Herbs and Nutrition

For our purposes, the history of Chinese Herbology developed into a therapeutic tool during the First Century, although the Chinese people used medicinal substances for as long as time has been recorded. During the Third Century, the legendary herbologist Shen Nong produced the first Materia Medica, a book differentiating medicinal substances. This was the first sophisticated approach to herbal therapy. Included were taste (sweet, pungent, salty, sour, or bitter), thermal properties (hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold), the actions, application and potential side effects of herbs. Medicinal herbs were not considered different from regular food, just more potent. Thus, food is thought to be an agent of healing or a causative factor of disease. In 652, Sun Simao wrote One Thousand Ounces of Gold. This was the first book written on the topic of diet in terms of nutrition. Food, like herbs were broken down into taste, thermal properties, actions, applications, and potential side effects.

Herbal formulas should be unique, custom made, tailored towards the individual. Nicholas produces handmade medicine, maintaining an herbal pharmacy of over 75 herbs. Purchased in bulk, they are of the highest quality. On delivery day, he inspects and tastes the herbs to be certain of their superiority. These bulk herbs are ground in an industrial herb grinder on site. Once the herbs are ground into a powder they are stored in airtight jars. Herbal formulas were traditionally taken as a tea. This tradition is labor intensive, giving the patient raw herbs and having them cook them for up to several hours. By grinding the herbs, Nicholas is able to put them into ordinary non-bleached tea bags that need to be steeped in hot water for 15-20 minutes, not cooked for several hours. The result is a tea that is convenient, therapeutic, and also tastes good. For those who would have trouble drinking tea, Nicholas handcrafts pills. The pill casings are of vegetable source, and are vegan friendly.

Besides herbs to be taken internally, Nicholas also prepares liniments for external use. Formulas are formed, the herbs assembled, they are cooked, than stored in an alcohol and water solution for years. The alcohol helps pull the beneficial nutrients out of the herbs. The longer they are stored, the stronger they become.

Nutrition is essential for health. Diseases may be cured by diet alone. There are literally hundreds of diets out there, possibly thousands. Unfortunately, most are worthless. In fact, if there was one diet that would guarantee the health of everyone who participated, everyone would be a participant. There is no one diet to generalize to everybody. Everybody is different, and every body is different. Nicholas has long been an advocate of healthy eating, practicing what he preaches. Having a Bachelors in Oriental Nutrition gives him the ability to tailor food recommendations that helps his patients reach their health goals. Like medicine, foods can be a double edged sword, they can heal you or they may cause harm.