Empower Your Health Journey

CONDITIONS WE TREAT

We treat too many conditions to list, but here are a few:

• Stress,

• PMS, fertility, peri-menopausal and menopausal hormonal issues,

• digestive issues,

• prostatitis and urination issues,

• migraine and other headaches,

• sinus and allergy-related issues,

• flu and common cold symptoms,

• coughs including Covid and long-Covid symptom alleviation,

• pain of joint, low back, neck, knee, shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome,

• autoimmune issues,

• cancer treatment side effects,

• and many other conditions.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Your first treatment will start with an evaluation of what treatment will be best for your needs - herbal medicine, acupuncture, or both. After doing traditional pulse diagnosis and looking at your tongue and listening to your main health complaints and goals for treatment, I will present a treatment plan. 

Traditional pulse diagnosis takes several minutes as I am checking 3 different positions on each wrist for the relative depth and quality (strength, size/volume, tension). This might seem mysterious but a lot can be learned about the cardiovascular system and location and type of pathology of a variety of illnesses/imbalances.

With tongue diagnosis I am looking at the color of the body or the tongue, it's shape, and the color and thickness of the coating. This gives a lot of information about your microbiome and GI tract and also inflammation in various parts of the body. It may sound pre-scientific, but it was part of conventional medicine in the 19th and early 20th century, and you will be surprise what I will know about your diet and general health from just looking in your mouth.

If we choose to do acupuncture I will also look at your tongue and take your pulse, but I will also look at and palpate (touch diagnosis) your back and abdomen and sometimes arms and legs below the elbow and the knee. My acupuncture style although based in TCM as all acupuncture goes back to Han Dynasty China (around the birth of Christ) is heavily influenced by Japanese techniques which emphasize touch / palpation diagnosis. 

We then decide if a face up, face down or laying on your side treatment will be best for you particular condition.  On the first treatment I typically go only as fast as the patient is comfortable because many people are a little anxious. (Will it hurt? Where will he put the needle? How many?)

Most people are pleasantly surprised that for the most part the needles, although there might be a slight stick some times, are not a big deal. And then most patients get very relaxed and many take a short nap or lightly doze as the magic begins to happen.

CUSTOM FORMULAS

When I create an herbal formula I take into account your particular health issue and place it in the context of your overall constitution. If I am treating you for back pain or a headache or digestive issues,  I will take into account if you are 25 or 75, if you are skinny or a little overweight, run hot or cold, etc. I will also consider the quality of the pain and timing and probable cause. I will also confirm what medications you are on and if you have any allergies. Sometimes I will make a formula on the spot, but some times I will consult many reference books and current medical research before tailoring the formula to you. For long standing chronic conditions I often start with a four month plan. For acute issues like colds, coughs, bell's palsy, headaches, etc.  the length of treatment will be only as long as symptoms last. This is not a one pill for every ill approach. This is customized medicine.

I use granular formulas. This is quickly becoming the world standard because you can just mix the powder into a small amount of water and drink it down. One of the differences between Functional Medicine and modern supplements is that there is only one combined formula. You don't have to take 15 different capsules. Japanese Kampo herbal medicine perfected the way to get the essential components of raw herbs into the water-decocted powder granules. Now Taiwan, Korea, and China also produce these to a very high level of safety and therapeutic strength.