Self-Observation (often asked questions in acupuncture diagnosis)

The diagnosis of Chinese medicine in a large degree depend on objective and subjective symptoms told by patient, like how is your bowel movement? is your nose congested in the morning? What kind of pain is it?

In Chinese medicine, not only does we look at your main complain, but we also want to understand the over-all condition of your body, and figure out the best way to treat it according to our theory. Some questions we ask, or some symptoms we focus on might not seemed related to what you came for, but please take it serious as we do, because they might be important for us to help you.

So to make sure you can tell us more clear, more exact condition of your body, we suggest you to pay attention to what’s happening to it, or even take a note.  (If you did take note, you can even email it to us before you come) You are the one who knows the best of how you feel, so we want to get the best access to it from you.

Here is some questions we often ask:

• Do you feel [cold / hot] easily?
  (when others don’t feel as much)
• Does your [hand / feet] turn cold at night or when weather is cold?
• Do you perspire normally?
• Do you usually [drink ice-cold drinks / often eat cold things like ice cream / unheated meal]
  
• Is there any [pain / abnormal feeling] on your body?
  Including headache, menstrual related pain and etc..If there is, what kind of feeling is it. (cramp, stabbing, dull, etc)
  Is there any [time in a day / position / things you do] increase or decrease the pain?
• Is your menstrual cycle regular? Is there any clot?
• How is your appetite ? Do you [feel fullness for a long time / gas / often food coma] after eat?
• How is your bowel movement ?
  Is it [regular everyday / hard to come out / dry / diarrhea / come out little by little / is the color normal]
• How is your urination ?
  Is it [regular / having abnormal feeling / hard to come out / having abnormal color]
• How is your sleep ?
  Are you [easy / hard] to fall asleep, [easy to wake up / having lot of dreams / don’t feel rested after sleep]?
  Is there certain time zone you wake up at night?
• Do you feel thirsty during the day, or at night?
  (there’s difference between you really feel thirsty and drinking water for health or habit)
• Is there any taste in your mouth when you wake up in the morning or during the day?(often bitter or greasy)
• How’s your emotion ?
  Do you feel lot of pressure / easy to cry / easy to get mad / frustrated?
  Do you think it is effecting your body?
  (for example, acid reflux and gastric ulcer are often cause by emotion)

– ORANGE ACUPUNCTURE, WINSTON WANG