Chinese Herbs
NSP Product Overview
In Distributor School students get a general overview of NSP’s single herbs and combinations, as well as general herb classifications. This section on Chinese herbology is designed to build upon what you learned in Distributor School by teaching you about NSP’s Chinese herb combinations.
East Meets West
For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese have been using their observations of nature, herbs and the human body to build, strengthen and preserve a tradition of herbal use. It has been estimated that over 1 billion people around the world use Chinese herbal knowledge as part of their health practices today. Many Chinese herbal formulas in use today have been used and refined since the earliest periods of Chinese history.
For centuries, the Chinese have espoused a holistic approach to health. Chinese herbalists teach that lifestyle factors such as physical condition, stress levels, behavior patterns, environment and emotions can contribute to poor body balance. They believe these factors should be taken into consideration when choosing an herbal formula.
Understanding Chinese Constitutional Herbology
In Chinese herbology, the term “constitution” refers to a person’s basic nature. It takes into account lifelong tendencies, preferences and tastes. In all traditional health care systems, understanding a person’s basic constitutional type is of primary importance in determining the type of diet, exercises and other health-building practices the person needs.
Though Western sciences once recognized four basic constitutional types, the use of constitutional typing was abandoned around the turn of the century. However, there are a few areas where modern science utilizes constitutional typing today, such as classifying people as type A and type B for determining certain health risks.
To understand the idea of constitutions and the use of herbs in balancing a person’s constitution, it is vitally important that one sees this difference in approach. Chinese health practice is not attuned to numbers and statistics like Western health practices. It is based on several thousand years’ observation. These observations have been carefully documented and described through the use of comparison and metaphor.
The Chinese utilize a system of five elements: earth, metal, water, wood and fire. They see similarities between these substances in nature and qualities and qualities in human beings. Hence, they might say that a person with fire-like behavior and fire-like health qualities has an excess of the fire element. This doesn’t really mean that the person has too much fire. It is simply a way of describing an observation. The statement “my love’s eyes like the ocean, deep and clear,” doesn’t mean the lady has eyes made out of seawater. It, too, is simply a comparison.
We must keep this point in mind when we study Chinese herbology or we will become terribly confused. We shouldn’t try to pin Chinese terms down to Western mechanical thinking. We can’t determine a girl‘s height and weight from a description like “her presence illuminates my days.” Similarly, we can’t pin down the observations of the Chinese herbalist to specific organs or behaviors. They are general patterns, which we gain a “feel” for with practice and experience. You will find Chinese herbology easier to understand if you approach it as a poet rather than as a scientist.
The Chinese constitutional types are built around the Chinese five-elements model. A discussion of each of these elements as they relate to Chinese herbology follows in the next few pages.
EARTH
The earth is the grounding element. It holds things down and keeps them in place. The earth is often referred to as Mother Earth because it nourishes us and provides us with food, clothing and shelter. Being stable, basic, deep-rooted, centered and fertile are all characteristics associated with the earth element within us.
The emotions of sympathy and compassion are also associated with the earth. They are the “mothering” emotions. The desires to nourish, care for and protect others are also “earthy.” The stomach is the home of nourishment, and the spleen is said to regulate the center. The spleen is thought of, by the Chinese, as the organ that imparts life to other organs. We know from physiology that the spleen is involved in building the blood, which nourishes all tissues, and the immune response, which protects all tissues.
The Chinese say that the color of the earth is yellow, its direction is towards the center and its season is late summer or Indian summer. It is the time of the harvest when there is a hint of winter in the air, but the weather is still fair. It is a time we gather in the fruits of the earth.
A person who is too earthy or motherly might have a tendency to worry a lot about others. In the West we are all ware of the effect of sympathy on the stomach. We commonly warn people not to worry too much or they’ll get an ulcer. A person with a deficiency of earth element would be nervous, flighty, unstable, and imbalanced in the emotion of compassion and have no feelings of nurturing others. Another sign of deficiency would be the inability to digest or process things, including information.
WOOD
Wood is flexible and bending. For example, a tree not only yields to the wind, but it is also strong and durable. It is not static, but changes with the seasons. Certain characteristics of a healthy human being can be compared with wood. For instance, as a healthy tree has a well-developed root system, so should a healthy person be well-grounded in his personality. A healthy person should be strong, but flexible. When faced with the need to compromise, a healthy person should be alle to bend but not break
The Chinese associate decision-making and the abilities of planning and judgment with the liver. The emotions of anger and resentment are said to affect the liver and gall bladder. Even in Western culture we associate anger with the liver and gall bladder when we say, “This really galls me.” The Chinese also associate the wood element with the color green, the season of spring, the sound of shouting, and a windy climate.
