Dr. Albert Y. Leung

Since the synthetic chemical era started about 150 years ago, all the synthetic drugs, additives, and supplements have one thing in common.   Being made from toxic petroleum and other fossil fuels, they are all brand new to our planet and have never had long interactions with us.  Hence, they are inherently toxic.  The toxicities of drugs generally show up in days or weeks, while those of additives and supplements, because of their lower doses, may appear years after our having started using them.   Now, due to the accelerating synthetic activities, producing countless of these chemicals, their side effects and new diseases are increasingly obvious among fellow Americans.

However, there are no efforts by the mainstream medical profession to try to reduce the use of conventional drugs made from fossil fuels.  Hence, I don’t see any movements to reduce legitimate drug use in the USA, despite its inherently toxic properties.  Even some bright Chinese scientists who had influence with the ChP have unknowingly changed the properties of a well-known anti-aging herb, cured Fo-Ti, to the cathartic, raw Fo-Ti.  [My next post will include this tonic vs. cathartic now in the ChP and the confusion in the English literature].

Chinese ginseng has been used in China since ancient times.  American ginseng was only introduced into China in the 18^th century and within decades, it was described as different from Chinese ginseng.  The Chinese didn’t use the science of botany or chemistry to tell the difference.  They used the experience of trial-and-error that their ancestors had used and taught them.  Unlike modern synthetic drugs with brand-new unknown impurities, whatever present in TCM herbs have already been there since our ancestors tried them eons ago.  They have all been tested  as safe, which is why we can safely ingest these herbs and formulas.  Not so with brand-new synthetic drugs with their impurities, for which our recent forebears were smart enough to design scientific tests (in-vitro, in-vivo, etc.) before clinical trials and finally approval for patient use.  Only then, the trial-and-error process that our ancient ancestors used is started all over!  There is no other choice for us to gain experience and time. 

So, the 2 therapies are very different!  But we can still use both, keeping in mind our health continues to be ruined by synthetics, which can be alleviated by TCM formulas containing tonic herbs or bypassed with natural chemicals. In my next post, I will address the confusions in TCM herbs in the English documentation, specifically addressing the tonic/cathartic named cured Fo-Ti and raw Fo-Ti.   Which is which?

Regardless, I think I know what it is trying to say:  there are these 2 groups of products – one is just herbs, whatever they are is immaterial, because you just have to do your best to market and  sell them; the other eventually will be destined to be scientific and evidence-based drugs.  I think the people involved in either group know what they can do.  One thing this article has done for me is that it has given me the reason why there are no standards of identity and quality for commercial herbal supplements, about which I have often complained.  Now, there would be no need to worry about what you sell, because the goods are not important.  The main objective of their existence is just being ‘health’ goods, especially the DSHEA does not allow specific claims.  The other kind of supplements (herbal or chemical), according to those dealing in them, is one step closer to ‘scientific’ or ‘evidence-based’ drugs, eventually with Big Pharma behind it.  Even with this group, I don’t think the players have any clue what they are dealing with – herb or chemical?  Especially they are not scientifically trained and don’t recognize that there is no science in drug therapy once a chemical gets  into our complex multichemical body.   Or they are so intimidated by ‘science’ that  they simply go along.  I have numerous posts on LinkedIn and on my blog  discussing this chemical vs. herb issue, especially the last one uploaded a day ago.

www.ayslcorp.com/blog

We should take both and bring them together, taking the good and ignoring the deficient in each and let them do their best in complementing each other.

A. Synthetic drug –   1.  made from toxic petroleum  

                                           2. brand new to our planet

3. with identity and purity issues (can never be absolutely pure like 100.000000 %)

                                           4. inherently toxic (already ongoing and non-changeable)

B. Traditional herb –   1. already developed by our ancestors and handed down to us

                                             2. our body knows it, so no surprises

3. absolute purity is not an issue, whatever therein dates to ancient times

                                             4. no inherent toxicity issues

Modern drug therapy using mainly synthetics is responsible for most of our illnesses (side effects & new diseases).  Just look at the promotions and advertisements on your family TV.  They make you feel like you are missing something if you don’t try their advertised drugs.  And we are openly blaming drug addiction as due to our young folk’s weak will power!  This reminds me of watching war movies of the Second World War era (1940s), seeing sailors smoking in submarines was common.  Smoking was not banned in public until around 1990s and 2000s!  And smoking physically and visually affects others nearby, which took more than half a century for us to ban in public.  I  don’t expect to see synthetic chemicals like drugs, additives, and supplements (now ubiquitous but quietly ruining our health) to draw the attention of the nontechnical public.   

