Natural Plant Medicine vs Big Pharma
By Cathy Margolin
on July 30, 2009
Archive for July 2009
All About The Schizandra Berry – a famous Chinese Medicinal
By Cathy Margolin
on July 30, 2009
Schizandra berry has been a famous adaptogenic herb used for centuries in Chinese Medicine. Adaptogenic herbs do exactly what the name implies. They help the body adapt. Schizandra helps sharpen the mind, helps the body deal with stressors, it increases alertness and is excellent in treating wheezing due to asthma. This berry is call We Wei Zi in Chinese which means five flavored seed because it contains all five flavors, sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy. Watch video to see all the incredible properties of this majic berry.
PAC Herbs Factory Tour – The processing of Chinese Herbs into medicine
By Cathy Margolin
on July 29, 2009
Traditional Chinese Medicine – around the world in 60 seconds
By Cathy Margolin
on July 21, 2009
I like the CNN news piece called around the world in 60 seconds. It gives you a quick blurb of whats happening around the world. Here’s my take on that theme. The spread of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM ) around the world in 60 seconds. Hope you like numbers, in regards to TCM here’s some interesting ones. In the past 10 years, TCM has spread to over 160 countries and regions around the world with total exports of TCM products exceeding $1 billion.
The treatment, education and scientific and technological communities of TCM have continuously expanded. 70 countries have signed 94 governmental agreements on TCM content. There are currently 47 TCM institutions of higher learning in China and over 600,000 qualified TCM medical practitioners over 370,000 of which are certified TCM physicians. In America alone, 30 million people have tried…
Another rising star in the Chinese herb medicine cabinet – This time for swine flu
By Cathy Margolin
on July 20, 2009
The Star Anise, Illicium verum or Ba Jiao Hui Xiang has been used as a spice and medicine since antiquity. Star Anise is used dried and the seeds have a licorice-like flavor. It’s commonly sold in supermarkets and often used in Chinese cuisine to flavor duck dishes. ( I used it once in my Thanksgiving turkey, it was a hit) It’s also contains the active chemical component in the drug Tamiflu, which is now being stockpiled as a defense against the Swine flu.
Star anise was originally in the spotlight because it’s core ingredient was discovered effective as a flu fighter for the Avian flu. Now it’s being touted for the swine flu. In an announcement in Feb 2006 from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate school of Pharmaceutical sciences, they “ found a way to make Tamiflu without using…
The difference of government responses to H1N1, the Swine flu
By Cathy Margolin
on July 18, 2009
H1N1 has been declared a pandemic by WHO (World Health Organization) and many of us seem to know someone who’s already had the swine flu.
I just heard from a friend that a cabin full of 12 year old campers were quarantined to their cabin as a result of the swine flu. Now that were getting more comfortable with the first pandemic in our life time, I want to explore the differences in responses from the two most powerful governments in the world, the Chinese and the American.
The U.S. official government response at time of publishing is this: a state of emergency has been declared and well known pharmaceuticals such as Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline and Solvay are all in the process of creating test batches of vaccines. Government websites are to report updates within 24 hours once…
Eating the Afterbirth – a Chinese Herbal Medicine Tradition
By Cathy Margolin
on July 12, 2009
I’m never quite sure what will inspire me to write a blog but seeing this video today did the trick. This blog is about the human placenta and why women are now calling “a placenta cooking lady” to prepare their placenta’s into pills to ingest after childbirth. The placenta is attached to the fetus via the umbilical cord. Once the baby is born the placenta and cord are considered medical waste (so we’re told) at the hospital. We’ve known for some time the umbilical cord is a source of stem cell research and many wealthy parents now have the cord frozen and stored, just in case it’s needed in the future. Now, it’s becoming more widely known that that placenta has tremendous value as well. Chinese Medicine has understood the value of the human placenta for generations. Ingesting dried…
Michael Jackson and Prescription Meds: Too many? Too often?
By Cathy Margolin
on July 12, 2009
Are American doctors overdosing their patients on prescription mood enhancers, (Prozac) and sleeping pills (Ambien), pain pills, (Vicodin) or is it just the super stars like Michael Jackson? Living in Los Angeles, one becomes accustom to the constant buzz of movie stars and the rich and famous going off to drug rehab centers, but with the sudden death of Michael Jackson everyone’s talking about the same subject like never before.
The drugs MJ was taking and the probable overdose. We’ve seen and heard about it before (Anna Nicole Smith) yet this time the amount of drugs prescribed and the amount needed for so many years seems un-imaginable. Everyday people die from prescription overdose but it’s not news because it’s not a celebrity.
Truth is, for the general public, doctors freely provide prescription medication to anyone who simply shows up…