When a person experiences an inability to exhibit characteristics common to the wood element, this could be a sign of imbalance in the element. This can be manifested as either a deficiency or an excess of the wood element. For example, a person with excessive wood might feel continually irritable and always on edge. A person who is deficient in wood, on the other hand, might have the inability to express anger or feelings of frustration and inner conflict.
METAL
We don’t usually think of metal as life-giving, but metal is important for our defense. The metal element is used to make swords and shields for our defense. Metal invokes ideas of substance, structure and strength. The metal element allows us to be strong and to protect ourselves.
This element is associated with autumn because this is the time of year when all things begin to consolidate within themselves – to pull in their reserves and store up for the coming winter. Although life appears to fade on the surface, it is still present, deep within things.
We might think of the metal element as associated with the immune system. The skin and mucous membranes (which line the lungs and digestive tract) are like a shield to protect our body from harmful substances and allow only life-giving nutrients to pass. The inner and outer skins can be thought of as our first line of defense. The lungs are the major center of defense for the respiratory tract and are thought to receive the life force, or chi (pronounced chee). The bowel is the center for the digestive tract, and the intestines drain away the dregs.
The metal element is associated with mucus or phlegm and the emotions of sorrow and grief. Prolonged sorrow and grief might weaken a person’s ability to stand up for himself or herself.
A breakdown in the metal element would be associated with weakened immune response, inability to stand up and defend oneself, disintegration, or an inability to express sorrow and grief. Excessive metal element might lead to defensiveness, rebelliousness and an excessive need to assert one’s opinion.
FIRE
We associate fire with warmth and light. Fire is very active, dynamic, colorful, lively, energetic and contains the spark of vitality. In the West, we speak of a person as being “all fired up” or “on fire.” Fire also represents the ability to transform things, and we use fire or energy in manufacturing.
The circulatory system and the heating system of the body are associated with the fire element. The Chinese see the heart as the home of insight and understanding. Courage is also associated with the heart. Similarly, in the West we might describe someone as “faint-hearted” or “lion-hearted.”
The Chinese have the philosophy that the body heat (life energy) is created by three “burners”
(centers) in the main trunk of the body. They call this the triple warmer and associate it with the fire element as well.
The fire element is associated with the color red, the season of summer, the emotions of joy and happiness, and the climate of heat.
When fire is too abundant, there is dryness, heat and excessive energy in the top half of the body, since fire tends to rise. Too much fire could result in excessive imagination. Imagination, like fire, is useful when kept in control, but when allowed to run free, an imaginative person can “burn” others. The thirst for permanent joy is insatiable, and when one places too much emphasis upon the pursuit of joy and happiness, excessive stress is put on the body. Stress has an adverse effect on the heart as evidenced by the fact that stress is one of the risk factors in heart health. Too little fire might result in not being able to finish what is started or see things through from the seed (inception) to fruition (completion).
WATER
Water is fluid and changing and takes whatever shape given it. Its form is determined by its container. The nature of water is to be serene and submissive, but in excess it can be as violent and inundating as a flood. Water is essential to life and the Chinese consider the water element to be the most basic of all the elements.
The energy of water is also expressed in the flow of blood and lymph, and our own ability to be fluid and flexible. The emotion associated with water is fear, and excessive fear is thought to damage the kidneys. We have a similar idea of the relationship between the urinary organs and fear in the Western expression, "he was so scared he wet his pants." The adrenals, situated on top of the kidneys, are the glands that respond most violently to fear.
The color associated with water is blue, the climate is cold, and the season is winter. Winter is the time when everything is turned inward, just as fear is the emotion that causes us to turn inward. Fear can be seen as a holding in or an inability to "go with the flow."
A lack of the water element would lead to a lack of fluidity (brittleness) or the inability to change, submit and compromise. Water flows down, so water problems would show up in the lower half of the body. With too much of the element of water, one might become too fluid and unable to stand up for oneself and would become “weak-kneed.”
