Middle Medicine

While I don’t like to go on about reductionism and its assumed evils and so forth, there are grains of truth in these criticisms.
There is a difference between a complex, open (interconnected) system and a small, (relatively) closed system – the former is like the weather, and the latter is like a motor vehicle. I believe we are all familiar with the viscissitudes of weather forecasting, and yet, on the other hand, how generally reliable and unperplexing our vehicles are.
In essence, the first system cannot be reduced without losing its essential complexity and interrelatedness, while the second one can (for a deeper discussion on the relative aspects of this idea, click here). This means that in order to understand a complex, open system, it must be met in its arena of effect. Reducing the arena changes the game and damages the data irretrievably.
In a previous post (Herb Comparable to Prednisone), I wrote about how the oversimplification of Chinese Medical principles tended to damage the effectiveness of the intervention, sometimes completely, and how it was important to understand that in Chinese Medicine we do things for a reason.
More careful research can illuminate some of these reasons, and I would like to provide you with a brief glimpse into one of these investigations:

Chinese Medicine almost always uses herbal combinations rather than single herbs, not only because a single herb has a weak effect, but because herbs can act in synergistic or antagonistic ways to each other (amongst other effects). Thus a properly constructed formula with the individual patient in mind provides a superior effect than the administration of a single herb, or of a non-individualised formula.
The following graph from the Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (2003;26(7):911-919) dramatically illustrates this phenomenon:

The blood concentration of wagonoside from HuangQinTang was twice as high as that of HuangQin alone.

HuangQin Tang is a Chinese Herbal Combination, Huang Qin is merely the lead herb.
HuangQin Tang contains: huáng qín, huáng lián, gé gēn, and zhì gān cǎo.
This type of investigation makes two points:
1. There is a reason that herbal combinations are the standard of care in CM.
2. Deconstructing an open, complex system is fraught with dangers if the aim is to illuminate the true mechanisms or energetic dynamics of said system.
In the western world, and even the eastern world, too much effort has been spent on “identifying” the one herb in a formula which provides the effect, and then further “isolating” “active ingredients” in order to provide the end-user with a “real” medicinal in a “more potent” form for, ostensibly, superior clinical effect.
It’s as if a scientist wanted to provide us with a better vehicle, and decided the active ingredient was the piston, made us a big giant piston to use and acted all proud.
It is my hope that our understanding of the ancient and wise medical systems of this world becomes much more mature in the next short little while.
Incidentally, HuangQin Tang is primarily used for something called “Damp-Heat in the Lower Burner”, one manifestation of which is dysentery. Years ago, a chemical called “berberine” was isolated from another herb in this formula, huáng lián, and used in cases of dysentery. And yes, you guessed it, it doesn’t work as well as HuangQin Tang for the indicated condition.
Oh well.