Primary Modalities Used At Our Clinic

Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, is a total system of health and healing. Chinese medicine emphasizes a holistic approach that treats the person as an integrated unit - mind, body and spirit. With this philosophy, we are able to maintain a unique view of the causes of disease. Disease is seen as arising from many sources as unique as the individual seeking treatment. The many sources of disease we recognize include improper diet, blockages in the body’s vital energy or chi, and emotional upset, among others. The information we gather enables us to design a specific program tailored to the individual for obtaining optimum health and prevention of illness.

Acupuncture works to “reprogram” and restore normal function by stimulating certain points on the body’s acupuncture “meridians” in order to free chi energy. When the flow of chi is blocked or disrupted, pain and illness are the result. Acupuncture restores the flow through the insertion of fine, hair-like sterile, disposable needles at specific points along the meridians. As chi returns, health and well being are restored. Some people like to imagine an acupuncture meridian (there are many traversing the entire body) as being like a garden hose. Water can flow freely through the hose only as long as the hose remains “unkinked”. A kink in the hose produces a reduction in water flow. Acupuncture needles work to “unkink” blocked meridians and restore free flow of the body’s innate electrical energy or chi. These needles, unlike hypodermic needles, are ultra flexible, thereby permitting a nearly painless insertion. Acupuncture treatments may last from 20 to 30 minutes and patients describe the sessions as pleasant and relaxing.

The use of herbs is the next step in the protocol. Herbs provide nourishing support for the energetic “reprogramming” and balancing effects of acupuncture. For thousands of years, TCM practitioners have used herbs with medicinal properties. Although many of us in non-Asian countries are unfamiliar with the medicinal properties of Chinese herbs, many may recognize the pharmaceutical drugs manufactured from herbs available in the West. Some examples are: aspirin from willow bark, penicillin from fungus, and digitalis from foxglove. When used properly, herbs have powerful medicinal properties but are gentle and act without the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Nutrition - giving the body proper fuel - is a very important component. Diet, specific vitamins and minerals, herbal teas and other natural substances are used to restore health. We frequently use laboratory analysis to determine an individual’s need for therapeutic use of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and natural hormones.

The protocol of acupuncture, herbs, and nutrition may be started as an adjunct to conventional medicine, but patients are apt to find it is more effective, less expensive, and safer than drugs or surgery.