Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has become a popular complementary treatment in Australia with nearly 3 million of Australian visiting TCM practitioner every year. It can be traced back to the gold rush period of 1850s, when Chinese migrants arrived to seek their fortune in the gold fields. It is an established part of Australian healthcare system under strict regulation and supervision of Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) since year 2011. Other than acupuncture, herbal medicine is a frequently use modalities in supporting various conditions.
Similar to pharmacy, the herbal medicine prescribed by licensed practitioner are registered and approved by TGA and they are only for practitioner dispensing only. All products that claim to have a therapeutic effect, including herbal supplements, must receive market authorisation from the TGA before they can be supplied to Australian consumers. Hence, the quality, safety and efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine provided by Australia registered Chinese medicine practitioner is guaranteed.
Different Chinese herbs have different properties that balance different parts of the body. The herbs can act on the body as powerful as pharmaceutical drug and should be treated with the same caution and respect. They can be packaged as powders, pastes, lotions or tablets, depending on the herb and its intended use. To be able to prescribe herbal medicine in Australia, the practitioner has to study 4 years degree course in the university, mastering the art of pharmacology of the herbs, such as safety dosage of the herbs, chemical composition, toxicology and herb drug interaction. Throughout the years, research has been conducted studying each Chinese herbal medicine found that Chinese herbal medicine has vast pharmacological effect on human body, such as analgesic, anti-ageing, anti-allergic, anti-arrhythmic, anti-asthmatic, anti-bacterial, anti-coagulant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive, anti-viral and so on. The famous Chinese herbalist and Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine 2015, Tu Youyou, discovered a Chinese herbs called Qing Hao which contains active compound of artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in 20th century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.
As you may know, Institute of Sports and Spines is also licensed to prescribed Chinese herbal medicine as a complement to other natural healing techniques such as chiropractic and remedial massage. If you would like to know more about how herbal medicine can help with your condition, please do not hesitate to contact us via email or telephone.
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