How are the herbs dispensed?

The Chinese Materia Medica includes thousands of herbs. In my office, I have a complete herbal pharmacy. Traditionally, a Chinese herbal formula is a ‘decoction’ or tea of 10-14 herbs, which is cooked and then drank at the usual dosage of 3 cups/day. This is the most clinically effective way to take herbal medicine. The tea is absorbed and distributed to the body by the digestive system in a more gentle and efficient manner than when an herbal prescription is taken in a pill form. However, in order to make customized herbal formulas easier for my patients to take, I have also created a pharmacy of alcohol-extracted herbs, or tinctures. In this case, a patient will take only a small dosage a day, which is almost as clinically effective as drinking an herbal decoction or tea. And finally, I also carry standard Chinese ‘patent’ medicines which are already-made formulas in a pill form. Some of these formulas are directly from China and have been used for many generations, and some are more modern-day equivalents from Chinese-American companies.