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Chinese Medicinal Herbs

Submitted by Stella Morgan on November 6, 2009

Autoimmune diseases are chronic and are almost impossible to cure. Till date, many of them remain incurable, the only hope for the patients being the gradual remission of symptoms using various therapies and techniques. However, even though the symptoms may be alleviated for a time, they have a tendency to return. In almost all cases of autoimmune diseases, recurrences have been recorded. In these diseases, the immune systems of the body are destroyed or impaired and therefore the natural immunity of the body is completely finished.

This damage to the immune system could be either temporary or permanent. These diseases are mostly genetic in nature. There are of course viral infections that can spread through the blood or other bodily fluids.

For some, the trigger may be a viral infection and then it becomes genetic and passes through generations. There are many other symptomatic triggers that might lead to the onset of the disease only at a particular age, before which the person is healthy and normal. Chinese medicine has had a long history.

Even today, in many parts of the world, Chinese medicines and therapies like acupuncture and acupressure are used extensively as alternative therapies. They have been studied astutely and it has been found that some of the medicines and therapies complement western treatments. These are therefore often advised to be used in conjunction with the other therapies and medicines. According to Chinese medicine, the ‘chi’ or the life energy that flows through our body merges with the pathogen attacking the body.

Sometimes, in such a situation, our own immune system begins to participate in this attack, inadvertently attacking the body. This is why when a disease seems to be cured, it sometimes comes back again. The disease basically fatigues our immune system and when our immune system retires to recover, it attacks again. Sometimes, the disease weakens the system so much that it is unable to recover fully. The ancient Chinese herb called Chang Shan has recently been identified as the first medicine ever to target specific overactive cells in rheumatoid arthritis. This herb has also shown drastic improvements in patients suffering from psoriasis many and other autoimmune diseases. However, the active compound of the herb is too toxic to be used in medicines; therefore, it has to be first mixed with other chemicals. It also reduces skin collagen and can be used to treat scleroderma. This drug is able to reduce the cells that regulate the autoimmune responses. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system goes haywire as a response to these cells. The reduction of these cells automatically helps reduce any symptoms of the autoimmune diseases.