UK - London - Chinese herbalist window

An assistant with a doctor on TV screen in a traditional Chinese herbalist's shop window. The exhausted women hangs her neck at the end of a long day serving customers and a model of the male body illustrating the meridians for acupuncture stands in the window alongside the TV and the word Massage Herbs is in red neon lights above the shop window. One of Chinese herbology?s four natures is the degree of yin and yang, namely cold (extreme yin), cool, warm and hot (extreme yang). The patient's internal balance of yin and yang is taken into account when the herbs are selected. Medicinal herbs of "hot", yang nature are used when the person is thought to be suffering from internal cold that requires to be purged, or when the patient is believed to have a general cold constituency. Sometimes an ingredient is added to offset the extreme effect of one herb. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)