Oriental Medicine
Chinese Medicine is a time tested full health care system including it’s own theory of diagnosis and treatment. The main goal of Chinese Medicine is to get the body to it’s optimal state. Some may call this homeostasis or balance. It has many methods of treatment to promote this process including: Acupuncture, Cupping, Herbal Medicine, Tui Na, Therapeutic Exercise and Dietary Therapy. Each of these therapies are described in the services area of this website. Eastern medicine has been utilized for thousands of years in Asia as a primary form of health care. Even today it is greatly integrated into the health care system. In the United States it is growing at an enormous rate. Acupuncturists or "L.Ac’s" in the United States use several different modalities to treat patients and their help them achieve their health goals. When a patient visits an acupuncturist we take the time to discuss the patient’s entire case to treat not just symptoms but the whole person. After the initial interview, very small (about as thin as a hair) disposable solid needles are inserted into specific points on the body. The points are selected based on thousands of years of evidence based practice. These needles are then left in the body for about 20 minutes. The goal of the needles is to balance the "qi" in the "meridians" of the body to increase the body’s natural healing ability.
It is very common to come visit an acupuncturist and hear a variety of terminology that is new and confusing (not that a visit to a standard physician is not often a wordy experience). Some of these terms include "Qi" and "Xue". Qi has been translated many different ways, commonly as vital force or universal energy. This vital force is circulating throughout us all and can be manipulated through acupuncture, massage, and herbs. It is a theoretical concept in the sense that one cannot necessarily test for the presence of Qi. Xue on the other hand is a very substantial occurrence. Xue translates to blood. It does correlate to the common understanding of what blood does however, it also has functions within Oriental Medicine that make it less confusing to keep as a separate term.
Another step that is much different from a normal health care visit is observation of the tongue and pulse. While it is very common in both a standard physician’s office and an acupuncturist to test blood pressure, pulse, temperature and respiration at the acupuncturist’s office we also like to look at the tongue and spend more time on the pulse. We look at the tongue as map of your body, telling us things about everything from a sore throat to digestive problems. The pulse is similar in the fact that the way it feels may lead to a slightly different diagnosis or point selection. In fact the tongue and pulse are perhaps more useful in our diagnosis than a patient’s blood pressure or temperature.
Lastly, it is important to understand that all license acupuncturists spend several years studying a combination of basic sciences and Chinese medicine. All licensed acupuncturists have also gone through hundreds of hours of clinical training practicing acupuncture, herbal medicine, and tui na under direct supervision. After graduating from an accredited program and earning a Master’s degree or higher all acupuncturist sit through a rigorous set of board exams before being allowed to go into practice and treat patients.