Like acupuncture in China, herbal medicine has been alive and well as an ancient form of medicine from the smallest rural villages to the largest cities for thousands of years. Today, herbs in China are still harvested at specific times of year, dried and sliced according to tradition. An herbalist mixes a number of these herbs into a specific prescription based on a patient's diagnosis, and the patient then decocts the herbs (boils them to extract the medicinal ingredients) into a tea.

At Middle Path Acupuncture I understand that, in this modern society, we need natural medicine now more than ever. However we tend to be so busy that boiling herbs for 1-2 hours on the stovetop everyday is not always possible. Modern processing of herbal medicine into concentrated tablets and powders has undergone its own stages of refinement. We can now get the benefits of potent herbal medicine with the convenience of being able to carry a bottle of herbal pills with us or keep them on the shelf with our vitamins.

Unlike those of pharmaceutical drugs, side effects from properly prescribed herbal medicine are very rare.

My diagnosis and treatment with Chinese medicine does not seek to just treat or cover up symptoms, but rather identify the root causes of the imbalance in a patient's body that is causing the symptoms to appear and address them all.

Herbal medicine encompasses everything from roots, leaves and vines to minerals, mushrooms, seashells and fruits. At Middle Path Acupuncture, I do not support or use any herbal products made from any endangered species or inhumanely collected from animal sources. I only carry herbal concentrate powders and pills that have undergone thorough third party testing for guaranteed safety, purity and potency.