E-mail was sent to numerous
practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
We thought it would be interesting
to see what opinions practitioners have
regarding the use of turtles
in TCM.
These are their comments:
Thank you for writing to us. Turtles are used as yin tonics in Chinese medicine, but there are
many dozens of yin tonics we can use. Why bother to use turtles? We have no turtles in the clinic.
Hello. Thanks for your inquiry. We do not use any products containing turtle as an ingredient.
As a school of Classical Chinese Medicine,
we focus strictly on the art of needling and do not
employ the use of any herbs or animal
products in our training program. Therefore, I am not
knowledgable in the use of turtles in
TCM.
Some parts of the turtle can be used for
tonification. However, with so many herbs available,
we don't use turtles very much (if
any). We always use other herbs as alternatives. There's plenty
of herbs that are stronger, so the incentive
to use turtles is very small.
I'm an American-trained practitioner.
My teachers were Chinese but I've never studied in
Asia. My undertanding is that
there are two types of turtles which are used in TCM. One is
a
fresh-water species - Gui Ban -
and the other a salt-water species - Bie Jia. Both are Yin Tonifiers
and have properties that no other
Yin tonifiers do. I have used the salt-water species and find them
far and away more effective with certain
conditions than other Yin Tonifiers or combinations thereof.
Still, this doesn't address the disappearance of what ought to be a renewable resource (and
wonderous creature of the universe) or the humane treatment of the animals. I personally
believe that the medicine turtles should be raised like cattle and the wild ones left alone.
I hope this is helpful to you
Thank you for your interest on this subject. As you may aware, turtle shell is used extensively
in Chinese Medicine for many conditions ranging from menopause conditions to many autoimmune conditions. Turtle meat is used in gourmet cooking. People eat the turtle meat
for its strengthening and longevity purpose. Eating the meat is a cultural phenomen while
using the shell in the medicinal purpose is century old.
The use of both parts of the turtle is quite extensive. There are not suitable substitute currently
that is comparable to the effectiveness of the turtle shell. I can see eating other type of meat
to substitute for turtle meat. But that would be difficult to change the whole Chinese culture overnignt.
My suggestion would be for responsible citizens of China and elsewhere to domesticate
and raiseturtles commercially like what we do with chicken or beef. Educate people to
only consume turtles that are commercially raised.
Simultaneously, create an international organization educating people to stay away from
and to protect particular endangered turtle species. I have heard that more and more
turtles in China are now farm raised.
It is our University's policy to protect any endangered species. We do not teach and do
not advocate using parts or whole of any endangered species for medicinal purpose.
Thank you again for your interest in this subject.
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