Prevent Disease.com - Chinese Turn to Herbs to Prevent SARS



		Chinese Turn to Herbs to Prevent SARS Excerpt By William Foreman, AP BEIJING - The chunks of brown bark, yellowish slivers of roots and dried light-green flower buds look more like garden mulch than medicine. But millions of Chinese believe this traditional herbal remedy — "Ba Wei," or "Eight Ingredients" — offers some of the best protection against the SARS virus, which has no cure and has infected thousands and killed at least 148 in China. Before 8 a.m., people form long lines outside one of Beijing's most famous drugstores, Tong Ren Tang, to buy doses of the herbs and roots wrapped up in white paper packets. They believe the medicine — which includes dried honeysuckle and wild chrysanthemum — helps boost their resistance and ward off SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. "I'm buying some for my son because he's a businessman who's always out visiting customers. I'm worried about him," said Long Wenjun, a retired store clerk standing outside the store's Chinese facade with red columns, gold dragons and lanterns with red tassels. On Tuesday, China raised its death toll by nine to 148 and reported 3,303 cases of infection, with 1,347 of them in Beijing. At least 355 people have been killed worldwide. The outbreak has strained China's medical resources — both modern and traditional. Health officials say hospitals in Beijing are running low on drugs and surgical masks, while traditional shops are scrambling to meet surging demand for their cures. There is still no proven cure for SARS, though scientists in the West have narrowed their search to several drugs that appear to have the best chance. For now, SARS treatment amounts to keeping patients isolated and dealing with their symptoms while the infection runs its course. Some Western-trained physicians believe there is something to learn from Chinese medicine, although many are dismissive. They argue that many cures have not passed the rigorous, scientific experiments that Western drugs are subjected to before they are deemed safe and effective. Chinese medicine is based on a belief that the world has two general forces: "yin" (cold) and "yang" (hot). When they are out of balance, people get sick, the theory goes. "SARS is caused by some kind of heat toxin, which causes fever, sore throat, dry cough. Some Chinese herbs can remove the heat toxin from the body," contends Benjamin Chen, an associate professor in the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong University. He recommends forsythia and Dyers Woad leaf for SARS. Those herbs are among the commonly used ones for dealing with infections in the traditional approach, U.S. experts in Chinese medicine said. Inside the Tong Ren Tang store in central Beijing is a poster for bear bile, which is used to treat diseases of the eye and liver. Glass cases are full of dried sea horses and caterpillar fungus that are supposed to be good for the lungs, plus dried red-spotted lizards and an array of different ginseng roots. Zhang Binghou, chief physician at the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, dismisses critics as people who do not appreciate the centuries of tradition, practice and observation. "Chinese traditional medicine has 6,000 years of history. Western medicine doesn't have that much history," Zhang said. By contrast, he said, Chinese medicine focuses on the whole body and a complete recovery. Chen faults Western-trained doctors for focusing too much on treating symptoms. "We not only use herbs to kill germs. We also use herbs to improve the function of the organs," he said. The six-story Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital shows how seriously the Chinese take traditional medicine. Inside and out, much of it looks like a standard hospital, with white walls, nurses in pink uniforms and a waiting room full of bright orange, fiberglass chairs. But an obvious sign of the difference is the pervasive smell of medicinal herbs — a musty scent of composted autumn leaves with a tinge of moth balls. In the elaborate prescription room, staff in white hats blend medicine on long tables set atop wooden cabinets with small drawers, labeled in Chinese with the names of thousands of obscure roots and shoots. Staff members glance at a prescription, scoop up herbs, weigh them and dump them onto a sheet of paper before searching for the next herb. Most are brewed into bitter teas. At the Benefit the People Pharmacy in central Beijing, a pharmacist who would give only gave her surname, Guo, said one benefit of Chinese medicine is that it is easier on the body. "The best thing about Chinese medicine is that it has few side effects, unlike Western medicine, which is based on unnatural chemical compounds," she said. ___ On the Net: School of Chinese Medicine at University of Hong Kong: www.hku.hk/chinmed/Eng/clinic/SARS/pnum_prescription_eng.htm Reference Source 102 For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".