Hi everyone, Dr. Trevor Erikson here. Deciding to take the leap of faith into the land of natural medicine comes with its challenges. One of them being the herbs you drink, ones that your whole neighbourhood probably smelt while it was brewing, may not taste very pleasant. At least 90% of patients who start Chinese herbal medicine declare how horrible (and even vile) the taste of herbal medicine can be. One fellow recently commented to me how his herb tea tasted like an “ashtray”. A funny comment really, as who actually knows what an ashtray tastes like!
So why do it? Why commit oneself to the agony of the horrid? We do it because we want the prize at the end – good health.
Ones determination to make it through the yuckiness of herbal medicine is based on what Darren Hardy, author of The Compound effect, calls our “Why Power”. It is our desire to overcome our problem and to live with better health that drives us forward. The stronger our “why power” is, the easier it is to put up with the taste of herbal medicine. All of the patients that i have truly helped, whether it be the attainment of parenthood or the alleviation of a chronic skin disease, all had that one thing in common – they were motivated by a very strong determination to get better.
Almost 10 years ago my wife Gillian started taking Chinese herbal medicine as a means to overcome the bad eczema she dealt with most of her life. I can remember so vividly her complaints about the taste! Although she fussed and cursed, she persisted. (One thing I really admire about Gillian is her perseverance with anything she puts her mind to.) She was truly fed up with the persistent itch and social embarrassment that the eczema left her with. She was fed up with avoiding all the foods that others had told her she was allergic to, but whose abstinence did not change the state of her skin. She was fed up with having to rely on topical steroids as her only source of relief, as she was petrified of the long term side effects these powerful drugs could have on her.
Gillian’s “why power” was massive, and was the reason she could put up with her yucky tea for so long. In fact she took herbs for about a year and a half, but you know what? A few months into the tea drinking, Gillian’s eczema was pretty much gone – for the first time in her life! Even 8 years or so after stopping the tea, Gillian is still eczema free. One could assume that she was “cured”.
A little while ago I treated a woman who had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and was cycling only about 1 to 2 times per year. Her attempts at achieving pregnancy with the standard drug therapies of Chlomid and metformin were unsuccessful, and unfortunately left her with many unpleasant side effects. Realizing that herbal medicine could treat her from a more holistic approach, one without any side effects, gave her much hope and promise. After being five months on herbal treatment and ovulating 5 times, she became pregnant. This woman actually gave birth to her child last May, 2010. You can read the story for yourself in the success stories section of the Acublance website.
Herbal medicine tastes bad, but for many people it provides a promise unlike any other they have come across. The ancient methods of Chinese medicine are much different than the main stream view of health. Einstein is famous for defining insanity as “trying to attain different results by doing the same thing over and over again.” Bitter tasting herbal medicine can be that different way. It is a shock to our taste buds, but perhaps that is exactly what our body needs in order to shake it from the habits of ill-health.
Dr. Trevor Erikson
www.acubalance.ca
www.drerikson.com
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