Chinese herbal medicine is effective as a primary or adjunctive treatment for a wide range of disorders that we treat at Hill Park Medical Center—from pain problems to metabolic and hormonal imbalances, insomnia, anxiety, depression, allergies, colds and flu, respiratory and intestinal complaints, fatigue, arthritis, inflammation and many other conditions.

The herbs I use are primarily concentrated extracts; extract granules are often preferable to both raw herbs and pills because of:

1. Convenience: A one week supply of herbs fits in a medium sized vitamin bottle - you can take them anywhere. The extract is precooked and only needs to mixed into a small amount of warm water. No pills to swallow so it makes taking your prescription easier.
2. Safety: The herbs are considered to be pharmaceuticals in Japan and Taiwan and are manufactured to pharmaceutical standards. The Japanese have stringent laws regarding the purity and cleanliness of the finished product. I believe this is the highest quality herbal product available.
3. Flexibility: As a practitioner, I have all the flexibility of a raw herb pharmacy, and the convenience of being able to use time tested classical formulas as building blocks. I can modify your prescription to fit your exact condition by adding, or subtracting ingredients or modifying the dosage of any ingredient. Pills are fixed, once they are made, they cannot be changed. If one ingredient in the pill is inappropriate for you, the whole pill will not be usable. It is often hard to find the perfect formula for your specific needs. With these formulas I can mix the ingredients so you need to take only one combination.

At Hill Park Medical Center we will carry about 280 single herbs, 50 traditional formulas, 30 commonly paired herbs and 20 unique formulas that I have designed over last five years.

I make make herbal diagnosis the traditional way by:

• Listening/Smelling: your voice, coughing sounds, odors
• Palpation: feeling the pulse, the abdomen, acupuncture points,
• Observation: looking at your face, movement patterns, and most importantly your tongue.
• Questions: about your condition and your history. Prescriptions are made by mixing individual herbs (from one to 15) or groups of herbs together. We mix the herbs for you right at Hill Park and there is no cooking or brewing involved.

We also carry patent formulas that so many of our patients have become used to and that do a wonderful job for long-term supplementation.

Now you have a choice. You can continue with your tried and true formulas or have a custom blend designed just for you.

Initial visits for herbal perscriptions are about 30 minutes and 15 minutes on follow-up visits. Herbal diagnosis is often done separately from acupuncture visits, although the steps are similar.
Starting in July 2006 Hill Park Medical Center will be offering appointments for herbal diagnosis and for formulas without the need for an acupuncture session at the same time.

—Dr. Joshua Margolis, DOM, L.Ac.