What are patients to think when they hear these stories? Are these substances really used in Chinese medicine? Might they be lingering in the formula you got from your local practitioner in the US or UK? This is undoubtedly important information for ethical medical consumers to consider.

 First – it is important to understand that in Chinese herbal medicine, animal ingredients are also considered to be “herbs.”

This includes shells, bones, organs, whole bodies (of, for instance, lizards) and various items the animals expel more or less willingly (dung, for example)  To many Westerners, this is unbelievably gross. However, these herbs are often very effective and certainly no more worthy of disgust than some of the chemically derived substances used in conventional medicine today. It may also rest your mind to know that animal ingredients are used much less frequently than plant ingredients.

The market for the most fanciful, and from some perspectives the most effective, of these ingredients has become a black market.

This is because many of them are derived from animals that are now or soon will be endangered. To be fair, it isn’t because the items are Chinese herbs that the animals have become endangered – at least not entirely. Most of these animals are endangered because of other human activity such as deforestation. That being said, an animal’s inclusion in the materia medica (catalog of medicinal substances) certainly doesn’t help. Medicinal substances of any kind tend to fetch a high price, and because of the big possible payday, people will go to great lengths to bring these substances to market.

So – what is a person interested in Chinese medicine to do if they want to avoid contributing to the accelerated decline of these animals?

To ease your mind – it is generally understood that scrupulous practitioners will not use these endangered herbs. I think it is fair to say that in the Western world, at least, these herbs are almost never used. In fact, their use is not typically taught in Western schools of Chinese medicine, except to discuss their alternatives. Alternatives? Yes – there are alternatives to nearly all of the animal ingredients used in Chinese medicine. The dosages of the alternative ingredients are typically much higher – the endangered ingredients tending to be more potent. So, even if your practitioner believes that one of these endangered animal ingredients might be helpful for your condition, they will instead think of the useful alternative and prescribe it instead.

Chinese medicine does use non-endangered animal ingredients

Comparatively little media attention is paid to the reality that non-endangered animal ingredients are also used in Chinese medicine. As I already mentioned, animal ingredients are FAR outweighed by plant ingredients in Chinese herbal prescriptions. However, several time a day at Watershed I am presented with a situation where one or more animal ingredients could help a patient. As a patient, you should be aware that this is the case, regardless of where you see a practitioner.

For many people, the use of an animal ingredient is no problem.

Other people would prefer not to use them, mostly based on spiritual and ethical beliefs. Still other people will use them in critical, life challenging circumstances. As a Chinese medicine practitioner, I consider my highest calling to be the relief of human suffering. That being said, given the fragile state of our ecosystem and the deep dependence each of us (animal and non-animal) have on one another, I am always thinking as holistically as possible. Above all, I want to make sure that my patients are making the most informed decisions possible.

If you are vegan or vegetarian…

Or if you have some other reason for wanting to avoid these animal ingredients, consider asking your doctor to leave them out of your formula. If he insists that those products are necessary in your formula, try to understand his reasoning. Like any decision, this is one you should make in a fully informed state. If you are vehemently opposed to the use of those ingredients, insist that they be left out of your formula. You have a right to control what goes into your body, and your doctor will respect that.

What do you think about the use of animal ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine?

Assuming they aren’t endangered, do you feel ok about using them?

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Insomnia and other sleep disorders are a growing problem, particularly in Western nations. Because insomnia makes me rather negative – I’ll point out seven things that people do wrong to keep themselves awake and indicate what Chinese medicine has to say about them.

1. Work too late Work, especially knowledge work, burns blood. Blood is necessary to house the Shen. This will be a repetitive theme in this post. You may not understand what Blood or Shen are – I will surely blog about them sometime in the near future. To keep it simple, let’s say that Blood is the heavier, more Yin sister to Qi. It’s a nourishing fluid in your body and the concept is closely associated with what Western medicine talks about when they talk about blood. Shen is, roughly, the Spirit. But it’s a nuanced concept – it includes Western ideas about Mind, consciousness, soul and purpose. The “big fish” with sleeping is that your Shen, which is awake when you are and interacting with the world, needs to nestle into something cool and protecting while you’re asleep. That’s where Blood comes in. If your blood is damaged by overwork or is otherwise compromised, you won’t sleep well – if at all.

Solution: Set a bed time and promise yourself to stop any work at least an hour before that time. Your work can wait.