Consequently, with the even more abundant synthetic chemicals that are not ingestible which we have been making for our convenience and comfort (like plastics, nylon, polyester, other synthetic fabrics, & foam rubber, etc.), they first pollute our environment and then over time decompose to minute entities (e.g., microplastics) that enter our body through our drinking water to further do us harm.   It is a serious situation.  But no one with fame and money seems to openly talk about it.   Scientists like me write about it but we are mostly ignored.  Regardless, I don’t give up.  I’ll keep trying until I croak. 

When dealing with A3 and A4, try to bypass the synthetic drug therapy with naturally isolated chemicals whenever possible.  Try to discourage continued drug advertising on family TV.  The only way to eliminate it is by passing laws to afford taxpayers (citizens & residents) free universal healthcare so that there would be no need for insurance and healthcare companies to continue to find ways to exploit the public. There should be term limits for members of our Congress so that they would not continue to get free perks (like healthcare) for themselves and ignore the rest of us Americans.    

TCM traditional medicine is mostly based on observation, experience and accumulated wisdom over time. It is as complex as our body and contains as many chemicals.  B3 and B4 allow it to be safely used.  The herbs and formulas are well documented both in print and through word of mouth among families.  There are dozens of formulas available from Asia already being sold as herbal supplements in Chinese herb shops throughout major American and Canadian cities.  They are for common ailments such as colds, flu, cough, and heat conditions (canker sores, pimples, etc.).  They can be fingerprinted by TLC or HPTLC.  I have already published my work on 3 dozen tryptamines that include several common psychedelics (psilocybin, psilocybin, LSD, etc.) with Rf values on 5 different solvent systems (mobile phases) and 3 adsorbents.   Well-promoted brands can be fingerprinted so that consumers can at least see what they look like when compared to a trustworthy brand.   Furthermore, the formulas containing tonic herbs are particularly suitable for improving our natural immunity.  

That can serve as a start, so can my organization, PBN Naturals Worldwide Consortium.  And I can provide initial guidance.

1. There are no uniform identity and quality standards for our herbal/traditional medicines and supplements!  My colleagues and friends at the USP/NF and the FDA, among other health agencies, seemed to have refrained from assigning specific chemicals among the countless present in herbs to represent these botanical medicines.   Or they might have neglected or forgotten to deal with these chemicals none of which represents any traditional herb.  Regardless, for whatever reasons, the USP/NF doesn’t have provisions to deal with active chemicals in traditional medicines & supplements (esp. commercial ones) since the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA) was enacted in 1994.  I’m not complaining, just curious.  Regardless, there is now a big void in our standards of identity and quality for our commercial herbal supplements that are supposedly overseen by these agencies.  So, for over 30 years, 2 supplements by 2 different companies with the exact same herbs on their labels can be different as night and day on HPTLC/TLC fingerprinting.   Which is why I never recommend any supplements unless I know the producers.

• Most of my science colleagues still seem to be clueless about modern synthetic drug therapy and therapy with traditional herbal medicines.  Hence, the mess we continue to make when we try to deal with them.

Here is a story I like to share regarding American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.), when it was first introduced into China from Canada in the 18^th century by the Jesuits who believed it to be Chinese ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer).   However, a couple of decades later, an herbal described it as different from Chinese ginseng, and the two have since been treated as different herbs.  American ginseng is described as cooling while Chinese ginseng  as warming that has tonic properties.  I want to use this example to show the difference between synthetic drug therapy and therapies with herbs and foods. 

This brings up an example that I want to share with you.  It is about how modern synthetic drugs and traditional natural medicines have come about – via very different routes!

