Chinese Herbal Medicine

One of our strongest pillars at YAO is the practice and application of Chinese Herbal Medicine. YAO Market houses one of the largest granular herbal pharmacies on clinical location within the United States. Our comprehensive pharmacy allows for our physicians in house and other physicians practicing external to YAO to have access to an extremely broad range of botanical options when formulating for patients. Smaller offices often practice using a more financially manageable and practical number of herbs either in granular, capsule or tea pill form. Though this methodology of prescription can work quite well, it has the simple draw back of limiting options for creating the appropriate formula for the imbalance that presents with their patient population.

RAW HERBS AS YOU KNOW THEM

When most people come to Chinese Medicine for the first time, they are often exposed to Chinese Herbal medicine in a formulation of raw herbs. These herbs are all packaged up in a lovely romantic package which the patient is then to go home and cook. This can be quite challenging for Americans.

1. When you cook them, your entire house smells like the herbs which can be quite strong and offensive to both you and to those with whom you co-habitate.
2. The traditional herbal formulas were designed to be cooked in a very special manner in a very special cooking cauldron. When done in the appropriate way, one herb harnesses the power of the other herb and assists in unleashing its power to do what is expected in the formula. Unfortunately, what generally happens is that people take them home, put them on the stove and boil them. This does not allow for appropriate extraction of active ingredients within the formula.
3. They are difficult to drink

GRANULAR (OR POWDERED) HERBS

We have found that an easier approach is to use the granular herbal extractions. There is a bit more math involved…so make sure your practitioner is good with calculations…they are not easy…but they are much easier to take. Granular herbs are the individual herbal extractions OR the formulaic extractions encased in a digestible and usually fairly dissolvable starch. This methodology allows for the patient to take anywhere from 2-15 grams of formula dissolved in water anywhere from 1 – 3X a day. Very very simple. It does not smell up the entire house and can be done quickly. Patients mix with water, tea, juice, soup and more.

ENCAPSULATION

Warning…just because we say it’s easier to take does NOT mean it tastes good. It also doesn’t mean it will taste bad either. It’s a little hit or miss based on what the physician determines the patient needs. We can not make it taste better, but we can encapsulate the herbs if you really can’t get them down. We do charge an encapsulation fee $9 for every 300 capsules.

HIGH QUALITY HERBS AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE

YAO’s commitment to high quality herbs both granular and raw is extremely important to us. Additionally important is how our patients’ pocket book handles our commitment to the use of a high quality herb. We will often formulate base formulas in house to save our patients extra pennies, dollars and more. We are also always searching for the next best, latest greatest ways of delivering these fabulous botanicals to patients and we have some exciting journeys around this ahead! Cutting edge people…cutting edge!

FORMULA CONSULTATION – 15 MINUTE VISIT

We do offer a formula consultation appointment for those of you interested in this branch of Chinese Medicine. We do generally require that you already be an established patient whereby you have completed the Initial Visit Appointment; however, if you are experiencing a cold or flu or acute condition, we will do everything we can to get you in to see our doctor and see what we can do for you.

During the formula consultation a YAO doctor will use Chinese Medical diagnostics to establish the imbalance. The doctor will then take time to research the most appropriate formulation for what has presented within the patient. If you are interested in learning more, please click through to our YAO Medicine Visits.