2 day packs, boiling twice, double dosing

[Guest guest]

At PCOM, when selling raw herbs, we generally sell packets that are to

be used over the course of 2 days.

 

The basic method of preparation is this:

add 4 cups of water

boil down to 2 cups

drain off decoction and save

add 4 cups of water to leftover herbs

boild down to 2 cups

drain off decoction, adding to first part

This gives 4 cups of decoction to be taken as 1 cup, twice daily, for

2 days.

 

Because the packs are to be used for 2 days, it seems to make sense

that the dosage should be doubled from the textbook formulas doses,

which are given as daily doses. At least one teacher at PCOM agrees

with this notion.

 

However, I have yet to have a clinic supervisor who will allow

perscriptions with this doubling of a daily dose for a 2 day pack,

even after I try to explain. They just look at the higher than normal

looking doses (because they are for 2 days) and reduce them to a

normal daily dose.

 

I know dosing is patient / condition dependant, but this is not the

issue involved here. If my supervisors are correct in their methods,

I'd like to know why. If they are being conservative, again, I'd like

to know why. Also, if it is a matter of being dose shy, then isn't it

possible that the patient's time and money are being wasted on a

formula that is not being dosed at a proper therapeutic level?

 

My question is this:

Does the twice boiling method that we use make a single day dose be

able to be stretch out to 2 days, or is it a common practice to twice

boil even a single-day pack of herbs in order to get the most out of it?

 

Another way I could ask this is:

Is the twice boiling method a normal method of decoction, regardless

of for how many days the herbs are going to be used, or is the twice

boiling method used in order to double the amount of time over which

the herbs can be taken?

 

Thanks in advance for you input.

 

Brian C. Allen