Chinese Herbal Medicine F.A.Q.
Q: What is acupuncture and how does acupuncture work?
A: Acupuncture is the insertion of fine needles into the body at
specific points to restore harmony to one's energy flow. (Back to Top)
Q: Does acupuncture hurt?
A: For the most part, no. However, if you're weaker in certain areas,
you may feel a little pressure, soreness and/or numbness. (Back to Top)
Q: Are the needles reused?
A: Acupuncturists today use sterilized, individually packaged,
disposable needles to avoid the possibility of transmitting
communicable diseases. (Back to Top)
Q: How many treatments will I need?
A: It depends on the duration, severity and nature of the illness. You
may need only a single treatment for an acute condition. A series of
five to fifteen treatments may resolve many chronic problems. Some
degenerative conditions may require more treatments over time. (Back to Top)
Q: Could acupuncture conflict with any Western medical treatments I may be receiving at the moment?
A: No. Acupuncture basically stimulates your own immune system to cure
the illness. However, if the patient is already physically too weak, we
would recommend against getting acupuncture. (Back to Top)
Chinese Herbal Medicine F.A.Q.
Q: Why herbal medicine?
A: Chinese herbal medicine is used as an addition to acupuncture to
assist in the healing process. The herbs influence the organs and
acupuncture channels, or also known as meridians. (Back to Top)
Q: Are there any conflicts between herbal medicine and any medicine I may be taking now?
A: It completely depends on what medicine you're taking now. It's very
important that you make sure your Chinese medicine practioner knows
what other medicine you may be currently taking. (Back to Top)
Q: What is herbal medicine made out of?
A: All herbal medicine are made with natural plants and minerals. The
herbs are then cooked and made into either tablet or granule form.
Finally, the herbs are tested in modern labs before they are released
to the market. Our clinic carries Gloden Flower and KPC brand Chinese herbs. (Back to Top)
Q: What does herbal medicine taste like?
A: Usually tonifying herbal medicine tastes a little sweet. Herbal
medicine that clears heat tastes a little bitter. Herbal medicine that
moves your qi, or energy, tastes a little pungent. (Back to Top)
Q: Are there any side effects to herbal medicine?
A: In general, herbal medicine doesn't have side effects. However, if
you're pregnant, there might be some herbs that you should avoid
taking. (Back to Top)
Q: What do you use for moxibustion?
A: Mainly mugwort leaf because it has strong warming and penetrating
function to disperses cold and alliviates pain. Sometimes, we may need
to add some other herbal medicine for special purposes. (Back to Top)
Q: How do you do the moxibustion?
A: A moxibustion stick is lit and placed on proper acupuncture points
necessary to create warmth and improve circulation. (Back to Top)
Q: Why do I need a moxibustion treatment?
A: the main function of moxibustion is warming, so as long as there is
a cold sign, such as constipation due to cold accumulation in the
intestine or cold congealed in abdominal muscles then moxibustion in
that area will help the movement of intestines. Moxibustion can also
help with frost bites. (Back to Top)
Q: How often do I need a treatment?
A: The practitioner will prescribe moxibustion treatment base on
diagnosis. Usually if there is a cold, stagnation involved the
moxibustion will take care of it. (Back to Top)
Q: What does moxibustion feel like?
A: There are mainly two kinds of moxibustion treatment, one is direct
moxibustion treatment which the moxa material will be placed directly
on the skin. But to avoid any unnecessary inflammation we usually don't
adopt this method in our clinic. The other one is indirect moxibustion
which is conducted with ginger slice, garlic slice, salt and some other
herbs as a medium between the moxa and the skin to enhance the moxa
effect and to avoid unnecessary burns. (Back to Top)
Q: What is auricular therapy?
A: Auricular therapy is a subject which deals with the diagnosis and
treatment of disease by the observation and use of the auricle. There
are corresponding points on the ear for all the human organs, tissues
and systems. (Back to Top)
Q: How do you do auricular therapy?
A: After the regular acupuncture office visit interview we check the
ear shape, size, skin texture, skin color, vessels mapping etc. with
probe or electric detecting device to ensure the correct points are
selected. After the points decided practitioner will use either
filiform needle or vacarria seeds paster to apply on the selected
points. (Back to Top)
Q: What can auricular therapy cure?
A: Generally speaking, the auricular therapy can take care most of the disease or discomfort. (Back to Top)
Q: How often do I need auricular therapy?
A: Usually the auricular therapy is done with body acupuncture. Some
times, it can be just auricular seed therapy by itself if the patient
really can't take any needle treatment. Discuss with your practitioner
how often you need to come back and more details about how to do the
auricular therapy. (Back to Top)
Q: What does auricular therapy feel like?
A: For It feels like a mosquito sting and maybe a little soreness
similar to the feeling of acupuncture. The vacarria seed paster usually
feels warm on the spots. It's recommended to keep the seed pasters on
for three to four days unless it falls off by itself before then. (Back to Top)
Q: What is cupping?
