University trained traditional Chinese herbal medicine practitioners of today appreciate both the methodology and science of modern Western medicine and that of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Even though Chinese Medicine developed over thousands of years and through times when much of the world, including China, lacked the scientific methods we use today, it is remarkably effective due to the clear sighted and rational minded clinicians  who used and developed the use of herbs over the millennia.

    The reason that Chinese medicine is so effective that the herbs contain pharmacologically active constituents that, when used by properly trained and qualified practitioners, can treat a surprising number of disorders effectively. Pharmacological studies have shown that the historical indications and contraindications and detailed descriptions of the effects of the herbs are often amazingly accurate. Recent research has been aimed at finding out just how  TCM works so well, but unlike single compound drugs, a chinese herbal formula often consists of 6 to 14 individual herbs; each herb containing many naturally occurring compounds.

    Because Chinese herbs have been used methodically for thousands of years, their effects have been recorded and catalogued in much detail, so it is necessary for practitioners to thoroughly study and understand the traditional uses of the herbs so that side effects are minimal or most usually, do not occur at all. For a herb to create side effects on more than a very short term basis, it must be unsuitable for the patient, and the herbal formula should be modified to eliminate side effects.