Editor's Note: TIME Magazine reports on the use of herbal medicine at one of the country's top hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic.
TIME Magazine
At one Ohio hospital, patients get herbs as well as drugs
Lora Basch, 59, sometimes suffers from poor sleep and anxiety. She's uncomfortable with the side effects of drugs, so she's tried acupuncture and magnesium supplements, but with only minimal success. After years of low energy, she went a different route altogether: gui pi tang, a mix of licorice root, ginseng and ginger meant to rejuvenate the body. Three months later, the Cleveland native is finally falling asleep at night, and she has more energy during the day. "The remedy is a huge relief," she says. "I have a more stable life."
Though herbal therapy has been practiced in China for centuries, it is still an afterthought in the U.S., in part because pharmaceutical remedies are usually easier to obtain. Now that's beginning to change: in January, the Cleveland Clinic opened a Chinese herbal-therapy ward. In the past three months, therapists at the clinic have seen patients suffering from chronic pain, fatigue, poor digestion, infertility and, in the case of Basch, sleep disorders. "Western medicine may not have all the answers," says Daniel Neides, the clinic's medical director. ...
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FOR ADDITIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE:
Also see Wall Street Journal article: A Top Hospital Opens Up to Chinese Herbs as Medicines.
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