One of my roommates practices traditional Chinese herbal medicine, and noticed my sometimes severe allergies. He claims that allergies, along with acne, can sometimes be cured by herbal remedies. I asked for evidence and and he suggested I “expand my mind” by trying it out myself. I’d rather expand my mind with science. Is there any on this subject? Even evidence for symptomatic relief of allergies would be interesting - I realize there is no cure.
Well, My Huang (spelling varies) is a type of ephedra, which actually does have a therapeutic effect for allergies and asthma, albeit with side effects like greatly elevated blood pressure and increased risk of stroke and heart attack in those with cardiovascular disease. It where we get “pseudoephedrine” from, originally, and is the active component of things like Sudafed. So yeah, some Chinese medicine is real medicine, and can treat various conditions. And like anything strong enough to help you it can also hurt you if you overdo it or have conflicting medication. Then there is the problem of contaminated products, the dosage inconsistency in organic-derived pharmaceuticals, and a few other issues. Bottom line: Yes, it can help but it’s not a magical cure with no side effects.
“Chinese medicine”, or kanpo here is rather common and accepted. This is not stuff from shady stores with drawers full of strange herbs; large pharmaceutical companies put out chinese medication alongside their regular western stuff.
I have pretty bad hay fever and all the anti-histamines available here induce quite incapacitating drowsiness. That led me to try the standard kanpo cure for respiratory allergies: xiao qing long tang.
I wasn’t just going to drink the stuff before doing some research. Looking at what’s on Pubmed (search for “xiao-qing-long-tang”) shows that there seems to be a real effect. My personal trial left me less than impressed, though.
Here as elsewhere, Chinese medicine is often seen as “softer” or “kinder” than western medication. However, both from the warnings that came with the medication, and my cursory readings of the literature, xiao-qing-long-tang is certainly not totally without risk.
I went to see a naturopath about my allergies (hay fever, dust, pollen - for the first half of my life I was sneezing/stuffed up every day during allergy season). She told me to give up dairy. I (mostly) did. Since the my allergy symptoms have gone away completely, and only return if I cave and have a slice of pizza or some blue cheese dressing.
I guess this isn’t technically a herbal remedy, but it is a naturopathic one. I couldn’t think of the appropriate search terms to find scientific articles, but the connection between mucus-forming foods like dairy products and respiratory annoyances such as hay fever appears to be accepted (e.g. here , here, and here.)