New to Chinese Medicine? Start Here!
Welcome! I know Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can be confusing, but I’m here to help!
I’m Kelly LeGendre, a licensed acupuncturist, owner of Yong Sheng Herbs, and a practitioner of TCM for over 20 years. My goal is to help you find the right formula to help you feel better in your body, no matter where you’re starting.
What is TCM and how does it work?
Traditional Chinese Medicine is a complete system of medicine that’s existed in its current form for at least 3000 years. When working with an experienced practitioner, TCM can address almost any health issue.
As practitoners, we look at your symptoms then use that information to identify patterns of imbalance. Even if your symptoms seem uncommon or unrelated to each other, thousands of years of observation and refinement have revealed the predictable ways these patterns manifest themselves.
We address those patterns with formulas—mixtures of herbs that are combined in specific ratios to create a change in the body’s internal environment. When the pattern is resolved, the symptoms associated with it disappear.
How is TCM different than other types of herbal medicine?
In the west, herbalists tend to think in terms of single herbs that have broad actions. For example, turmeric for fighting inflammation, or milk thistle for general liver health. From there, one specific compound found in the herb is often identified as the “active consituent” and extracts of the plant are standardized for that specific compound—for example, curcumin for turmeric, or silymarin for milk thistle.
TCM takes the opposite approach.
Instead of using single herbs that have broad actions, we use combinations of herbs to create very specific effects in the body. If someone walks into my pharmacy looking for something to help with inflammation, I start asking questions… Where in the body is the inflammation showing up? How long have you been noticing symptoms? Is there swelling present? Redness? A feeling of heat? What makes the symptoms better? What makes them worse? Are you having any other symptoms along with the inflammation?
All of these things give me valuable clues into what’s happening inside of your body. In the west we tend to attribute a wide array of symptoms to systemic inflammation, but in TCM we treat inflammation in many different ways depending on how it’s showing up in your body. For example, inflammation of the joints is a indicative of a completely different pattern than inflammation that’s causing brain fog, digestive issues, or skin irritation. All four problems may have an inflammatory component, but each of them would be treated very differently in TCM.
While each of these conditions may require the use of anti-inflammatory herbs, the herbs used would be completely different depending on the symptoms you’re experiencing, if the condition is new or chronic, and how it responds to outside stimuli like heat, cold, pressure, specific foods, etc. Then we might combine the anti-inflammatory herbs with other ingredients to increase their action, moderate possible side effects, help direct the action to a specific location in the body, to cool heat or warm coldness, etc.
In this way we can create extremely targeted changes to resolve your specific symptoms more powerfully than can be acheived using single herbs with broad anti-inflammatory actions.
Do I need to see a practitioner to first?
Some patterns can only be diagnosed and treated by an experienced practitioner, but there are a lot of conditions that can be helped with formulas that are available over the counter.
I usually tell people to think of Yong Sheng like an herbal Walgreens… While we do fill custom herb prescriptions that are sent to us from TCM practitioners, we also have a full range of products that are available over the counter.
For acute conditions you could treat with something off the shelf at a regular pharmacy (like colds and flus, allergies, digestive upset, pain, occasional trouble sleeping, mild skin conditions, etc), we likely have an over the counter formula that will address your symptoms. Anything you’d need to see a doctor for (like conditions that are chronic or more serious in nature) will most likely require a visit to a practitioner.
How do I know which formula is right for me?
Many of the over the counter products we sell have been formulated by TCM herbalists with decades of clinical experience treating common complaints associated with sleep, stress, digestion, hormonal health, etc. As practitioners, we often see the same patterns showing up over and over and learn that specific combinations of herbs can treat a wide range of patients experiencing similar symptoms. Other times there are classic combinations that have been used for hundreds of years with excellent results that have become known as the go-to for certain conditions.
In either case, you should always let your current symptoms be your guide to finding the right formula. I’ve grouped some of the most common health concerns I treat with over the counter formulas into collections below. Read through the brief description of each collection for more information about associated symptoms, then click on individual products to read more about each formula.
I only stock products that are well formulated to effectively treat common conditions and am always adding more information to this site to help you figure out the best fit. For each health concern listed below, I’ve put together a brief guide to help you narrow things down. If you’re still having trouble deciding, send me a message here and we can set up a time to have a brief chat for a small consultation fee.