Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals Embrace Chinese Herbal Therapies

The Chinese Materia Medica (a pharmacological reference book used by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine) describes thousands of medicinal substances—primarily plants, but also some minerals and animal products. Different parts of plants, such as the leaves, roots, stems, flowers, and seeds, are used. In TCM, herbs are often combined in formulas and given as teas, capsules, liquid extracts, granules, or powders.

That paved the way for the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals to each hire an acupuncturist who is also a certified herbal therapist.

Since January, the Chinese Herbal Therapy Clinic at the Cleveland Clinic has been operating as part of the Center for Integrative Medicine (recently named in honor of Dr. Tanya Edwards, the center’s medical director) in Lyndhurst.

And this month saw the start of herbal medicine consultations at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood, through the Connor Integrative Medicine Network.

“Patients over the years have really been seeking out Chinese herbs and a lot of physicians had been contacting us asking if we used Chinese herbs,” said Jamie Starkey, the lead acupuncturist at the Center for Integrative Medicine – housed within the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute – and one of five acupuncturists on staff.

Starkey, who manages the Clinic’s acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Therapy clinics, conducted a national search to recruit an acupuncturist who was also trained and licensed in Chinese herbal medicine.

Now, instead of wondering what type of herbal therapy patients are taking, and where they got it, the new law allows for complete oversight, Starkey said. “We can chart everything the patient is taking and look for herb-herb and drug-herb interaction,” she said.

In recent years, health care providers have become more informed about the benefits of acupuncture and Eastern medication, Starkey said. Acupuncture has proved to be beneficial for cancer patients dealing with the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, for example. For patients with other conditions who don’t respond to acupuncture, herbal therapy is now an option. All herbal therapy patients are closely monitored, with regular checks of their liver and kidney function.

The Clinic gets its Chinese herbs from Crane Herb Company in Massachusetts. Along with Crane, UH’s herbs come from the Institute for Traditional Medicine in Portland, Oregon and Mayway in Oakland, California.

The Clinic requires a physician referral for Chinese herbal therapy. No referral is needed for an herbal medicine consultation at UH.

“I wanted to make sure not only patients had access to an herbalist but the highest quality of herbs,” Starkey said. “I needed to make sure the products carrying were of utmost quality.”

“Now we’re able to offer a more well-rounded approach to care,” Starkey said.

In January, Jaclyn Yoder of Broadview Heights began taking a special herbal blend, mixed with water, to help treat her allergies.

Since the fall, Yoder, 33, had been a patient at the Clinic’s Wellness Institute, getting acupuncture on a regular basis.With the arrival of the certified herbal therapist, Yoder jumped at the chance to try herbal therapy, especially since she was still bothered by chronic itchiness caused when she stopped taking the antihistamine Zyrtec over the summer.”Nothing is instantaneous, but the results are better,” Yoder said. “I was a little nervous [about trying herbal therapy], but there haven’t been any side effects.”The ability to provide Chinese herbal therapy is “an incredible step for patient care,” says Dr. Melissa Young, an internist and integrative medicine specialist at the Clinic. “The beauty of it – it’s so complementary.”As an integrative medicine physician, to have more tools to benefit patients really optimizes patient care,” she said.

Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/health_impact/print.html?entry=/2014/03/chinese_herbal_therapy_available_at_cleveland_clinic_university_hospitals.html