White Pine Clinic » Chinese medicine info

Getting the Most Out of Your Treatment

David — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:39:25 +0000

Whether you are completely new to traditional Asian medicine or have received acupuncture at other clinics, we hope you will take a few minutes to read this informative guide. Understanding the White Pine approach to Chinese medical treatment will allow you to make the most out of your Chinese health care program and enjoy optimal results.

Before Your Treatment

Some clinics incorporate computer programs, muscle testing, energy scans, or Western lab testing to establish a diagnosis. At our clinic, however, we make our diagnoses using the traditional diagnostic methods. In order to accurately read the tongue, do not forget that is essential that you do not brush or scrape the surface for at least 48 hours. Regarding the pulse, stress and physical exertion may alter the pulse image, so please allow adequate travel time to our office so that you arrive in a calm and relaxed state. For an acupuncture session, appropriate dress is loose fitting clothing but please do not wear short skirts. Finally, we discourage receiving acupuncture when you are fasting or immediately after a large meal, and sexual activity prior to or following acupuncture is not recommended. Taking these simple steps prior to treatment will assist us in making each session the best it can be.

We Will Provide You with a Treatment Plan

In all medical systems, the resolution of more complex or chronic issues demands more intensive treatment. In Western medicine, many conditions require long and aggressive courses of treatment, including surgery with lengthy recovery time, treatment with medications often lasting for years, or months of physical therapy. Although Chinese medicine does not usually require long or open-ended treatment, it is difficult to solve chronic problems with only one or two short treatment sessions. Committing to a series of treatments from the beginning allows your practitioner to design a realistic plan aimed at achieving your health care goals.

The Extra Effort is Worth It

Pharmaceutical sales, hospital care, imaging and laboratory testing, and other forms of medical care constitute enormous slice of the American economy. The profit-driven companies involved in health care aim to attract and satisfy their consumers with simple, convenient treatments. Chinese treatments, however, do not have a history of trying to appeal to a large consumer market and are only designed to improve health and promote well-being. As a result, Chinese treatment often demands a bit more involvement from the patient. Your White Pine Clinic practitioner may ask you if you would be willing to make herbal teas at home, perform simple exercises, or consider some minor lifestyle shifts. Although you may have to work a bit harder as a member of a cooperative team, the reward of a lasting solution for your medical issues without the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs or surgery is certainly worth the extra effort.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

David — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:03:46 +0000

Want to learn more about Chinese medicine and acupuncture? Check out these Web sites and books.

Chinese Medicine on Wikipedia
The Web That Has No Weaver by Ted J. Kaptchuk, O.M.D.
The Way of Qigong by Ken Cohen

or if you’re looking for something a bit more technical:
Acupuncture and Moxibustion Formulas & Treatments by Cheng Dan-an

Chinese Herbal Formulas

David — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:02:14 +0000

When a pharmaceutical company designs a new medication, patients are not the primary concern of researchers. The guiding factors in R & D include general concerns such as the nature of the disease being targeted–especially infection with a specific microbe–human anatomy and physiology, the cost and feasibility of mass production of the drug, consumer appeal, and safety issues. Modern drugs are not so much designed with real patients in mind but are instead intended to manage pathologies. In some cases, this disease-oriented approach is ideal. Serious bacterial infections, for example, need to be treated aggressively and quickly, and the elimination of the bacterium is much more important than matching the needs of any individual patient. A variety of other kinds of medical crises may also be best managed with guns blazing, using the strongest possible drugs to bring a life-threatening medical emergency under control.

In longer courses of drug treatment, however, failure to address the unique situation of each patient often leads to a range of adverse effects and less than optimal efficacy. Experts are attempting to solve these problems using more and more sophisticated testing, including genetic profiling, and many medications are increasingly available in a variety of dosage options. It is also becoming common to combine multiple drugs in a single tablet, creating a compound that better addresses the complexity of real-life patients. All of these steps are helping to better meet the needs of a spectrum of patients within mainstream health care. Ironically, although the majority of the biomedical community may be unaware of this, these changes bring the allopathic model closer and closer to the traditional Chinese medical model.

A Tradition of Creating a Unique Solution for Every Patient

Unlike mainstream health care, individualized treatment is nothing new in Chinese medicine. The 1,800-year-old system of using patterns of disharmony insures that each patient is treated differently from every other. The focus on treating patients begins with the diagnostic methods of inspecting the tongue, taking the pulse, and inquiring about other symptoms. This information allows the Chinese doctor to paint a unique picture for each patient that includes all of the relevant patterns of disharmony which are then organized according to priority. Using this model, the Chinese practitioner determines a strategy for resolution using the conventional methods of treatment.

The methods of treatment lead directly to the selection of an herbal formula. Formulas are usually selected from an established list in an authoritative formulary. In many cases, these formulations boast an impressive history of 400 to 500 years of empirical use. Some Chinese remedies are much older, dating back as much as 1,800 years, while a minority are only a few centuries or even decades old. The formula will be chosen based on the patterns identified and the main complaint, with other factors such as gender, age, and constitution playing a minor role.

Selection of a formula is, however, not the only task of the Chinese doctor. There is a final, crucial step in the process of prescribing Chinese herbs. According to a recent blog entry by the renowned American lao yi sheng or ‘master doctor’, Bob Flaws

Frequently, Chinese medical beginners will ask me whether this or that simple formula is appropriate for their patient. In almost 100% of these cases, the patient described is presenting a combination of patterns, not a single pattern, and, therefore, he or she requires a combination of formulas, not a single formula which addresses only a single pattern. In sum, modification of formulas is at the very heart of the professional practice of Chinese medicine.

In the United States, where acupuncture is utilized more often than Chinese herbal medicine, many practitioners have not had extensive training using Chinese herbal formulas. Under the laws of many states, having a Licensed Acupuncturist title will allow practitioners to prescribe herbal medications. Those without extensive training or knowledge will not write prescriptions for a custom herb formulation but will instead recommend tablets or other ready made forms such as tinctures. In the PRC and Taiwan, it is understood that a master doctor always writes a prescription for a unique formula. No Chinese doctor would ever establish a good reputation through prescriptions for tablets or pills alone.

Accordingly, the final step in prescribing a Chinese herbal formula is the additions and subtractions. Your White Pine practitioner will adjust the traditional, time-proven formulation for your individual case, deleting anything that is unnecessary and adding in those herbs with uniquely beneficial actions to quickly and safely treat your condition. Since it is estimated that only about 10%-20% of practitioners in the United States are experts at using Chinese formulas and single herbs, a treatment at White Pine Clinic offers the rare opportunity to enjoy the standard-of-care from mainland China right here at home.