Like many people, you may think of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine as "New Age" medicine. Actually, Chinese Medicine has been formally taught and practiced for thousands of years, and is a very systematic science and art. It's just a different system than you are used to....
In Chinese Medicine theory it is believed that disease can be caused by external or internal factors:
External factors may be thought of as pathogens (virus, bacteria, parasites or climatological extremes of heat, cold, damp, dryness, and wind).
Internal factors consist of abnormal emotional states and nutritional abnormalities.
How well we handle external factors depends upon a number of things, such as how good our genetic foundation is, how well we were taken care of in childhood, and how well we have maintained ourselves as adults.
Emotions can be divided into five main categories of opposites:
- Assertiveness/Anger
- Joy/Apathy
- Compassion/Worry
- Acceptance/Grief
- Fortitude/Fear.
Most people have a dominant emotion as part of their personality which functions as a "lens", through which they view the world. It is the degree of extreme-ness of emotion along with poor diet which may unbalance them and make them vulnerable to external pathogenic factors.
Additionally, we observe correspondences between certain emotions, climate conditions and diseases.
For instance, a person who is often angry may get worse in windy conditions, and may at some point develop a blood pressure problem. We don't think of these as hard and fast rules, but as clues to potential health issues.
In order to arrive at a diagnosis, I will look at many things:
- A complete health history of the patient
- A complete picture of the current complaint
- A thorough examination of the patient's lifestyle and nutrition
- An assessment of the patient's emotional state
- Other clues which may be found during the initial interview
- Etc. (my personal favorite)
Once a diagnosis is formed, I'll prepare a treatment plan which focuses on bringing the patient's physical self back within normal parameters.
The treatment itself is a collaboration between the practitioner and the patient and depends on the skill of the practitioner and the commitment of the patient to the process.
In order to bring the patient back to health, I may use:
- Acupuncture with sterile one-use needles
- Chinese Herbal Medicine
- Chinese Medical Qi Gong
- Craniosacral Therapy
- Lifestyle or dietary recommendations
If the patient is seen to need additional help, I may refer them to their medical doctor, a specialist, a therapist, a chiropractor, a nutritionist, or another appropriate professional.
And if you are already reasonably healthy, we can fine-tune your health
to bring additional benefits, such as:
- Better focus for work or school
- Enhanced athletic performance
- More clarity for artistic projects
- Increase healing of scars, old and new
- Create a more youthful appearance with Facial Acupuncture
