I use KPC and some Classical Pearls powders primarily, bulk/raw herbs are from Spring Wind and concentrate capsules are from reputable and tested sources. At some point I may market my own blends, based on what I’ve seen that works in my clinic.
I generally shy away from formulas combined from different cultures herbs (w/ exceptions) unless I can understand it from clinical TCM, or past Chinese herbal – perhaps Daoist – point of view. I do use Western herbs some – though according to my paradigm as well as sometimes modern scientific research if well-founded – the pharmacopeia is really very undeveloped compared to the Chinese one – undoubtedly due to the influence of the decimation of the original cultures by the barbaric newcomers. I don’t easily accept new-age ideas or slick pseudoscientific presentations about “nanotechnology’ or ‘glyconutrition’ – and so I really shy away from multi-level products- friends don’t proselytize each other. More fundamentally, after 30 years of this I’ve found there’s still a lot more to learn about my own path – so much to learn from thousands of years of experience.
I have too often see clients with bags full of supplements they don’t understand, use, or find indigestible. Sometimes it’s sad as they are financially depleted and confused about what to take or throw out. They feel invested in them, even while they may be less than helpful.
A new dialogue needs to evolve about Traditional herbal medicine use. Clarifying appropriate dosage, preparation and concentration of ingredients. Looking at safely (considering evidence-based results, understanding chemical constituents which are not of scale to create drug-like side effects). And reduce the fantasy of substituting ‘natural’ equivalents of herbs for pharmaceutical grade drugs. If concentrated to the point of mimicking direct effects- they are akin to untested drugs. But usually the issue isn’t this over-potency. More its a hodgepodge approach that is selling to the consumers desire to have the ‘best of all’ the herbs. And the effectiveness of that is questionable.
More traditional and evolved systems (like Chinese and Ayurvedic) already are a solid platform for understanding ‘types’ of people that can be utilized to educate people on how appropriate supplements of all kinds can be understood and used. It doesn’t always have to be the prevailing culture’s paradigm that determines how to analyze a formula.
Antibiotics can be seen from a TCM point of view in a sense. They fulfill the functions of some of the herbs in a Traditional formula. for example in a “warm-disease school” formula, with perhaps 14 herbs in it, the 3 most “bitter and toxin clearing” herbs are very antibiotic in nature. Taking antibiotics is like getting that part of the formula, greatly enhanced the effect, and leaving the rest left out . ANd this absolutely can be very useful and transformative in healing in certain situations. But lets not view the rest of the herb formula as a ‘weak’ if it doesn’t contain every ‘antibiotic’ type of herb from Chinese, Mayan, Indian, and Eclectic traditions rolled into one supplement.
The Traditional formula has strengths in its complexity that can work better than antibiotics in many situations where antibiotic use is really questionable (from a modern scientific view as well). That is because the other herbs strengthen digestion, move fluids and clear waste caused by the killing action of the antibiotic part. Sometimes just antibiotics alone can leave stagnant fluids and congestion, and then the disease process can start up again. I see this all the time with using antibiotics for upper respiratory infection, which is why I think a good herbal formula is superior – and can be quicker in action to restoring the individual to full health.