What we offer
At South Austin Community Acupuncture we stock a wide range of Chinese herbal products:
Mostly we direct our patients to Chinese patent medicines, which means formulas in pill or tablet form, because for most people it's usually easier to deal with pills or tablets than it is herbal teas.
We also stock Taiwanese granulated herbal extracts, which are consumed most commonly by adding hot water to make an instant tea, as well as dried Chinese herbs which are most commonly decocted (a boiling process) to make a tea, for either internal or topical use. The main benefit to these formats is that we can customize a prescription, whereas the drawback for most people is taste. Additionally, in the case of cooking raw herbs, the time required for preparation is an issue for many.
Several factors go into our choice of how we deal with a problem herbally. First, of course, is the question of necessity. Are herbs even needed? Then we try to determine how we can get the most effect by doing the least. We want herbs to be do-able for the patient, and so we consider cost as well as issues of compliance - dosage, frequency, taste, etc.,
