Restorative Method

From Energetics of Western Herbs Vol 1 - Peter Holmes:

Herbs in the Restoring categories in one way or another cause restoration (tonification), and so are known as restoratives or tonics. They are used in various conditions typified by global or local weakness, laxness and deficiency…called deficiency or empty conditions in all classical systems of medicine. Deficiency conditions are called kenos in Greek medicine and xu in Chinese. Because the deficiency consists of absence of some positive factor, it must be “replenished.”

In physiological terms, the botanicals used for deficiency conditions address both structural and functional insufficiencies on a systemic or local level. They include remedies that generate physical strength, those that generate warmth, those that provide nutrition and growth and those that provide moisture.

Restoring as a Principle of Treatment

Hippocratic Greek medicine was consistently the biggest proponent of the Restoring method as a kind of general constitutional treatment. Over 2,000 years ago Greek physicians emphasized prevention rather than cure and health maintenance rather than treatment of disease. Restorative herbs and foods were known as similar since only remedies similar to the body itself were considered as having a restoring effect. Greek medicine essentially viewed Restoring in the larger context of health maintenance. Hippocratic texts describe restoration as obtainable through dietary measures, using the principle “similia similibus”. In other words, nature (the individuals’ righteous vital energies) should be supported in deficiency conditions by providing nourishment similar to the body itself. In contrast, the treatment of actual disease was always carried out by contraries, defined according to the law of contraria contrariis.

In Chinese medicine, the physician Li Dong-Yua promoted Restoration by emphasizing the importance of restoring digestive (called Spleen in TCM) functions, which he considered of vital and central importance for the maintenance of all other physiological functions. In a parallel vein, Li Gao in the 12th century saw “replenishing warmth,” i.e. assisting circulator functions, as the most important treatment method and so originated the wen bu tradition.

Various cultures, periods and styles of medicine have always favored one type of restoring treatment strategy over another. Treatment fashions and biases arose as often from speculative and cultural considerations as from actual therapeutic needs. The eighteenth century, for example, saw the heyday of generating warmth with stimulants. Classical Greek medicine placed emphasis on nourishing the blood and tissues with nutritives and foods in general. Chinese medicine, on the whole, perhaps has favored tonifying the Qi with Qi tonics over anything else.

From the modern perspective, it’s clear that each type of restorative method has its right place, and should be used to best meet the needs of a given situation. With the emotional stress and environmental pollution that we are currently subject to, and the resultant weakening and disrupting of immune functions, it’s the remedies that nourish the blood, those that circulate the Qi and those that promote detoxification that are finding renewed currency.

Restoring is one of three treatment principles that address conditions of disharmony more systematically than either the Eliminating or Symptom treatment principles. Because they promote a discharge, eliminant methods such as promoting sweating and urination are geared primarily to relieving stagnant/obstructive conditions of the eliminatory organs. Symptom treatment methods mainly relieve acute symptoms. Restoring, Draining and Altering & Regulating, however, are constitution altering principles of treatment. They’re mainly used to treat the roots of disorders involving long-term imbalance. This is true both remedially, when symptoms manifest, and preventively, when the aim is to correct recurring tendencies to disharmony of the constitutional terrain. Using these methods of treatment, a definite and systemic cure, is possible. Their correct use represents the finest and most evolved use of botanical remedies.

Restoring, Draining, and Altering & Regulating address every level of the human being. These treatment principles are able to rebalance disharmonies at the deepest level, whether involving nerve-mediated physical, mental and emotional strength (the Air Body), warmth distribution and responses (such as chill, fever and inflammation – the Warmth Body), or fluid and blood circulation and distribution (the Fluid Body). They regulate a variety of conditions not amenable to the more linear, directional Eliminating treatment methods.

• The Restoring principle addresses every type of deficiency condition

• The complementary Draining method treats functional or qualitative conditions of excess

• The neutral Altering method affects the balance of whole systems.

The combination of the excess, deficient and systematic conditions with the four bodies produces the herb categories of this area.

Because of the variety of different conditions that require restoring as a principle of treatment, as noted there are essentially four treatment strategies that will address different types of deficiencies:

1. Tonifying the Qi, using restoratives

2. Tonifying the Yang, using stimulants

3. Nourishing the Blood, using nutritives

4. Tonifying the Yin, using demulcents

On the one hand, restoring methods address local deficiencies, such as functional organ or system insufficiencies, nutritive deficiencies and secretory insufficiencies. On the other hand, they can also address systemic deficiencies. Because the human body is an interplay of energies and processes, the entire organism is usually involved in a deficiency, even if only one body part manifests signs of weakness. In addition to their local action on tissues, these herbs invariably also exert a systemic restoring effect on the whole organism. For example, demulcents that nourish the Yin soothe, cool and restore by reflex actions at a distance, in addition to their purely topical tissue-protective and moistening effect. Nutritives that nourish the blood promote overall tissue growth in addition to building the blood fluid itself. Digestive restoratives that promote weight gain and improve energy operate by enhancing anabolic process as a whole, not just by specifically improving the absorption of nutrients.

Note that the treatment principle of Restoring supports the organism’s own vital force, the righteous Qi (zheng qi). This is opposed to the Draining and Eliminating principles, which aim to directly treat the pathogens, the injurious Qi (fan zhi or tou xie). Supporting the vital force is often necessary when deficiency and excess conditions present together (See the Eliminants). As a result, restoring treatment strategies are commonly used in conjunction with remedies from all categories that eliminate, drain and alter.

Ultimately, restoration has only two types of uses, preventive and curative. We should remember that, in its widest sense, restoration denotes the preventive treatment of the person’s ground or terrain with mild remedies (botanicals from the mild, nontoxic category). Many of these herbs address a person’s whole psychosomatic make-up, thereby helping bring the individual back to his or her own natural innate constitutional balance – a state known in Greek medicine as physis. It’s through a person’s constitutional diathesis that we may address his/her natural condition.

Note that the term tonic is sometimes used as an alternative to the term restorative. It refers specifically to a restoring type of botanical used in deficiency conditions.