After 20 years of practice, the hardest thing about what I do is trying to explain it. Oriental medicine works just fine on Westerners, but it sure doesn’t translate into English. I can’t tell you exactly how this ancient alternative medicine works except to say that it balances energy in your body. You’ve seen the t’ai qi symbol: a white fish swimming in a circle with a black fish. The black fish is yin (cool, nutritive, “female” energy—think of yin as a tank of cool gasoline). The white fish is yang (pure fire, “male” energy). The white fish has a black eye, which means that within yang is the seed of yin, and vice versa. That is, there are no absolutes in Chinese medicine. It is a dynamic, constantly changing interplay of forces that maintain life.

There are six yin and six yang organs. They work together in husband/wife pairs. Each organ has two meridians, left and right. Meridians are rivers of energy moving through your body in very specific, known paths through which energy flows. Pain is due to blockage of qi (yang energy) and blood (yin energy) in a meridian. Acupuncture and herbs restore the flow of energy in blocked meridians, restoring function, managing and relieving pain.

If qi and blood energy are deficient, their flow through the meridians are slowed and more easily stopped, causing pain, and prolonging the process of healing. Herbs are used to tonify, or enrich, the qi and blood organs to maintain flow and to treat specific organ disease.