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What to Expect

What to Expect

A Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) examination is thorough, yet non-invasive. Your TCM practitioner will take a careful medical history, noting your family history with illness and your own body's reaction to stress and its tendencies toward illness symptoms. They may observe the colour and form of your tongue - its shape, color, and coating (so please don't scrape your tongue before your appointment!). This provides important information on the way your circulation and metabolism is affecting your internal organs.

Your pulse will be felt at different points on each wrist, which allows the practitioner to understand what is happening inside different parts of your body. Considered together, this information gives the pracitioner a sense of your body's current functioning and allows a more thorough understanding of the proper treatment protocols and what will work best for you.

Your Red Dragon Alternative Medicine practitioner will discuss these findings with you and may prescribe a course of herbal medicine, acupuncture, change in diet, or more often a combination of these. Acupuncture involves the insertion of fine metal needles to stimulate certain points on the body while you lie on a bed, similar to a massage table. Once the needles are inserted they will be left in place while you relax and then removed at the end of the session. Depending on the condition being treated, a heat lamp may be positioned for additional healing. 

Duration and frequency of treatment depends on the complaint and the person's ability to change. Acute problems may require one to three visits over two weeks, whereas a course of acupuncture for a chronic problem may require up to a dozen treatments. These are usually once a week for four to six weeks and then fortnightly or monthly depending on the condition.

Herbal tonics for restoring healthy internal organ function may require weeks of use, whereas results for herbs for acute conditions can be seen within hours or days. Generally we say that each year you have had the problem will require a month of herbal treatment. For example, constipated for 12 months may take a month to rectify.

Each treatment is tailored to your own symptoms and individual body's functioning. Because it is a gentle, non-invasive therapy acupuncture may take several sessions depending on the condition being treated, and every body responds differently. Some people feel relaxed after a session while others feel re-energised. 

For more information about acupuncture see our frequently asked questions page.