Editor's Note: The Cleveland Clinic recently made headlines when it announced that it had opened a Chinese Herbal Therapy Clinic, one of the first hospital-based herbal clinics in the U.S. The clinic relies on two AHPA members, Crane Herb Company and KPC Products, to supply the herbs it provides to patients. Premade herbal formulas are bought from KPC Products and custom-blends are made by Crane Herb.
Crane Herb Company
Cleveland Clinic Partners with Crane Herb
Cleveland Clinic's decision to prescribe Chinese herbs has recently been shown in:
What conditions does Cleveland Clinic feel are best treated with Chinese herbal therapy?
The information below is from the Cleveland Clinic website:
Like acupuncture, Chinese herbs can address "unhealthy body patterns" that manifest in a variety of symptoms and complaints. Chinese herbal therapy aims to help you regain homeostasis, or balance, in your body and to strengthen your body's resistance to disease. Chinese herbs may be used to:
- Decrease cold/flu symptoms
- Increase your energy
- Improve your breathing
- Improve digestion
- Improve your sleep
- Decrease pain
- Improve menopausal symptoms
- Help regulate menstrual cycles if infertility is an issue
- Reduce side-effects from chemotherapy and radiation
- They can help keep prediabetes from becoming diabetes.
Cleveland Clinic may recommend Chinese herbal therapy when:
- You have multiple symptoms or they are hard to pinpoint
- You've exhausted traditional medical options and nothing seems to help
- You need therapy to counteract side effects of prescribed medication
- You are interested in preventive treatment.
Empowering Practitioners to Educate their Patients
Crane Herb fulfills it's mission on behalf of the TCM Community by:
- Training students to become successful Practitioners
- Engaging industry leaders and suppliers on ethical, environmental and regulatory compliance
- Encouraging hospitals to incorporate Chinese herbal medicine within integrative clinics
Crane Herb is led by Bill Egloff who is highly involved in AHPA (American Herbal Product Association). He has been Chair of AHPA's Chinese Herb Product Committee since 2001.
Industry-critical issues:
- FDA-GMP inspections and problems
- FDA-MedWatch-AER (Adverse Event Reporting)
- California's Prop 65 requirements and lawsuits
- Pesticides testing in Chinese herbs
- Monograph revisions for Health Canada
- Herb Pharmacy requirements
Bill attends many conferences throughout the year including EDQM (European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines) and ICSB (International Conference on the Science of Botanicals). The symposiums help Bill to better understand regulatory issues affecting trade of TCM herbs and quality control of TCM herbs in East Asia and Europe, as well as future regulations of botanical medicine in USA.
Regulation of Herbal Medicine
One common misconception in the media has been that the "FDA does not regulate herbs." Teach the media that this myth is not true!
ABC: Myth of Unregulated Herb Industry (download pdf)
AHPA: Letter to Time Magazine (download pdf)
Resources
Valuable information from Cleveland Clinic's "Health Hub" and Center for Integrative Medicine:
Why do Practitioners choose Crane Herb?
Crane Herb is an independent distributor focused solely on the TCM Practitioner. Learn how to critically understand the differences between herb products. Crane Herb's extensive website is a Practitioner's business and research partner. Registered Practitioners can:
- Choose from over 5,000 products
- Product ingredient information
- Product comparisons side-by-side
- Browse our Symptoms Database
- Order cGMP Custom Compounding with cGMP labeling and allergy warnings
- Create a library to store favorite formulas
- Access invoice data 24/7
[READ MORE ...]