What Is It?
Practiced for over 2,000 years, Chinese herbal medicine is a primary component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It sees a disease condition as the result (or manifestation) of "imbalances" within the body, or between the body and various environmental factors. The aim of Chinese medicine is not to prescribe an herbal agent to treat a particular manifestation, but to help the patient's stressed organ systems operate in a more natural, balanced state.

Not everyone with the same disease can be given the same herbs because each individual's unique constitution and relationship to the environment is evaluated before an herbal prescription is devised.

How Does It Work?
Practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine seek to promote or restore health by diagnosing and treating "disharmonies" between organs or imbalances in your Chi.

What You Can Expect?
A practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine may be an acupuncturist, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine (O.M D.), or other health-care practitioner. Whatever practitioner you choose, the basic diagnostic examination you'll receive before any herbs are prescribed is essentially the same. In brief, the examination includes four parts:

• A visual exam. The practitioner will scrutinize your general physique, your facial expression, your complexion, and your tongue.

• Listening and smelling. Your breathing, other body sounds, and body odors are checked.

• Questioning. As with a medical history, many questions are asked about your symptoms and your health.

• Palpation. The practitioner will examine your body organs through the abdomen, at Chi points along the energy meridians, and at the pulse.


What Are The Benefits?
Treatment is based on combinations of traditional herbal formulas that have been developed over centuries to effectively bring balance and harmony to internal organ functions, eliminating pathological factors and strengthening the body's power of resistance.