Synthetic drug therapy relies on its in-vitro, in-vivo, and other testing to show it is scientific.  But it is NOT, especially when  you don’t even know what your test chemical’s identity or purity is.  Furthermore, after all the testing, including our clinical trials to show it has no serious side effects, it is approved for patient use.  Only then, the trial-and-error process begins, this same process was used by our ancestors for millennia since time immemorial.  However, for modern synthetic drug therapy, it only starts now, without the important element of time as with traditional herbal medicines!    Modern drug therapy using synthetics is based on a single chemical that is brand-new to our planet, which, being made from toxic petroleum, is also inherently toxic.  Because of its lack of history or experience, it is often misunderstood, and some aspects of it are often confused with those of traditional herbs.  In contrast, traditional medicines have already been tried and true over time (>millennia), based on our observations, experiences, and accumulated wisdom.   

Thus, the time experienced by modern drug therapy is comparable to a grain of sand (synthetic drug) on a sandy beach (natural medicine).   Again, using ginsengs as examples in therapy, we tend to try to use specializations in botany to make therapy with ginsengs scientific.  So, we dig deep into its morphology and chemistry,  trying to make ginsengs scientific, while building new specializations. This certainly would build endless specializations, cluttering our intellectual universe with irrelevance.  In a few centuries or millennia, we may have a new portfolio on the ginsengs.  But for what?  For our curiosity or greed – like a perpetual highly profitable business – the vicious cycle (VC) that you can maneuver whichever way you want?  Thus, USA would be owned by a handful of gazillionaire narcissists who couldn’t understand why truly democratic countries shun us.

On the other hand, traditional medicines, like TCM, have been developed mainly through observation, experience, and accumulated wisdom?   No specific chemicals, just wholesome entities processed certain ways.  Also, interchangeable herbs are often used.  So are a unique class of healing herbs called tonics that double as both foods and medicines.  They are an important preventive-health measure for TCM.   

I believe modern synthetic drugs somehow ending up with the vicious cycle that has led us to our current miserable health state, mostly steered by greed.  If we don’t break the VC or bypass it, we’d end up ruining our health in another generation or two.

The 2 therapies can be used in complement of each other.   We Americans have already suffered too much from the modern system whose synthetic drugs are basically all inherently toxic because they are brand new, made from toxic fossil fuel.  Including synthetic additives and supplements, not even the non-ingestible ones, they are now countless in number after we have been mindlessly producing countless of them over the past 80 to 90 years.     By now, most of us are suffering from their cumulative effects within us.  Despite leading in wealth and in health sciences, we have not been among the world’s top 40 or even 50 healthiest countries for years. 

I know how to get us back on track to a healthier country, but I can’t do it alone.  In my next post, I’ll outline my ideas of how to drastically change our course for the better of all Americans.

In drug therapy using mostly synthetics, we concentrate only on one chemical, even though we can’t control its purity.  For example, psilocybin may contain 1% LSD or other highly active psychedelics for whatever reason.  This will totally mess up the scientific nature of our therapeutic process because now our test object/material (psilocybin) is no longer a pure constant. 

               How do we assess its outcome?  Statistics?  I guess that is what we usually see and experience – more and deeper holes (i.e., specializations) to justify our inability to see the reality in our healthcare system involving multi-elements.  Instead, we follow our own interests (more hole-digging or specializations to satisfy our own individual interests, never mind the scenery above ground (our total health)!  Which is why for the special interests of money  and self gratification of a few, we have ignored our true healthcare for all.   Instead of benefiting our nation of all citizens, like with free universal healthcare, we have chosen the vicious cycle (VC) of synthetic drug therapy that benefits only the drug makers and their interdependent associates, including insurers, promoters/advertisers/pushers, and crooked politicians, all in the name of democracy or freedom to choose.  

Now, with our nation controlled by a few moneyed individuals, where is our democracy?  Especially all our legislators have voted themselves perks like free healthcare  and terms with no limits.  Some are also so corrupt that they dare not challenge our president and his family who openly make big money on our dime.  What kind of American democracy is that?   Sorry about bringing this up. 

Unlike synthetic drug therapy, our traditional medicines (herbs) have evolved in a very different path.  It’s not just days, months or even a century.  It is experience based on long-term trial and error, accompanied by its wisdom over time immemorial.   This trial-and-error process is also used by modern drug therapy.  Except it is only after a modern drug has gone through the usual testing in vitro, in vivo, in small creatures, and then successful human clinical-trial, then the trial-and-error step starts.  

