Corydalis

There has been a lot of interest in the herb Corydalis in the last several months. Corydalis is a powerful pain relieving herb. Here's one of the news stories that discusses corydalis: Study Finds a Potent Painkiller in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dr. Oz also mentioned it on TV and since his programs are frequently rerun the folks at East Earth Trade Winds get many calls from people looking for this herb.

When discussing the effectiveness of the corydalis the folks at East Earth Trade Winds noticed that they don't get a lot of repeat sales for this herb even though it is touted as a fantastic pain reliever. This begs the question "why?".

In Chinese herbal medicine herbs are rarely used alone. The majority of them are used in combination with other herbs. So depending on what type of problem you have a formula would be created that addresses those symptoms. Corydalis invigorates the blood so if you have a pain due to blood stagnation then it may work well but if the pain is due to something else? That's where combining it with other herbs come in. You need to address the type of pain and then, if corydalis is appropriate, add it to the formula. If used by itself Corydalis may give less than stellar pain relief and they think this is what is happening.

However, there are products already available that contain corydalis. One product that has it as an ingredient and has always had lots of good feedback is Tung Shueh Pills. This formula is specifically for arthritis type pain. Tung Shueh contains corydalis but corydalis isn't the main ingredient. Corydalis works as an adjunct herb and in this formula the overall combination of herbs relieves joint and muscle pain very well. Corydalis just adds to the effectiveness. So if you are interested in pain relief for arthritis, muscle, or joint pain the folks at East Earth Trade Winds conclude that the Tung Shueh pills may give you a lot more relief than just using  the single herb corydalis alone.

Dr Oz and Corydalis

Because of Dr. Oz's television show the folks at East Earth Trade Winds gets lots of inquiries and orders for Corydalis. Corydalis is a powerful herb and does have good effect in relieving pain. However, in Chinese medicine it is usually combined with other herbs in a formula to achieve pain relief. That said, although they have sold many bottles of this product they haven't had people calling back and raving about it - but we do have people commenting all the time about how well the Tung Shueh formula works. Tung Shueh contains ingredients specifically for relieving muscle and joint pain and Yan Huo Suo (Corydalis) which is an ingredient in this formula seems to work even better in the synergistic blend. If you are going to try Corydalis for joint and muscle pain we would suggest that you consider trying the Tung Shueh also. You might have better results.