How can Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, and Osteopathy help me?Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, and Osteopathy can help you get fast, effective, long-term relief from pain, injury, and hidden trauma. Patients typically seek these “alternative” options to promote self-healing mechanisms, improve overall function of the body, decrease “wear and tear” of their body, reduce recovery time of injury, and much more!
Using a holistic approach, the basic philosophy of Chinese Medicine and Osteopathy is to treat the cause, and not just the symptoms.
Now, let’s delve into each modality a little further, shall we?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a unique healing system developed in China over 2000 years ago. It was one of the first medical practices to shed light on the relationship between people and the environment.
You may have heard of qi, pronounced “chee.” You can think of Qi as a ball of vital life energy that flows effortlessly throughout a healthy, optimally functioning body. When there are obstructions to the flow of Qi, the body cannot perform functions at its highest level, causing disharmony, and in some cases, illness and disease. Not only can TCM help the body treat illness, but it can also help you strengthen your body’s defenses so it self-heals faster and more effectively.
When East Meets West…
Chinese Medicine is now gaining increased popularity in the Western world, with many turning to various forms of Chinese medicine to treat a wide range of issues including pain, injury, allergy, sinusitis, infertility, depression, and much more.
Acupuncture is an ancient technique that involves the insertion of hair-thin, sterile needles through your skin at strategic “pressure points” on your body called acu-points.
Sound scary? Have no fear – for most people, this process is completely painless, and even relaxing. In fact, many patients fall asleep during acupuncture.
Why get treated with Acupuncture? Well, for starters, it has been clinically proven to be effective in reducing or eliminating the need to take drugs to control pain or symptoms arising from illness or injury. In addition to pain relief, it is also helpful in treating anxiety, insomnia, digestive problems, the common cold, menstrual problems, weight control, infertility and much, much more.
Aside from Acupuncture, here are various other techniques that may be applied as part of your treatment plan including:
This involves the burning of Mugwort (a spongy herb) on top of needles or directly on the skin to promote healing.
Cups are placed on the skin to create suction. This ancient form of therapy mobilizes blood flow to promote the healing of a broad range of ailments.
Chinese massage applied to the channels of Qi and various other acupuncture points if necessary.
Additionally, electro-acupuncture is another technique that involves stimulating various parts of the body using extremely thin needles with an electric charge.
Osteopathy is a way of detecting, treating and preventing health problems by finding the root cause of pain. By moving, stretching and massaging a person’s muscles and joints, osteopathy can help increase mobility, comfort, and optimize health.
Osteopathy is based on the principle that the wellbeing of an individual depends on their bones, muscles, ligaments and connective tissue functioning smoothly together. Its unique approach enables practitioners to determine the environmental, and even the emotional causes in a person’s life that may be hindering their body’s innate ability to heal itself.
When the body struggles to heal itself, there may be an onset or reoccurrence of symptoms.
Picture this: If you fell out of a tree when you were a child, you could just shake it off and be “back to new” within mere minutes. But if you fell out of a tree now, you would have lost the ability to shake it off. So, as an osteopathic practitioner, I help you re-install this ability.
