the crackdown on opioid prescriptions in the United States has forced a lot of people with chronic pain and other conditions to find alternative alternative rather treatments some patients returning the herbal remedies to relieve pain treat anxiety and help with insomnia health reporter Haley Hernandez explains some of the benefits and she's explaining the keys to choosing a safe herbal treatment 76 year old Mia is feeling good these days but recently was any serious car accident the worst thing is I couldn't sleep and I still had bone pain in my left foot the former nurse was using an opioid my general practitioner didn't want to give it to me anymore he said not at your age you could become addicted to it so she decided to try something else the herbal medicine has been around for over 2,000 years four biggest ones I treat are fatigue anxiety depression Jason Gore Rooter is a board-certified Chinese herbalist there's a whole different set of herbs that are specific to each part of the body that can help clean up whatever the problem is anxiety is actually just a symptom it's not a diagnosis in itself so for them they say okay the person suffering with an anxiety as a symptom but what is the Chinese medical diagnosis as to what is causing the anxiety he showed me his mixture area that he would take a little bit of the cement and he gave me this little tiny spoon that I would take two scoops three times a day and I started after a couple of months I feel good I have strength and energy and I'm happy again Donna Yuto is a 35 year old mother of four and a small business owner so I've dealt with anxiety probably since I've had children probably worse than in my 30s about seven months ago she too decided to try Chinese herbal medicine I was intrigued so now I take herbal medicine three times a day and it's changed my life for the better I'm able to control my anxiety I don't have panic or anxiety attacks probably a tenth of what I did prior to coming here that's where the Chinese medicine can step in and where it's very good at chronic care but it's not so good at acute care and trauma care if you're considering trying this holistic treatment there are some things you need to consider it's not really a good idea to just buy something online based on some random internet recommendation packaging and processing of herbal medicines are not well controlled so you must go to a reputable source potential for contamination the potential for basically differing amounts of active ingredient as for the results Mia and Dawn saw with their experience I couldn't say as a physician scientist that there's proof that they work if you believe they work you take them and they seem to work for you that's great I'm a believer and there are some things that you need medicine for and there are some things that you can do naturally or do more holistically and I think that this is definitely one of them it's a good practice to discuss alternative treatments with your physician you may also want to consider complementary medicine which is utilizing alternative treatments along with standard medicine Haley Hernandez KPRC Channel 2 News