A: Cupping is a method of treatment in Chinese medicine which a jar is
attached to the skin surface to cause local congestion through the
negative pressure created by introducing heat in the form of an ignited
material. This type of treatment has been practice by the Chinese, the
Arab and South American Indians for thousand of years. (Back to Top)
Q: What does cupping do?
A: Cupping has the function of warming and promoting the flow of energy
in the blood this dispelling cold dampness, toxic and winds. It is also
diminishing swellings and pains. (Back to Top)
Q: What kinds of problems can cupping cure?
A: Cupping responded very well with the following problems: Diseases
caused by dampness, such as low back pain, lumbago, sciatica, pain the
arms and shoulders, pain in the legs and muscular part of the body,
stomachache, vomiting, headache, migraine, sprains, insomnia etc. (Back to Top)
Q: What are the tools used in cupping treatment?
A: Ancient time people will use animal horn to suck out the pus, or
they will use bamboo jar. Modern time we use glass jars which are easy
to clean and easy to monitor the cupping progress. We use alcohol
soaked cotton ball, ignite it and put it into the cup to create a
vacuum then remove the cotton ball immediately and place the cup on
selected position. (Back to Top)
Q: What would happen after the cupping?
A: There is no pain involved during and after cupping. Usually if there
is stagnation then the skin on the cupping area will becomes congested
with violet colored blood stasis formation. It'll look like big hickies
which will go away few days later. (Back to Top)
Q: Does everyone have stuck emotional patterns?
A: Yes, we've found this to be true. While our emotions bring richness
to our lives, many times they don't fully resolve on their own. When
they don't, their residual charge can diminish our health, affect our
relationships and sabotage our sucess. (Back to Top)
Q: Why are stuck emotions stored in the body?
A: No one knows for sure. It seems emotions don't resolve properly at
times when our body's resistance is compromised. Our job is to find
these unresolved emotions and help you finally discharge them in a
healthy way. (Back to Top)
Q: Does this take the place of psychotherapy?
A: No. Locating and resolving these emotional snapshots from the past
does not take the place of counseling, analysis or other types of
therapy. Actually, many psychotherapists use NET in their practice.
Rest assured that we make appropriate referrals as necessary. (Back to Top)
Q: Why are homeopathic remedies sometimes recommended?
A: Since emotional patterns are stored in the body, long-standing
negatively-charged emotional patterns can often deplete or weaken
affected tissues. The remedies we use help promote healing and the
return of balance and harmony. (Back to Top)
Q: What is an Advanced JMT Treatment like?
A: Initially, your practitioner will review an intake of your medical
history and current complaints and may choose to do a more extensive
examination to determine the most effective way for addressing your
needs. Following this, the practitioner will request you to sit on an
exam table or backless chair and maintain resistence with an isolated
muscle in your arm as s/he applies light stress to the muscle while
asking specific questions. It is important that you allow the
practitioner to focus on the test without interruptions. During the
test, if a specific question should create a temporary weakness or
change in the muscle, it may indicate the need for the practitioner to
provide tapping, massaging, or percussing using a device along the
spine to make the correction and then resume muscle testing. The
tapping is not uncomfortable in any way. The length of treatment is
determined by the practitioner but commonly takes fifteen to thirty
minutes. (Back to Top)
Q: Who can benefit from Advanced JMT Treatment?
A: Years of clinical research testing the effectiveness of the
technique contiually demostrate a significant percentage of improvement
in the majority of patients in all age groups seeking care for a wide
range of health problems (Back to Top)
Q: What is ear candling?
A: Ear Candling is a technique that dates back as far as Biblical
times, when hollow reeds from swamp areas were utilized as candles. It
has been passed down for many generations by the North and South
American natives, (especially the Hopi Indians now located in Arizona),
as well as the Egyptian, African, Oriental and European cultures. The
process had been basically lost for numerous years, but has come back
into practice again and is now being used by a wide variety of people. (Back to Top)
Q: How does ear candling work?
A: The burning candle acts like a chimney and draws from the ear. The
drawing effect, plus the warmth of the candle relaxes the body, thus
giving back to the body the ability to heal itself. Once relaxed, the
body starts to function naturally to heal itself, the wax starts to
move again, the circulation returns to the whole head area. In the
outer ear, we have reflex or pressure points, (the same as in hand and
foot reflexology). As we work around the ear area, these reflex points
are stimulated by the warmth of the candle and the stimulation of these
reflexes can assist in wellness of other areas of the body as well. (Back to Top)
Q: Does ear candling hurt?
A: Absolutely not! There is no discomfort. It is a very relaxing and
soothing therapy. Most people nod off to sleep during this treatment. (Back to Top)
Q: How long does it take?
A: It takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to burn 4 candles. (Back to Top)
Q: At what age can ear candling treatment be performed?
A: This can be done on anyone over 3 years old. One of the main
considerations in candling younger children is whether or not they can
sit still long enough to perform the treatment. (Back to Top)
Q: Who should not receive the ear candling treatment?
A: Anyone who has in the last year had any ear, nose, throat or sinus
surgery or has had tubes in their ears in the last year. The same holds
true of anyone with tumors in the ear, a punctured or bleeding ear drum
or any other serious ear conditions. (Back to Top)