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A careful herbal practitioner opens with safety. This guide covers preparation types, the medicine list to bring along and the questions to ask about any prescription.

Herbal medicine can seem mild simply because many of its ingredients have familiar names, and some appear in everyday cooking. A practitioner worth choosing will regard every herb as pharmacologically active and will begin with a safety discussion well before any prescription is written.

Preparation types are not interchangeable

Chinese herbal medicine can arrive as granules, capsules, tinctures or dried raw herbs that you simmer yourself. Each type is made and taken in its own way, so substituting one for another without guidance is unwise. Chinese herbal medicine is also a regulated profession here, and registered practitioners are searchable on the public national register.

What to have ready

Compile a complete list of prescribed medicines, supplements and anything purchased online or carried home from abroad. Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, works through that list in the Lane Cove consulting room before any discussion of whether a formula might be appropriate.

Questions about the prescription itself

• What is the product's name, and how exactly do I take it?
• If a dose is forgotten, what then?
• Which unexpected symptoms mean I should pause and phone?
• When is our next review?

Habits that support safe use

Avoid raising the amount because change seems slow, and never hand your formula to a friend or borrow one that suited a relative. File the written directions alongside the original box or bottle, and let Christine know each time another medicine begins, ends or is adjusted. Should a symptom emerge that may or may not be connected, ring for guidance rather than trialling different amounts on your own.

A practitioner who welcomes questions like these, and writes the answers down when that helps, is giving you a preview of how the rest of your care will run, including how changes and side effects are likely to be discussed. That openness is among the more dependable signals available while you decide where to go.