How Do We Determine What Herbs Are Included In Your Prescription?
No two patients receive the same herbal prescriptions. Each prescription contains a combination of herbs and dosages unique to the patients needs. Those prescriptions change over time, as the patient’s condition improves.
To determine what herbs are included, the practitioner completes a series of traditional Chinese diagnostic techniques (including taking the pulses, observing the tongue colouration and coating, observing and palpating the body, asking questions) and considers the patient’s overall symptoms, including the state of illness, the patient’s gender, age, and constitution, the current season and other relevant circumstances. The Chinese practitioner starts a prescription with the guidelines as delineated in classical texts, and personal experience, to form a basic prescription. The practitioner then adjusts the mixture to the patients’ needs by adding or deleting various herbs, or manipulating the dosages of the compounds to fit the precise disharmony. A prescription usually contains 5-15 substances and the dosages average 3-15 grams per herb.