Frequently Asked Questions
At your first consultation Dr. Francis will go over the main reasons you’re coming in. He will go over your prior and current health history, read any relevant lad data, as well as perform any necessary diagnostic and physical exams. If you’re found to be a good candidate for our services, your first Acupuncture procedure can be the same day.
Consultations are necessary since we all have different needs, health expectations, and views when it comes to our health and healing. Most people are quite unsure if acupuncture can address their problem and even unsure how acupuncture can help them. After many years in practice, we’ve found that an initial consultation enables a more personalized and effective healing journey that yields better results.
Acupuncture points will be gently activated, after which you’ll relax, often entering a deep “power nap”.
The number of acupuncture treatments you’ll need varies based on your unique clinical presentation, age, health, severity of illness and discomfort, as well as the length of time you’ve had this condition.
For acute problems, typically one to three treatments a week for 4-5 weeks is recommended.
For more chronic, hard to treat cases, one or two treatments a week for several months is the course of treatment.
For health maintenance, we recommend monthly tune ups.
Because acupuncture effects and benefits are cumulative, acupuncture treatment is repeated 2-4 times weekly, until momentum and maximum improvement is gained. Then a maintenance protocol is set to prevent relapse. Maintenance treatments may be as little as 1-2 times monthly.
Herbs address the whole body, not just symptoms. Herbs are always used to treat the Root Cause and never to just suppress symptoms. Herbal medicine also avoids the undesirable side effects that come with many western pharmaceutical solutions to health issues.
Results always vary patient to patient. But I have seen AMAZING results within a few days of taking herbs and also seen results after 1 year. As you drink your herb tea daily, often within days, to weeks to months you’ll see full results.
No! This question is asked all the time, because people get such great benefits from the herbs that they want to share. But all herbs are made into customized formulas for each individual patient. Just because herbs are 100% natural and lab-tested, it doesn’t mean they are applicable to everyone. It’s very common for 2 people with the same symptoms to receive completely different formulas, because herbs treat the patients physiology, not just their symptoms.
Yes, we only source organic and lab-tested herbs from THE MOST PRISTINE and AUTHENTIC growing regions. At Heal Natural Clinic we pride ourselves in offering an authentic pharmacy for our patients and the Eastside community. Greatly concerned about herbal safety, quality and authenticity, we only source our herbs from the most reputable sources with uncompromising standards in herbal quality. Since antiquity, its been known that THE BEST QUALITY HERBS come from specific Geographically Authentic dào dì 道地, ethically sourced and time-honored growing regions. Just as a wine connoisseur knows the exact terroir, or sense of place, that a wine growing regions imparts to a bottle of wine, so too does East Asian Medicine care for the terroir of every single individual herb. These regions have been preserved over the thousands of years and are still being actively protected to support the ancient trade-routes, ancient farming and processing techniques and availability of these medicinal substances. We only use GMP certified, organic, cutting edge lab tested herbal suppliers. By using modern lab assays, we are able to support this ancient wisdom and thus ensure its availability and perpetuity into the future.
Trigger points result from an overloaded muscle that can come on suddenly or develop chronically. Everyone has at least a few trigger points. The causes of trigger points include:
- Bad posture
- Sitting at a computer for too long
- Sitting on a wallet (big or small) in your back pocket
- Shouldering a heavy purse or backpack
- Poor lifting and body mechanics
- Poorly fitted shoes
- Limping, incl. when using crutches
- Repetitive motions
- Car accidents, sports injuries
Dry Needling is essentially just a new name for an ancient therapy, called Acupuncture. Many trigger points line up directly with “painful points” ā shì xué 阿是穴. These “painful points” have always been paramount in Acupuncture when treating physical pain, numbness, tingling or burning due to inhibited circulation or nerve impingement, as well as a range of motion issues. Furthermore, East Asian Medicine knows that one reason for premature aging is because people have non-addressed “painful points” in their channels, tendons and muscles which disrupt blood flow, shorten their circulatory channels, and make movement less fun and bothersome! The release of these “painful points”, or newly named Trigger Points, is nothing new to East Asian Medicine.