Chinese Herbal Medicine Made Easy: Effective and Natural Remedies for Common Illnesses
The title well describes this compendium of more than 250 common  illnesses and the 750 Chinese patent herbal remedies that the  layperson can use to treat them. After a minimal introduction to  the principles of Chinese medicine, Joiner, a certified  acupuncturist and herbalist who is affiliated with a Chinese  herbal mail-order company, organizes the text alphabetically by  ailment. A description of each medical condition is followed by  recommended dosages of Chinese herbal patent remedies, which may  or may not include a list of herbal ingredients. Cautions for  pregnant women are included, along with recommendations that  readers consult their physicians prior to remedy use, but  cautions on individual herbs are not provided. The end matter  consists of several indexes to illnesses and remedies, but  individual herbs are not indexed. While the list of ailments and  recommended Chinese herbal patent remedies is extensive, the  manual does not address the individual herbs that combine to  make up a patent formula. Thus, this volume would work best when  paired with another containing a Chinese pharmacopoeia, such as  David Molony's The American Association of Oriental Medicine's  Complete Guide to Chinese Herbal Medicine (Berkley, 1998),  Michael Tierra's The Way of Chinese Herbs (Pocket, 1998), or Dan  Bensky's Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (Eastland Pr.,  1993). Recommended for consumer health collections in public or  academic libraries, though those interested in the individual  herbs and in a more extensive explanation of Chinese medicine  will want to combine it with another title. Mary Stout, Prima  Community Coll., Tucson, AZCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.