It is important for our patients and their family to have confidence in the medical treatment they receive. It is both necessary and desirable that each patient participates in maintaining good health. The following is a list to assist potential patients of Traditional Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture at our clinics.

• Keep your appointments. If you must cancel or re-schedule, please let us know as early as you can, so that other patients can be scheduled for that time slot. Keep in mind that there are many follow-up appointments which are necessary for a TCM/holistic/natural treatment regimen. This is to ensure that the underlying imbalance is treated and not just the symptoms. This is even more important if you have a chronic illness or in other words a long-standing illness.
• Become an active participant. An acupuncturist will prescribe a regimen of natural medicinals, diet modifications, Chinese healing exercises, etc. Medical advice is always given for your benefit and your cooperation is essential outside our clinic. Another way to become an active participant in your health is by attending our workshops to help you understand a different approach to health. At these workshops, your acupuncture/TCM doctor will have more time to answer questions because he/she is not involved in direct patient care.
• Follow medical advice pertaining to natural medicinals whether it be herbal tea decoctions, external liniments, over-the-counter products, or other treatments. Do not be afraid of taking herbs even if you are on prescription drugs. In most states including California, Acupuncturists are the only health professionals who studied herbal medicine during medical school and have clinical training in herbs. Acupuncturists are also specifically licensed to prescribe and dispense natural medicinals. Patients, when under the supervision of a TCM doctor and are managed properly regularly and rarely have herb-drug or herb-food reactions occur. Overall, herbs are much safer than drugs.
• You are encouraged to give us a list of both drugs and non-drugs, other current therapies or if you are going to have surgery. If you do not remember the names of the medication, please ask the receptionist to give you an authorization form to fill out so that a med print out from your pharmacy can be fax over to our clinic. This information is used as a reference and will not interfere with the prescribing of herbs based on TCM holistic diagnosis/imbalances. Since most patients are on a multiple of drugs from their “M.D.” physicians, your acupuncturist will dose the herb/natural medicinals very low so to monitor your therapy properly.
• If your other health professionals/physicians have questions about any part of your medical care at our Center, It is highly recommended that you refer him/her to our resources such as website, medical articles we have written/published, workshops/classes, etc. From our experiences, these resources are very helpful to conventional allopathic physicians since the majority has little/no clinical training in TCM.
• Be sure to report any problems or difficulties you are having by calling our clinics during regular office hours, or if the difficulties you are experiencing is not urgent, sent us an email. The human body is very complex and people vary in their responses to therapy.