Chinese Herbs for High Cholesterol

Your doctor has told you your cholesterol is high. Maybe you have been offered
a statin and want to try something first; maybe you are on one and want to
support it; maybe you simply want to understand what is going on. Chinese medicine
has a clear and useful way of thinking about this — and, used sensibly, it
sits comfortably alongside conventional care.

At The Oriental Herb in Cliffside Park, cholesterol is something we are asked
about often, usually by people who have just had a blood test and are weighing
their options. Here is how we approach it.

How Chinese medicine understands high cholesterol

Chinese medicine has no word for cholesterol, but it has a very precise
understanding of the state that produces it. High blood lipids are understood as
phlegm and dampness — a thick, turbid accumulation that
the digestive system has failed to transform and that the body has nowhere to
put. The patterns describe how it got there:

Spleen deficiency with phlegm-damp — the most common
pattern. Fatigue, heaviness, bloating, weight around the middle, a thick tongue
coating. Digestion is not transforming food properly, and lipids rise as a result.
Liver qi stagnation with phlegm — cholesterol that rose
during a period of stress, with irritability, chest tightness, and bloating that
moves around. Common in people who eat reasonably well but are under constant
pressure.
Damp-heat — often with high triglycerides, a flushed
face, bitter taste, and a history of rich food and alcohol.
Kidney deficiency — cholesterol rising with age,
especially after menopause, with low back ache, poor sleep, and feeling cold or
hot at night. Here the metabolism itself has shifted.
Blood stasis — long-standing high lipids with
circulation symptoms: cold hands and feet, a dusky complexion, fixed aches. The
pattern Chinese medicine associates with cardiovascular risk.

Herbs traditionally used for lipid patterns

Listed so you know what we work with — not as a self-prescribing guide.
One of these has a serious interaction with a common medication, which is why we
ask what you take before anything is dispensed.

Shan Zha (Hawthorn berry) — the single most-used herb for
this pattern in Chinese medicine; digests rich food, moves blood, and has been
studied for lipids and cardiovascular health.
Jue Ming Zi (Cassia seed) — clears heat and moves the
bowels; widely used for high lipids with constipation.
He Ye (Lotus leaf) — for phlegm-damp with heaviness and
weight gain.
Ze Xie (Alisma) — drains dampness; a core herb in classical
formulas for turbid accumulation.
Dan Shen (Salvia root) — moves blood; used in the blood
stasis pattern. Note: interacts with blood thinners.
Pu Huang (Cattail pollen) and Yin Chen (Artemisia
capillaris) — used in the damp-heat pattern.
Hong Qu (Red yeast rice) — a traditional fermented rice
that naturally contains monacolin K, which is chemically identical to the statin
lovastatin. It must never be combined with a prescribed statin, and
it carries the same muscle and liver cautions a statin does. We treat it as a
medication, not a food.

What a consultation involves

About 45 minutes, and most of it is conversation.

History — what you are experiencing, when it started, what
makes it better or worse, and how you are sleeping, eating and digesting. For this
condition we will also ask about your medications and your most recent test results.
Pulse diagnosis — read at three positions on each wrist,
assessing quality rather than just rate.
Tongue diagnosis — colour, coating and shape, which in
Chinese medicine reflect internal patterns.
Your formula — blended for you from our dispensary, as
traditional raw herbs for decoction or as extracted tablets if you would rather
not brew tea daily.
Follow-up — formulas get adjusted once we see how you
respond. The first one is a well-informed starting point, not a final answer.

Honest expectations

Cholesterol responds slowly. A well-matched formula alongside dietary change
— in the Chinese medicine sense, that means less rich, fried, sweet and cold
food, and regular meals — typically needs three months before a
repeat blood test tells you anything. People usually notice digestion, energy and
weight shift first; the numbers follow.

We will ask you to repeat your lipid panel at the interval your doctor
recommends and to share the results with both of us. That is the only honest
measure.

Important — please read this part

Chinese herbal medicine is used here to support the body in
managing lipids. It does not replace a statin or any other prescribed medication,
and it is not a treatment for cardiovascular disease.

If your doctor has prescribed a statin, take it. Whether you
can reduce or stop it later is a conversation between you and your doctor based
on repeat tests — never a decision made because herbs feel like they are
helping.

Tell us if you take: a statin (because of red yeast rice), a
blood thinner such as warfarin or apixaban (because of Dan Shen and others), or
blood pressure medication. We will not dispense until we know.

Familial hypercholesterolaemia — very high cholesterol
that runs in families and appears young — is a genetic condition that needs
medical treatment; herbs are a supporting role at most.

See a doctor urgently for chest pain, shortness of breath,
pain radiating to the arm or jaw, or sudden weakness or confusion.

Visit us in Cliffside Park

We are at 692 Anderson Ave, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010 —
minutes from Fort Lee, Edgewater, Fairview, Palisades Park and North Bergen.

Walk in to browse the dispensary or ask a question. For a full consultation,
book ahead so we can give you the time it needs.

Call (201) 840-6700 or book an appointment online.

Open Monday to Friday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM,
closed Sunday.

Chinese herbs for blood sugar support — the metabolic picture usually includes both
Chinese herbal remedies for weight loss — the same phlegm-damp pattern underlies both
Chinese herbs for digestive health — where the pattern starts
Our Chinese herb store in Cliffside Park