2. Eat too late: In this situation, it is as if you’ve got construction going on next to your bedroom. Your Shen is trying to get some rest after a long day of work but the Stomach (adjacent to the Heart) is busy grinding away, doing its work, making a racket and generally making it impossible for anyone to settle down.

Solution: Eat earlier. If you must eat late, eat a simple nourishing meal and eat until you’re only about 3/4 full.

3. Think too much/worry: A leading cause of sleeping problems. This activity can be harmful whether you do it during the day, right before you go to sleep, or as you try to fall asleep. Aside from burning up your blood (see #1) you’re also agitating your Heart and impacting the movement of Heart Qi. This poor movement can result in stagnation Heat or a number of other scenarios that have one end result: difficulty sleeping.

Solution: This is going to require a general lifestyle change – moving away from thinking/worrying so much in general. But in an acute situation, knowing that you need to change your lifestyle isn’t going to help. Instead, sit up in bed – relax your muscles – and breathe deeply into your belly. Let your belly expand completely as you fill your lungs with air, but try not to strain too much. Then let it relax. Do this while focusing on a space maybe 3-5 inches into your abdomen, below your bellybutton an inch or two. Do a cycle of ten breaths then let yourself breathe normally for ten breaths and repeat. Think as little as possible while you do this. This almost always puts me to sleep if I let it.

4. Sleep in uncomfortable situations, especially in the heat: If you are uncomfortable, you can’t sleep. What about your sleeping situation isn’t working for you? Maybe you need a new pillow? A firmer or softer mattress? Windows open or closed? Some white noise? Darker curtains? This isn’t so much a Chinese medicine issue, but it is common sense. You could do some evaluation of your space using Feng Shui principles, but as I don’t know much about it – I’ll stick with the common sense approach.

Solution: Lie quietly in your sleeping space and try to figure out what is distracting you from what you need – calm, uninterrupted shut-eye. Mentally resolve to fix the situation as soon as possible and use one of the techniques listed here to get you to sleep for now. Sometimes just figuring out what’s bothering you is enough to render it impotent.

5. Eat poorly: If you’re not eating plenty of whole foods, providing your body with the nutrition it needs to have good Qi and Blood you will not be able to do much of anything, including sleep. In particular, the big blood building foods: dark, leafy greens, seaweeds, some meats, whole grains, will assist in creating a rich and thick blood-filled space that your Shen will be more than happy to hang out in. As unappetizing as that just sounded, it works.

Solution: Eat your spinach. Really! Any of the foods listed above will be helpful. Avoid the usual suspects – refined carbohydrates, overly sweet foods, etc…

6. Neglect cultivation/practice: Whatever it is that you do to soothe your soul, if you don’t do it on a regular basis your soul will fail to be soothed. Make sense? Maybe you do yoga, or nightly walks, or play with your dog, or go to church, or all of these. Maybe you have an extremely eclectic practice involving howling at the moon and eating yogurt with a fork. Chances are, if you are having sleeping problems you have been neglecting the things that make you feel the most complete. Even if your favored activities don’t seem to be “cultivation” or “spiritual practice” in the way the media defines those terms, if they bring you a sense of peace and joy, if they don’t violate any of the other rules on this page – they’re cultivation for you.

Solution: Whatever it is that you have found that gives you that feeling of well-being and connectedness, you need to do it regularly. It may seem unrelated to your sleeping patterns, but I guarantee you if you do your practice on a regular basis, so long as there is no other major deficiency in your life routine, you will sleep.

7. Drink caffeine/alcohol in large amounts: We know why these interrupt sleep from a Western perspective – but what about the Chinese medicine perspective? These substances are almost invariably hot in nature. What this means is that they introduce heat into the body, which can accumulate easily in organs susceptible to heat-borne insult. The Liver and Heart are both easily irritated by heat. The Heart, via its association with the Shen and the Liver, via its association with the Hun spirits, are both important in healthy sleep. We’ve already briefly discussed Shen. The Hun spirits are sometimes associated with the human subconscious, and they are responsible for our dreaming life. If your Liver or Heart (whether via Blood or through direct insult) are damaged by heat, the Hun and Shen will fail to rest – possibly causing insomnia.

Solution: Drink these things in moderation, or not at all if you tend towards heat conditions. You could also try to keep balance by being sure to take plenty of cooling food and drink throughout your day – though I haven’t had much luck with this strategy.

What has helped you to get to sleep?

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