Peter,
Thanks for your opinion, but I'll stick with Consumers Report, a well-trusted and highly rated U.S. magazine for information regarding Chinese herbs, and the significant danger that they can pose.

I don't think risking Renal Failure or death by using Chinese herbs is worth the risk - and there are multiple cases of those side effects reported.
http://kidneydiseases.about.com/od/kidneyfailure/a/herbfailure.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s77.htm
http://www.webmd.com/news/20010416/fda-chinese-herb-causes-kidney-failure-cancer

I just want to add that a teacher at the zendo around the corner from me is a Master of Peter Meaden's field of study, too, and while she trusts herself to treat herself and her family, she urges that lay-persons not do so. She maintains that many imported-from-China products contain different strengths and even different products than claimed on the label and that she takes care to buy the products imported and packaged by U.S. companies (of which there are many) that obtain outside certification of contents.

She maintains too that Eastern medicine does not translate particularly well to Western practices in many instances, and that out-of-context dabbling in Chinese herbs can be as dangerous as dabbling in RX medications prescribed for someone else.

In addition, herbal meds from anywhere are not properly regulated in this country; this may be good for users who do not want the FDA bottle-necking hundreds of herbs while they slowly plod through regulating, and for small companies that would be ruined if big pharma houses grabbed TMs and put their giant advertising machines into motion, but it also means that great care and self-education is crucial before using them.

If I were she (or Peter Meaden), I too would probably trust myself to identify, procure, and use Chinese herbs. I am not, and I don't.

JMHO.

And I too would be extremely reluctant to trust Chinese regulation after learning about all the Chinese ingredients (not just one or two!) that contributed to the many deaths of our animals and were not spotlighted until a lot of digging was done, and the subsequent coverups and lack of cooperation on the part of the Chinese manufacturers.

I could send you a list a mile long of cases of pharmaceuticals causing deaths. I could also send you multiple cases where complications from surgeries caused deaths. I'm confident that the number of deaths related to surgeries is huge compared to those related to chinese herbal medicine. In fact deaths related to pharmaceutical use is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Now, most of you dabble in pharmaceuticals regularly, such as tylenol which damages the liver. I am fully aware of ALL the research done into Chinese medicine. I prescribed mu tong to a patient just the other day, and I have a horse under my care taking it too. No kidney failure. The amount of aristilochic acid in the plant is miniscule. In order to take a lethal dose you would have to consume MASSIVE amounts of the material. Even then you would have to have a pre-existing kidney disorder that caused an already weakened organ.

Again, you do not understand the whole story. There are volumes of documented cases of Chinese herbal medicine being highly effective. Based on your reasoning if I were to compare the number of deaths related to chinese herbal medicine to the benefits gained, and then compared the deaths related to pharmaceuticals or surgeries related to the benefits, chinese medicien would be a clearly better choice.

Connie, you bring up a good point, I do not recommend that anyone decide to use Chinese herbal medicine without the guidance of a professional. It is powerful and effective medicine and requires proper education to use them properly. None the less, Chinese herbal medicine is worlds safer than pharmaceutical medicine.

I am sorry to see that your fears keep you from taking advantage of this great medicine. Billions of people use Chinese herbal medicine as their primary care all over the world every day without dying of kidney failure. To think that something is relied on so heavily and yet is worthless and dangerous is ignorant.

I apologize for the rant.

The bottom line is that no one needs to fear Chinese medicine. It is highly effective and safe for both humans and animals. I have experienced it first hand.

The ligamentous injury first spoken of will recover best when the integration of surgical intervention and Chinese medicine is used.

 Quote: Peter Meaden

I am sorry to see that your fears keep you from taking advantage of this great medicine.

I didn't say that.

I said that I won't prescribe for myself because I do not have the background and education, and that I don't (now) trust overseeing and regulation of products from China that do not go through outside-party testing in this country.

I don't think that dabbling in herbal meds with no education is any better than dabbling in RX meds.

 Quote: Peter Meaden

... Again, you do not understand the whole story. ... I do not recommend that anyone decide to use Chinese herbal medicine without the guidance of a professional. It is powerful and effective medicine and requires proper education to use them properly. ...

Exactly.

I don't have any experience with cruciate injury, but this product comes highly recommended from another giant breed owner who used it during the recovery time.
http://www.woundwear.com/product3.cfm
Shannon

I got O.T. and forgot to post this page of many pertinent links:

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/cruciates.html

 Quote: peter meaden

Connie, you bring up a good point, I do not recommend that anyone decide to use Chinese herbal medicine without the guidance of a professional. It is powerful and effective medicine and requires proper education to use them properly. None the less, Chinese herbal medicine is worlds safer than pharmaceutical medicine.

Umm, the major problem is that there is no "professional" in regards to herbal medicine.
How much training do ya'll get to have that fancy "title" that you're using? Well, however long it took, it was *FAR* short of the ten's of thousands of hour that entail M.D. training.

Count up those hours - three or four years of a hard science like chemistry or biology in college, then four years of intense Medical School training, followed on average with a three to five year Residency.
Pardon me if I don't take casual Chinese herb training seriously, it just is like comparing Little League to the Pro's.

You guys have no idea of the complicated nature of the human anatomy and physiology that a Medical Doctor has to master to be able to prescribe medications ( that under go test after test and trial after trial to prove their efficacy before they're approved for use ).
Amateurs prescribing pseudo medications is dangerous, it's like the quack medicine of the Snake Oil peddlers of the old west.

I really wasn't speaking to you Connie. It seems that you understand well. Excuse me if you felt it was pointed to you.

I was speaking to Mr.Rambeau.

I am really passionate about the medicine I practice and it is insulting when others not only pretend to know more than I, but also claim that what I do is a bunch a superstition etc...