanism by which this alignment is imparted, and how we would know whether or not it was true. It would seem that if this were true, then all things being equal, Chinese people should be getting greater results with Chinese herbs than American people. Designing an appropriate experiment would be just about impossible, but still an interesting thing to think about. Thanks for your comment!
Eric