Today, people from many cultures of the world still use herbal medicine as their primary form of health care. In China for instance, herbal medicine has a 5000 year old history of use. Many millions of Chinese people still use herbal medicine in their daily lives, and government health insurance pays for most of the cost. Over 300 different herbs can be found in the official Chinese herbal pharmacopeia and are commonly recommended in many different prescriptions by herbalists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine working in clinics and hospitals throughout the country.

In China, patients have many more options available to help alleviate their symptoms than we generally have in the west, and at a fraction of the cost. Traditional doctors of internal medicine in the many hospitals in China that include traditional medical modalities incorporate mix and match traditional diagnostic methods like tongue and pulse diagnosis, side-by-side with modern tests such as endoscopic examinations and MRIs to check for inflammation, polyps, and other abnormalities.

Practitioners might use modern tests to find out more about the nature of a person’s present state of internal health, and then recommend an herb formula, or even therapeutic massage, to help restore the patient’s health and reduce or eliminate symptoms. These treatments often work by activating the body’s innate defense mechanisms, seeking to restore internal balance, rather than suppress the symptoms at all costs.

In the next decade, herbal medicine might well take an important place among the modalities offered in medical clinics and hospitals. This is already happening in some places, as more and more human studies involving thousands of patients compare herbal treatments to drug treatments. Overall, the herbal treatments often show comparable benefits, with about half the side effects and a quarter of the cost. An example is the herb Folium Artemisiae Argyi (Aiye), which was just as effective as the antidepressant Zoloft for treating moderate depression, and in one trial, severe depression when the herbal treatment was given at 3 times the normal dose.