We combine groundbreaking conventional Western Medicine, known as Functional Medicine, with ancient and perennial Eastern Medicine. By applying the latest research-based findings for “optimal” health to your lab work, we understand your Western Medical profile. However, this does not tell us why these findings occurred, so we spend the time to hear your story and combine this information with Chinese Medical examinations to determine the root cause. We achieve results where others have not, by not only determining the root cause, but by understanding the connection of that root cause to all current symptoms. By resolving this underlying reason, you will experience systemic improvement in your health as well as your chief concerns. Similar to a Western Medical doctor, we follow specific protocols to determine how to treat your symptoms:
1. We observe and document data from visual inspection, e.g. tongue, hair, eyes, skin color (possibilities are pallor, sallowness, bruising, etc.).
3. We conduct a physical examination of areas of pain or concerning sensations or abnormal formations, for example, we may palpate to feel the exact size, shape and location of swelling of a sprained ankle. We will also check your pulses, there are 3 per wrist and each at 3 different depths for a total of 9 per side, checking for artery depth, diameter and pulse strength.
4. We review your history, family, personal and Western Medical, to gleen information from your past to identify the root cause and understand how, over time, that underlying causative factor gave rise to multiple symptoms and brought you to your current health profile. Pattern Diagnosis is the “hallmark” of Chinese Medicine, the world’s oldest, continually practiced, literate professional medicine. A “pattern” is a constellation of signs and symptoms that are generally found to exist simultaneously. In other words, various symptoms tend to occur together forming a “pattern.” There are many types of patterns, for example
Western Medical disease diagnosis is similarly addressed in TCM with Pattern Diagnosis. The symptoms are grouped together into their TCM “Patterns” and then addressed with acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine to resolve the patterns and therefore the Western Medical disease. A person usually does not have all the symptoms in a particular “pattern,” but having 2 or 3 symptoms is enough to indicate the presence of that pattern. On the next page is a list of common patterns and their corresponding symptoms.
