Treatment of equine intestinal constipation with integrated traditional Chinese and western veterinary medicine by Liu et al.: Discussion of principles and herbs used

Abstract

Introduction In China, animal diseases are treated using western medicines or surgery alone, traditional Chinese herbal medicine alone, acupuncture alone or various combinations thereof. Combination of western and oriental medicine is called integrative medicine. In many cases, this gives better and/or faster results than western or oriental methods on their own. The following notes on basic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, and on the formula and herbs mentioned by Liu et al. (2014), are presented for western-trained colleagues who may not be familiar with TCM theory and its use of herbal medicine or acupuncture as effective therapies. The terminology used in this commentary is based mainly on that in Wiseman and Ye (1998). The principles of building herbal formulas are based mainly on Chen et al. (2012). Details on the nature, actions and uses of each of the herbs mentioned are based mainly on Jiao (2003) and online sources.