A first appointment with a TCM practitioner will have some notable differences from a standard medical visit. You’ll likely be asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire and health history in advance, with questions about your primary complaint, what makes it better or worse, your diet, exercise habits, sleep, stress level, mood, family history, and any other symptoms. The provider will then target specific areas for follow-up questions.
At the appointment, the practitioner will likely observe your complexion, body composition, and the color and coating of your tongue. They may also pay attention to the smell of your breath and the sound of your voice — whether it’s shouty or singsong, forceful or whispery. All these observations offer information on your qi and the balance of yin and yang.
They will also likely feel your pulse. “Each wrist has three sections, and each section has three layers. Every section represents a different organ system,” says Di Guan, LAc, DAOM, who practices acupuncture and Chinese medicine at Shén Acupuncture and Meditation Studio in Minneapolis. There are 28 pulse types, according to Shicai Li, a Chinese-medicine doctor who lived about 350 years ago; each provides insight into possible excesses or stagnation in the body.
“Combining all the information we get subjectively and objectively from these methods, we diagnose you with your pattern and decide what acupoints and herbal treatments will address that imbalance,” Guan adds.
Many treatment plans call for one to three visits per week for several weeks. Depending on the circumstances, you may notice an improvement in symptoms soon after the first visit, or it may take a few treatments before you feel better. Healing with TCM is like so many things: Slow and steady wins the race.
This was excerpted from “How Does Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Support Your Health and Well-Being?” which was published in Experience Life.
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