Welcome to Longevity Mountain Herbs Blog where the senior herbalist shares his thoughts and your concerns. Our main focus here will be to share solutions to common ailments that plague all of us . By all of us that includes me, the senior herbalist, Mark Hammer, C.M.H., my clients, future clients, students of alternative health, and so on. I promise to do more than just advertise, promote our Chinese medicine formulas and other company products that I believe in. This blog mission is to look deeply at the underlying conditions in the body that are supporting the main complaint. And then, again, look deeper, expand further, to see not only the underlying cause, but also, how it relates to other body systems and their indirect relationship to the overall condition.
At Longevity Mountain Herbs, we look at assessment based on your constitution or body type:
Hot <————–> Cold
Damp <———–> Dry
Deficient <——> Excess
In the Clinic We See
Most clients will have conditions that include two and three constitution types where the complexity becomes very difficult to unravel. However, that is what we are here for – to make sense of the layering and attack it so balance is re-established as quick as the body will allow. The end goal of the herbalist and client is to reach the neutral point between the three (3) continuum above.
At Longevity Mountain Herbs, a major emphasis is placed on assessment. In fact, most times, I strongly request the client to allow 24 hours for me consider all the conditions, carefully, before making any recommendations about herbal remedy and supporting regimens. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are Tiers of Practice that have been accepted for thousands of years. However, Chinese medicine is being practiced differently in the United States and can no longer claim Traditional as apart of its name in most practices. Here, Chinese medicine education trains most of its practitioners to apply the strongest regimen as opposed to graduating the intensity of treatment The new version jumps to applying acupuncture rather than starting at the initial tiers. In order to discern the difference, the traditional tiers follow:
Tiers of Practice
Longevity Mountain Herbalists begin the correction process by:
First Level – Food Therapy
providing the client with a diet (food therapy) that counters their constitution. The diet’s aim is bring about balance by reversing the improper diet that was a major contributor to the negative condition.
Second Level – Herbal Therapy
preparing herbal formula that is specifically customized for the client’s imbalance. This formula has concentrated ingredients known for their synergistic effect. These are not single herb wonders. These are a combination of herbs studied for effectiveness for hundreds to thousands of years by generations of master herbalists.
Third Level – Exercise: Tai Chi and Qi Gong
instructing TaiChi, Qigong, and other life energy restoring exercises. The primary aim here is to help the person learn to amass their energy rather than deplete it in exercise and life activities.
Fourth Level – Acupuncture and Cupping
administering acupuncture, cupping for individuals who need their energy channels unblocked or re-balanced and blood obstructions removed. It is considered more aggressive and effective when tailored to the client’s needs.
Other Chinese Medicine Methods
1) “Guasha” (the use of spoons to apply friction to the skin)
2) “Moxi-bustion” (burning mugwort to heat the acupoints)
3) “Tuina” (chinese massage)
4) “Chu” (non-invasive alternative to acupuncture, employs a set of acupoint tools)
5) “Electro-acupuncture” (minor electro-stimulation of key acupuncture points)
Summary
The appropriate management of a client’s movement back to health allows the patient to move from Level 1, 2, 3, 4, naturally. Graduating to stages 3 & 4 is done when the individual demonstrates the vitality and stamina essential to support the advanced strategies. When the client is ready to move from the lower stages or the beginning stages, only then, do you introduce the more activating and aggressive methods.
I know this can be a bit much and I hope its not too confusing. However, this is what I am thinking about and lets you know where I am coming from. I hope you will enjoy the solutions, video and feedback from clients I have worked with. Please come back and see us!