Pros and Cons of Pharmaceutical Drugs & Chinese Medicine: A Comparative Analysis

Increasingly, patients taking prescription medications are now seeking more natural approaches to their various disorders. Complementary and alternative medicine, and herbal medicine in particular, are more and more being utilized as adjunctive or alternative remedies. It is therefore imperative that medical practitioners understand the safety measures, advantages, and possible interactions that herbal medicine and western pharmaceuticals may have.

In this class, Dr. John Chen helps practitioners understand how to co-manage patients who are concurrently using herbs and pharmaceuticals, or who are using herbs as an alternative to commonly prescribed drugs. Dr. Chen also details how to recognize potential problems that can prevent most interactions, as well as the proper protocols for the time frames and herbal dosages leading to the safe reduction of pharmaceutical usage.

Upon completion of this course, practitioners will:

• Know indications, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and side effects of drugs and herbs.
• Recognize and differentiate advantages and disadvantages of herb and drug therapy.
• Distinguish situations when drugs are superior to herbs, and situations when herbs are superior to drugs.
• Recognize herbs with functions similar to pharmaceutical drugs according to their functions and clinical research.
• Know situations when herbs can be used as an alternative to drugs for similar or better therapeutic effects, or with fewer side effects.
• Understand and recognize potential problems that can prevent most interactions.

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