In recent years, maybe up to 3 generations or 90 years, we have observed some ‘long-term’ effects of modern synthetic drugs.  For our older folks, you may remember the Thalidomide tragedy of the 1950s-1960s.    Many thousands of pregnant women in Europe who had taken Thalidomide gave birth to thousands of deformed babies.  Now this same drug is being developed for promoting new blood vessel growth in healing tissues and others.  So, more hole-digging and concentrating in smaller areas with no overall view of our body and whole health!  All I can see is more trouble ahead, with more specialists who have no idea what is involved in total good health. 

The science of our healthcare system is so monetized that our deep holes (specializations) may end up burying us in a couple of more generations.  Unless we recognize this and start taking the best of modern drug therapy and complement it with the tried-and-true traditional herbal medicines along with nutrition, exercises, and avoiding fast foods that are loaded with inherently toxic additives and supplements made from toxic fossil fuels.

I developed hay fever in 1965, 3 years after I arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from tropical Hong Kong to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan.  The physician at Student Health welcomed me to ‘hay-fever’ town!  For 20 years, I was on antihistamines, decongestants, and other hay-fever drugs, along with their equally miserable side effects.  In 2 seasons of taking magnolia tea, my hay fever was gone.  I have not taken any hay fever drugs since the mid-1980s.  I just occasionally take magnolia tea if the air quality is exceptionally bad.   

Since I was born into a family (my mother’s side) with a TCM tradition, I started my renewed interest in Chinese herbs and accumulated within several years probably the most extensive library of Chinese herbs in a single location in America.  I started writing about Chinese herbs for common conditions since the 1980s.  My Better Health with (Mostly) Chinese Healing Herbs & Foods (1995), Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics (2^nd Ed. 1996), Leung’s Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients… (3^rd Ed. 2010), and Leung’s Chinese Herb News (1996-2004), republished in My Life & Rollercoaster Career (2018), all carried a section on magnolia.   

After magnolia cured my hay fever 40 years ago, I only have drippy nose a few times a season (spring and fall).      That is rather annoying.  This time,  it happened 2 days ago.  My nose simply dripped even when I lay down to try to go to sleep.  I had to get up and make myself a cup of magnolia tea.   Within probable 30 minutes I was asleep and for 2 days now I have no more drippy nose, nor other hay fever symptoms.   

Since I no longer take any synthetic antihistamines or decongestants, I feel good for no longer having these toxic chemicals in my body, slowly but surely ruining the good health of mine and that of most of my fellow Americans, including my life 40 years earlier.  I am now a few weeks to 88 years of age.  I think I have seen enough as a scientist and an herbalist that I can speak as an elder in these matters.   I am referring to synthetic drug therapy vs. treatment with traditional herbal medicines, neither is scientific.  But the former is so biased that most of my science colleagues involved never can tell the difference among the elements therein with those in traditional medicines.  The hole-digging in modern drug therapy only ends up in too many holes (i.e., specializations) that haven’t helped us to have even half decent therapies without all these toxic side effects and countless new diseases among us.  The scientists involved don’t seem to have any clue what their hole-digging has done to our healthcare.    

A unique thing about synthetic drugs is that they are produced from toxic petroleum and are thus inherently toxic, as well as brand-new to our planet, including any of their impurities present. Not so with traditional herbs or herbal formulas; any impurities therein have already been there since time immemorial with which we have continuous or continual interactions. Hence, they are a unique feature of traditional medicines.

               Modern drug therapy started only 150 years ago when the synthetic era began.  Compared to the countless years of  experience and wisdom with traditional medicines, the history of ‘modern’ synthetic drug therapy is no more than a grain of sand on a sandy beach.     Our testing the brand-new synthetic drugs in vitro, in vivo, and in small animals, followed by clinical trials in humans represents human ingenuity, which we designed and consider scientific.  However, only after mere decades (70 or 80 yrs) have we started to realize what these new modern drugs (mainly synthetic) have done to our health and environment. They have caused too many side effects and new diseases!  I have been calling this phenomenon the vicious cycle (VC). The people who own this VC are too powerful.  They include drug makers and those who sell the drugs.  Exposing them  would be hazardous to one’s own life and wellbeing. 

