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 (2nd Ed. 1996), Leung’s Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients… (3rd 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.