jessies_mom
One herb contains ephedrine, which is banned in this country
It's banned here because idiots were trying to use it as a diet aid and overdose on it (it can speed up the metabolism in high doses).
But honestly? There is NOTHING that rivals ephedra for helping dry up the lungs in bronchitis -- and the FDA banned it because of all the diet scams using it, and now folks with asthma have FAR LESS choice of what to use.
It's not a bad herb - it's a very very good one. And it is likely part of some Oriental blends. I used it for Ms. Socks for the whole six years she was here with us. It's just one of those unfortunate things that a few people who completely abused it, caused the rest of us to suffer.
You have to have someone well versed in herbs who is really monitoring things. Herbs ARE medicine - and in the case of Chinese herbs some of them are very potent medicine. They all have side effects - just because it's an herb doesn't mean it won't have side effects. You DO need to be very cautious -- but a good practitoner should know that.
jessies_mom
I have doubts with the theories behind warm, cool, and neutral foods.
The essential problem with this thread is it is extracting ONE SMALL PART of TCVM away from the whole and treating it like it's some sort of definable thing. It's the wrong way to approach it or understand it because it's far more than just a label.
Remember, the whole basis of holistic medicine of ALL modalities is that the body be treated as a "whole" -- it's not this thing or that thing, it is how the body works together as a whole.
The principle of the foods is VERY VERY dependant on the individual and what's going on in them. In other words, some external manifestations of inflammation are caused by "heat" (or inflammation -- but that's really NOT an equivalent term with what we're generally saying by "inflamed";) but not just "heat" -- but SPECIFIC GROUPS OF ORGANS being involved.
I'm just getting concerned here because TCVM is far far more complicated than this -- to simply say "theories behind warm, cool and neutral foods" -- wow -- that is SUCH an incredibly inadequate statement.
It's hard to break it down but it's almost like saying "I have doubts about these theories that just taking some liquid in the mouth can actually affect the foot!"
Said like that it sounds simplistic and silly -- but we know that it completely depends on what KIND of liquid (medicine? Or hot tea??) is going to definitely have an "effect" on all different parts of the body. But trying to 'define' liquid in such overly simplistic terms is misleading.
Did that make ANY sense?? I'm not being ratty -- it's just that this whole thread has extracted a few 'words' about food out of what is a really complex, but well-founded PART of Eastern medicine and you just can't isolate it like that and have it make serious sense.
Now -- you've also heard me caution that food 'allergies' are sometimes misdiagnosed -- because instead of an allergy it might be an intolerance ... or it might be something specifically short term. Thats' NOT to say food allergies don't exist. They SURE DO -- but it's a deeper issue and you can't just make blanket assumptions.
I can tell you for a fact tho -- if Billy's in the throes of seasonal allergies, and I try to feed him chicken, that's gonna ramp those allergies up thru the roof! Same thing if I add RICE to his food.
Now -- when the allergies are under control, can he have some chicken? Yep -- he sure can (and man, does he enjoy it). But combining chicken AND rice when he's already in an inflamed state? BAD idea.
I've proven it over and over -- and he DOES eat chicken. Just not a lot of it, and NOT when he's battling inflammation (and oh ... my oh my does Billy's body LOVE to embrace inflammation *sigh*).
I don't go completley overboard on the diet stuff. It has merit -- and I surely use it to deal with specific issues. But it's like anything else -- you can go overboard on it and you can make some pretty seriously erroneous assumptions if you really aren't well versed on TCVM generally.