               This VC is now so well established in our society that any disturbance of its status quo can affect jobs or the safety of drugs which in turn, our health.   From a manufacturer’s standpoint, the drug’s toxic effects and its safety and efficacy are all interrelated.  Should we make it have more side effects to beget more new diseases?  Or should he spend much more time and money to make the drug minimally toxic?  I believe as things now stand, the decision is not easy.  On the other hand, we can’t let our American modern drug-therapy system remain in their current miserable status quo. 

Our nation is the richest country in the world, and we believe and claim to have the most advanced health sciences.  Yet at least in recent decades, we have not even ranked among the world’s healthiest or happiest 30 or 40 nations.   It’s a national disgrace! 

I am always optimistic, and I never give up.  Which is why I am back from retirement to try my best to do my part.   Despite our country is ‘owned’ by a few billionaires, the recent election of New York City’s mayor,  Zohran Mamdani gives me hope for my country, so do billionaires like MacKenzie Scott and Warren Buffett.

We can start by trying to at least get our so-called democratic country to have free universal healthcare.  Then, we can concentrate on bypassing using synthetic drugs with natural medicines, at the same time, using the latter to moderate the currently uncontrollable toxicities of synthetic drugs and additives.  The government’s free universal healthcare will at least serve as a start to remove the current gouging of patients by groups like the ones who own the VC and insurance companies.

We are missing something in our ‘scientific’ drug therapy using synthetic chemicals AND, simultaneously, ignoring the experience and wisdom we have accumulated over centuries/millennia (and more), using natural traditional medicines (aka herbs).

My science colleagues, if you have no inkling of what I am about to say, you have been digging too many deep holes (specializations) in the ground and have for too long forgotten to surface above ground to survey the scenery (our total health). 

Along that line, a synthetic chemical is not the same as a natural one, even though we have been taught that the two are the same if their chemical structures are identical.  That might be true 150 years ago when we started producing brand-new synthetics from toxic petroleum and other fossil fuels and did not know better.  Think about it now!  With this health science field composed of synthetics and naturals, all confused in a big tangle, do you know what you are dealing with when any of these chemicals get into the organized mess composed of countless entities (chemicals, cells, etc.) that is our body?   Think of the research done with synthetic drugs or chemicals in a biosystem like our complex body over the past few generations.   Has it been scientific when we don’t know what impurities it contained except they could be higher than 2% as set by many pharmacopoeia like the USP/NF, BP or ChP?    

More about our ‘scientific’ or ‘precise’ drug therapy in my next post.  Stay tuned!

Digging deeper and deeper holes (i.e., specializations) again triumphs!?  Two Japanese scientists recently received the Nobel Prizes in medicine/physiology/chemistry for doing just that – to ‘scientifically’ show that our body has self-healing power and right itself when it is down.  What else is new?  The next would be Nobels to scientists engaged in slash-and-burn of microbiome practice – lo kill all microbes around us when we don’t know which is good or bad and develop a specialization that justifies our sanitizing everything around  us without knowing what bad microbes to kill?    Then, the one who finds the excuse or reason, after the act, is the hero?!  Is it all our ‘precise’ science all about?  The ones who don’t get the Nobel receive the never-ending perpetual fountain of gold that I have called the vicious cycle (VC) of synthetic drug therapy?  They may even end up receiving the Nobel and keep the VC goldmine too!

1. Synthetic chemicals are brand-new chemicals made from toxic fossil fuels.  Hence, they are inherently toxic and have no history of interaction with humans as natural medicines (herbs) have.  We have experience and wisdom since our ancestors first tried them eons ago, then passing them on to us.  We know what these natural medicines can do, irrespective of what they contain.  Whatever impurities a natural chemical isolated from nature contains, be it the usual 2% allowed in a synthetic chemical or even 10% in a natural one, is immaterial, because whatever present in a natural chemical has been there with us since time immemorial and we have experience with them. 
2. We have at most around 150 years of experience with the toxic effects of synthetic chemicals (drugs, additives & supplements) which, compared with millennia or millions of years of our experience with natural herbal medicines, is like a grain of sand on a sandy beach.  Yet we don’t seem to know the difference between toxic synthetic medicines and natural traditional herbs, confusing and treating them as equals.
3. When you don’t know the differences between toxic synthetic chemicals and our experience with traditional natural medicines, how can you recognize the science in these medicines when they interact with our extremely complex body?
4. Or is the ‘science’ we have been talking about just a hoax, what I refer to as faux science?