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Dr. Liang’s Continue Education Seminar in PHOENIX

Interviews with Practitioners Who Use Honso Products: What They Think

An Interview with Shan Liang, AP, Dipl.Ac, Dipl.CH, MD (China)

This is one of a series of interviews with alternative medicine practitioners in the US who frequently use Honso^® Kampo products in their practices. Honso is a pharmaceutical company based in Japan and branched in Phoenix Arizona, which produces and distributes pharmaceutical-grade Chinese herbal formulas or Kampo in Japan and the US.

Dr. Shan Liang, former Academic Dean of East-West College of Natural Medicine, is a Florida-licensed acupuncture physician and a Diplomate in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology. He attended medical training at Shandong University School of Medicine in China, which only offers simultaneous conventional and Traditional Chinese medicine training. He completed his residency in integrative Western/Chinese medicine at Qian Fu Shan General Hospital. He was invited to Tampa’s Suncoast Center for Natural Health teaching Acupuncture and TCM in 1992. Since then he has continuously taught acupuncture and Chinese medicine at several schools in Florida; providing seminars for Florida acupuncture physicians’ CEU courses, and educating the public in these fields at the University of South Florida and Hillsborough Community College campus in the Tampa Bay area. He now practices and teaches at East-West College of Natural Medicine.

Joseph Garner, L.Ac, Dipl.Ac, Dipl.CH, conducting this interview, trained at Colorado School of TCM in Denver and is a licensed acupuncturist working in Phoenix, Arizona and faculty member at Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine & Acupuncture.

JG: Good morning, Dr. Liang. How long have you been using Honso’s herbal products?

Dr. L.: Just since last September. I used classical decoctions, tablets and pills with acupuncture for 10 years in the US, combining traditional diagnosis and treatment with modern methods. Some months ago I read your interview with a Chinese lady doctor and became interested. I went to Honso’s website and was impressed with research in Japan on Hepatitis C and other conditions. So I ordered two boxes each of Honso’s products.

JG: What has been your experience with Honso’s granular herbal formulas?

Dr. L.: Amazing results. They are easy to use and extremely efficacious in my daily practice. I am now a distributor of Honso products due to their potency and effectiveness.

JG: Wow, you’ve gotten on the bandwagon quickly. Tell me about your clinical results, please.

Dr. L.: I have used H24/Jia Wei Xiao Yao Wan for a variety of disorders. I had one patient¾a medical technician¾with terrible stress, chronic fatigue and depression for 17 years. After intake I diagnosed her with liver qi stagnation and spleen qi deficiency. I felt it important to first harmonize the liver so as to strengthen true energy. I also gave her HG32/Ren Shen Tang and acupuncture the first week. When she returned for her second visit, she reported great progress. Her energy had improved by 75 percent by the third visit and she felt happy, not depressed, and had energy to exercise. At her next visit she reported her energy as 100 percent. After this dramatic shift she has even started her own company. I have treated chronic fatigue patients for many years. Usually it takes four or five treatments before I begin seeing much improvement in them, so I was truly impressed with her quick progress. In her words, the herbal formulas were “more potent” than anything she had ever taken before; and due to her excellent clinical results she is telling her friends about the acupuncture and Honso products and has referred two patients to me.

JG: I can see why you were impressed with that case. Chronic fatigue patients can be tough to treat. Can you tell me about any other formulas you have used?

Dr. L.: I have a post-stroke patient whom I treated for three months with scalp acupuncture, and the patient got much improved. I read in Honso’s research literature how H15/Huang Lian Jie Du Tang has been shown to improve cerebral circulation. This surprised me as its ingredients are cold and drain the lower jiao. Since I diagnosed the patient’s problems as due to an excess in the body, I tried H15 on him, and his cerebral circulation did indeed improve.

JG: Yes, it’s surprising H15 works well for that, and I’m pleased to see corroboration in your experience. Can you tell about other formulas you have worked with?

Dr. L.: Yes, H12/Chai Hu Jia Long Gu Mu Li Tang is a classic formula useful for modern anxiety and panic disorders, insomnia and such. I had a seven-year-old girl whose mother brought her to me to treat for sleepwalking. I find Honso granules are usually easy for children to take (my own 11-month-old daughter has taken H01/Ge Gen Tang for flu). Anyway, after just one visit using electrical meridian therapy on two points with embedded needles and prescribing H12, the mother reported that for four weeks there was no sleepwalking at all, which astonished her. I had diagnosed her daughter with heart fire and yang hyperactivity. H12 could also benefit ADD and severe shen disturbances as well as drug withdrawal symptoms.

JG: You’ve been busy with these herbal formulas, I see. One more clinical case?

Dr.L. I had a patient diagnosed by his M.D with bilateral lung fungus, confirmed by X-ray. He presented with severe cough with profuse expectoration of multi-colored phlegm especially in the morning, bronchial asthma and allergies, difficulty breathing and a disturbing breath odor. I put him on H19/Xiao Qing Long Tang, which was traditionally used for Tan Yin, phlegm fluid accumulation in the lungs, at the recommended dosage, with acupuncture twice a week for two weeks. His cough and phlegm expectoration cleared up completely. I recommended him return to his doctor for X-ray. I have him coming for acupuncture once a week, as he still has some wheezing. He is very happy. By the way, this patient was concerned about Ma Huang in the formula. I told him the other herbs in the formula harmonize Ma Huang and keep toxicity low, and the dosage is within legal therapeutic range, and he was satisfied.

So many cases, so many excellent results from so many formulas. Most Kampo granular formulas are classic prescriptions from the Shang Han Lun with therapeutic strength, saving practitioner and patient time in preparing decoctions. Some formulas are hard to find in the US market, such as H61/Tao He Cheng Qi Tang. In the Shang Han Lun it was used for Tai Yang Stage Blood Stasis in the Urinary Bladder. I learned from a Shang Han Lun master that this formula can be useful for chronic UTI due to obstruction causing blood stasis in the UB. I feel that the traditions have been kept so well in the formulations themselves, yet we can utilize them for treatment of modern diseases based on research findings. No wonder Kampo formulas are used by the majority of physicians in Japan.

JG: Doctor Liang, I’d love to continue but we must end here. Thank you for your time, and I hope your experiences inspire others.

Dr. L.: You are very welcome. It was most enjoyable talking to you.

The above contents are only for the purpose of professional exchange of information. They do not necessarily represent Honso USA’s opinions

Dr. Liang’s Continue Education Seminar in PHOENIX

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