For more information on Chinese herbs and NSP herb formulas which feed the body systems according to the Chinese theories click here
In Distributor School students get a general overview of NSP’s single herbs and combinations, as well as general herb classifications. This section on Chinese herbology is designed to build upon what you learned in Distributor School by teaching you about NSP’s Chinese herb combinations.
East Meets West
For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese have been using their observations of nature, herbs and the human body to build, strengthen and preserve a tradition of herbal use. It has been estimated that over 1 billion people around the world use Chinese herbal knowledge as part of their health practices today. Many Chinese herbal formulas in use today have been used and refined since the earliest periods of Chinese history.
For centuries, the Chinese have espoused a holistic approach to health. Chinese herbalists teach that lifestyle factors such as physical condition, stress levels, behavior patterns, environment and emotions can contribute to poor body balance. They believe these factors should be taken into consideration when choosing an herbal formula.
Understanding Chinese Constitutional Herbology
In Chinese herbology, the term “constitution” refers to a person’s basic nature. It takes into account lifelong tendencies, preferences and tastes. In all traditional health care systems, understanding a person’s basic constitutional type is of primary importance in determining the type of diet, exercises and other health-building practices the person needs.
Though Western sciences once recognized four basic constitutional types, the use of constitutional typing was abandoned around the turn of the century. However, there are a few areas where modern science utilizes constitutional typing today, such as classifying people as type A and type B for determining certain health risks.
To understand the idea of constitutions and the use of herbs in balancing a person’s constitution, it is vitally important that one sees this difference in approach. Chinese health practice is not attuned to numbers and statistics like Western health practices. It is based on several thousand years’ observation. These observations have been carefully documented and described through the use of comparison and metaphor.
The Chinese utilize a system of five elements: earth, metal, water, wood and fire. They see similarities between these substances in nature and qualities and qualities in human beings. Hence, they might say that a person with fire-like behavior and fire-like health qualities has an excess of the fire element. This doesn’t really mean that the person has too much fire. It is simply a way of describing an observation. The statement “my love’s eyes like the ocean, deep and clear,” doesn’t mean the lady has eyes made out of seawater. It, too, is simply a comparison.
We must keep this point in mind when we study Chinese herbology or we will become terribly confused. We shouldn’t try to pin Chinese terms down to Western mechanical thinking. We can’t determine a girl‘s height and weight from a description like “her presence illuminates my days.” Similarly, we can’t pin down the observations of the Chinese herbalist to specific organs or behaviors. They are general patterns, which we gain a “feel” for with practice and experience. You will find Chinese herbology easier to understand if you approach it as a poet rather than as a scientist.
The Chinese constitutional types are built around the Chinese five-elements model. A discussion of each of these elements as they relate to Chinese herbology follows in the next few pages.
EARTH
The earth is the grounding element. It holds things down and keeps them in place. The earth is often referred to as Mother Earth because it nourishes us and provides us with food, clothing and shelter. Being stable, basic, deep-rooted, centered and fertile are all characteristics associated with the earth element within us.
The emotions of sympathy and compassion are also associated with the earth. They are the “mothering” emotions. The desires to nourish, care for and protect others are also “earthy.” The stomach is the home of nourishment, and the spleen is said to regulate the center. The spleen is thought of, by the Chinese, as the organ that imparts life to other organs. We know from physiology that the spleen is involved in building the blood, which nourishes all tissues, and the immune response, which protects all tissues.
The Chinese say that the color of the earth is yellow, its direction is towards the center and its season is late summer or Indian summer. It is the time of the harvest when there is a hint of winter in the air, but the weather is still fair. It is a time we gather in the fruits of the earth.
A person who is too earthy or motherly might have a tendency to worry a lot about others. In the West we are all ware of the effect of sympathy on the stomach. We commonly warn people not to worry too much or they’ll get an ulcer. A person with a deficiency of earth element would be nervous, flighty, unstable, and imbalanced in the emotion of compassion and have no feelings of nurturing others. Another sign of deficiency would be the inability to digest or process things, including information.
WOOD
Wood is flexible and bending. For example, a tree not only yields to the wind, but it is also strong and durable. It is not static, but changes with the seasons. Certain characteristics of a healthy human being can be compared with wood. For instance, as a healthy tree has a well-developed root system, so should a healthy person be well-grounded in his personality. A healthy person should be strong, but flexible. When faced with the need to compromise, a healthy person should be alle to bend but not break
The Chinese associate decision-making and the abilities of planning and judgment with the liver. The emotions of anger and resentment are said to affect the liver and gall bladder. Even in Western culture we associate anger with the liver and gall bladder when we say, “This really galls me.” The Chinese also associate the wood element with the color green, the season of spring, the sound of shouting, and a windy climate.
