Chinese herbal medicine

Chinese Herbal Medicine is the combination of two or more medicinal substances, usually herbs, to create a formula designed to treat a specific problem or problems.

Chinese Herbal Medicine is based on a Chinese Medical Diagnosis. We, as practitioners of Chinese Medicine, are looking for what is causing the problem according to Chinese Medical Theory. If you fix the cause, then there will be no reoccurrence of the problem. In other words, it is not simply a symptomatic treatment.

For example, if a person has a headache, there is no specific "headache" herb in Chinese Medicine, although it can treat headaches quite effectively. In order to do this, we have to make a Chinese Medical Diagnosis (find the cause). We would need to know the location of the headache (temples, back, front, or top of head, etc.), the type of pain (dull, achy, sharp, etc.), whether or not the headache is constant or it comes and goes, what brings it on, is it better or worse at a certain time of the day, what makes it better or worse, etc.

We would also look at the tongue and feel the pulse for clues as to what is causing the headache. We take these signs and symptoms and this leads us to a Chinese Medical Diagnosis. Once we have the Chinese Medical Diagnosis, then we do the appropriate treatment to correct the imbalance.