My first encounter with Chinese herbal medicine

[LiberalEsto]

I don't know if anyone else on ASAH is familiar with Chinese herbal medicine. I recently had a first-time encounter with Chinese herbal medicine, and am quite impressed with it.

My left knee was in constant pain during late summer and early fall. I went to an orthopedic surgeon, who diagnosed osteoarthritis, gave me a cortisone shot and a knee brace, and sent me to physical therapy. The knee got worse. I couldn't stand having clothing touch the area where it hurt most, couldn't use the stairs, could barely walk. Wearing the brace was agony. I stopped PT because it wasn't helping at all. Because I have gastric reflux, I can't take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, which are part of the ordinary treatment for this. The orthopedist ordered an MRI which showed osteoarthritis, but said there was nothing more he could do for me.

In desperation, I turned to an acupuncturist who successfully treated me for lower back pain some years ago. She read my pulses, looked at my tongue and asked a few questions. Then she told me I had stagnant blood or something in the kidneys and liver. I could only afford two sessions of acupuncture, but they helped somewhat. She said she was opening energy channels in the liver and kidneys. Then she offered me a bottle of something called Jian Bu Wan, strong stride pill, and told me how to take it. Five pills after breakfast, five more after dinner, a total of 10 a day for 20 days.

It was amazing how well they worked. I looked up all the ingredients online, just to be on the safe side. They included ginger root, tangerine peel, Chinese angelica root and white peony root, along with several Asian plants I didn't recognize. During those 20 days my knee became pain-free and I could walk normally. I could hardly believe it.

After I finished the pills, I wanted to see how the knee was doing without them. It's been about two weeks and there is only a little pain occasionally, usually when I'm in bed, or if a cold wind hits the knee. I just bought another 200-dose bottle of the pills online (the acupuncturist had run out of them), hoping that a second round will take care of the remaining pain and stiffness. The ones the herb company sent me were called Jian Bu Pian but contain the exact same ingredients. Their Jian Bu Wan formula includes tortoise shell, and I couldn't bear to use something that harmed tortoises.