Arly said: itis unlikely the dong quai caused the joint swelling. Dong quai is a common herb, taken by perhaps millions of women in doses much higher than this,apparently without ill effect, or at least nothing so dramatic. Arly, I've loved almost all your posts before now (thank you for the time and effort involved in sharing so much.) But I wouldn't be so sure about that. People do react very differently to substances, and the case histories given certainly suggested this as a possibility. So what is this stuff? What plant family? Many plants contain substances of great biological activity and immunoreactivity: for all I know about this it could be a relative of peanuts, and peanut oil in infant formula has been shown to sensitise (western medicine previously was dognmatic that oils couldn't sensitise, of course.) I would never take medication about which I knew zilch. Is FDA clearance of this stuff needed? what testing has been done? Where would adverse drug reorts be sent for herbal products? do communities that traditionally use this end up with high rates of joint symptoms in later life, written off as aging?... When researching Food for Thought I learned never to dismiss even amazing stories about individual sensitivities: the kid who developed urticaria if his mother broke an egg in another room of the house, or the one who could not tolerate any egg except a microwaved one - which altered the protein structure so much his body didn't recognise his particular allergens. While some foods contain more active ingredients likely to cause problems (and yes, chocolate is a common allergen in every community that uses it, and yes, it does affect breastfeeding babies of mothers sensitive to it) even the least problematic an cause someone to react. It's not the food per se that's the problem, it's the person's sensitivity to the food. Though there are such things as common allergens in every society due to social uses of foods (like milk to babies) and the inherent characteristics of certain food components: gluten's gliadin is more enterotoxic than most protein components, for example. But not everyone will be gluten-sensitive even so. Sensitivity is the result of genes plus nutrition plus environmental exposures begining in utero, plus extraneous factors like coincident stress or infections. I'm restraining myself here too: no time to talk all night about allergies. I managed to resist all that chocolate stuff a week or so back... but Lactnetters need to learn about allergies and other immune malfunctioning. It's linked with everything from ADD to autism as well as ear infections, wheezes, joint problems and the rest.. And I'm not going to write any more about it because the necessary resources are in print already and I have NO time. Yes Elizabeth, it is still in print (later edition) and I can send details to anyone who wants it: so glad it helped you! Thanks for letting me know. MM.