- 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 18th 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.