When a person experiences an inability to exhibit characteristics common to the wood element, this could be a sign of imbalance in the element. This can be manifested as either a deficiency or an excess of the wood element. For example, a person with excessive wood might feel continually irritable and always on edge. A person who is deficient in wood, on the other hand, might have the inability to express anger or feelings of frustration and inner conflict.
METAL
We don’t usually think of metal as life-giving, but metal is important for our defense. The metal element is used to make swords and shields for our defense. Metal invokes ideas of substance, structure and strength. The metal element allows us to be strong and to protect ourselves.
This element is associated with autumn because this is the time of year when all things begin to consolidate within themselves – to pull in their reserves and store up for the coming winter. Although life appears to fade on the surface, it is still present, deep within things.
We might think of the metal element as associated with the immune system. The skin and mucous membranes (which line the lungs and digestive tract) are like a shield to protect our body from harmful substances and allow only life-giving nutrients to pass. The inner and outer skins can be thought of as our first line of defense. The lungs are the major center of defense for the respiratory tract and are thought to receive the life force, or chi (pronounced chee). The bowel is the center for the digestive tract, and the intestines drain away the dregs.
The metal element is associated with mucus or phlegm and the emotions of sorrow and grief. Prolonged sorrow and grief might weaken a person’s ability to stand up for himself or herself.
A breakdown in the metal element would be associated with weakened immune response, inability to stand up and defend oneself, disintegration, or an inability to express sorrow and grief. Excessive metal element might lead to defensiveness, rebelliousness and an excessive need to assert one’s opinion.
FIRE
We associate fire with warmth and light. Fire is very active, dynamic, colorful, lively, energetic and contains the spark of vitality. In the West, we speak of a person as being “all fired up” or “on fire.” Fire also represents the ability to transform things, and we use fire or energy in manufacturing.
The circulatory system and the heating system of the body are associated with the fire element. The Chinese see the heart as the home of insight and understanding. Courage is also associated with the heart. Similarly, in the West we might describe someone as “faint-hearted” or “lion-hearted.”
The Chinese have the philosophy that the body heat (life energy) is created by three “burners”
(centers) in the main trunk of the body. They call this the triple warmer and associate it with the fire element as well.
The fire element is associated with the color red, the season of summer, the emotions of joy and happiness, and the climate of heat.
When fire is too abundant, there is dryness, heat and excessive energy in the top half of the body, since fire tends to rise. Too much fire could result in excessive imagination. Imagination, like fire, is useful when kept in control, but when allowed to run free, an imaginative person can “burn” others. The thirst for permanent joy is insatiable, and when one places too much emphasis upon the pursuit of joy and happiness, excessive stress is put on the body. Stress has an adverse effect on the heart as evidenced by the fact that stress is one of the risk factors in heart health. Too little fire might result in not being able to finish what is started or see things through from the seed (inception) to fruition (completion).
WATER
Water is fluid and changing and takes whatever shape given it. Its form is determined by its container. The nature of water is to be serene and submissive, but in excess it can be as violent and inundating as a flood. Water is essential to life and the Chinese consider the water element to be the most basic of all the elements.
The energy of water is also expressed in the flow of blood and lymph, and our own ability to be fluid and flexible. The emotion associated with water is fear, and excessive fear is thought to damage the kidneys. We have a similar idea of the relationship between the urinary organs and fear in the Western expression, "he was so scared he wet his pants." The adrenals, situated on top of the kidneys, are the glands that respond most violently to fear.
The color associated with water is blue, the climate is cold, and the season is winter. Winter is the time when everything is turned inward, just as fear is the emotion that causes us to turn inward. Fear can be seen as a holding in or an inability to "go with the flow."
A lack of the water element would lead to a lack of fluidity (brittleness) or the inability to change, submit and compromise. Water flows down, so water problems would show up in the lower half of the body. With too much of the element of water, one might become too fluid and unable to stand up for oneself and would become “weak-kneed.”
For more information on Chinese herbs and NSP herb formulas which feed the body systems according to the Chinese theories click here
posted by Karen Herrmann-DeSantis, Herb Specialist, Natural Health Educator | 9:34 AM
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