So you’re sick – or at least not 100% well. Maybe you’ve been experiencing some symptoms for a while and you’re sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. A friend or coworker tells you that you need to pay a visit to Nature’s Balance – but you’ve never been to an Acupuncturist or Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner before, and so you’re a little hesitant. If this sounds like you – or if you just want to understand the “process” more – this blog’s for you. In this 5-part series, we’re going to discuss what to expect when you come to Nature’s Balance – starting with your first visit and going through your entire journey to wellness.

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Anita.

Anita who?

Anita appointment ‘cause I’m not feeling so good!

 

Health History

Prior to arriving at Nature’s Balance, we ask that you complete a comprehensive health history. Traditional Chinese Medicine maintains that everything is a matter of balance and harmony. The life force that runs through our bodies is called Qi (pronounced “chee”), and healthy Qi is achieved when yin forces and yang forces are in balance. When our yin-yang forces are in out of balance, symptoms and illness result.  This harmony is important not only in our bodies as a whole, but in each individual organ and organ system. As such, the health history that you will complete is broken down by organ and organ function – with very specific questions about symptoms pertinent to each specific organ function. The more questions you answer ‘yes’ to, the sicker that organ is. Your answers to these questions will steer your Practitioner to the root cause of your disharmony and provide a starting point for your treatment.

When you arrive with your competed health history, you will meet with our Case Manager, who is responsible for making sure you receive the care you need, and to answer any questions you have about TCM, the process, and your individual treatment plan. You will also meet our front desk staff, who is responsible for scheduling your appointments as well as sending appointment reminders and handling any changes you may need.

 

Initial Evaluation Meetings

During your initial evaluation meeting, our Case Manager will use your completed health history as a roadmap, and will dig deeper into anything that is indicative of an imbalance in one or more of your organ systems. How long you have been experiencing each symptom, and to what degree, will give your Case Manager critical insight into your disharmony – because, remember, everything is a matter of balance; a yin deficiency in one area means there is a yang overage somewhere else.

 

Oriental Medical Exam

Next, Janine (our licensed Acupuncturist and Clinic Director) will conduct a TCM exam. At this point, Janine has no prior knowledge of your particular situation or symptoms. This ensures that your exam is completely objective and is not influenced by any particular symptom that you may have indicated in your health history. She will assess your condition through observation of such indicators as your skin (its color, moisture, and luster), your spirit (alertness, sluggishness, level of energy), eyes (color, brightness, and clarity), body shape and demeanor. These can all be signs of specific yin-yang imbalances.

Most importantly, Janine will conduct a tongue diagnosis. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the tongue is one of the most important indicators of organ disharmony. The color and condition of the tongue body, the presence of cracks or the type of coating on the tongue, the tongue’s size and softness are all important factors that can indicate specific sources of your illness or imbalance. She will then conduct an analysis of your pulse – another critical indicator of illness. There are 3 pulses on each wrist that relate to the organs in the body.  Janine is less interested in how fast or slow the pulse is, which is key to an allopathic exam, but she is more interested in the texture of the pulse; how it feels under her finger tips.  Does the pulse feel like bamboo in water?  Does it feel like rope?  Does it feel thin like a piece of thread or does it feel like a stream?  Can she only feel the pulse very superficially or does she have to push deep to feel the pulse?  All of these provide important insight into how your organs are functioning and what the root cause of your problem may be.

 

Treatment Recommendations

Once your health history and examination results are compared and analyzed, Janine will then make a treatment recommendation of between three to five treatments.  These treatments will help her ascertain how well you respond to acupuncture. This will also help her determine if acupuncture alone will be enough to successfully treat your condition or whether it will be just one part of a holistic treatment plan.  Janine will always treat the entire body during each acupuncture treatment.  However, in order to clearly understand how you respond to the treatment, one pain that you are experiencing is typically chosen as a “marker” to monitor in order to determine your response rate to the treatments. Throughout the evaluation process, we will ensure that you completely understand the acupuncture treatment process, how it works, and why it works.

 

Conclusion

So what comes next? That will be the topic of our upcoming sequel – “I think I’m sick – Now what? – Part II”. After that, we’ll discuss re-evaluations, ongoing treatment plans, diet and supplements. We’ll also hear from some of our past and present patients about their experiences with Nature’s Balance Wellness Center.

Interested in how we might be able to help you achieve optimal health, visit our Facebook page for more tips and client testimonials or give us a call at 815.788.8383!