Website: www.HarmonyAIM.com Email: HemingZhuCMD@gmail.com Tel: 410-491-3888

Address: 9256 Bendix Road, Ste 207, Columbia, MD 21046. Next to the Howard County Court House.

1. Practice SEESAWS: the best thing is that you don’t get sick. To do so, you need to balance and harmonize your life and optimize your self-healing ability. If you can balance the SEESAW, you will have fun. If you can balance the use of the body, rest, and nourishment, you will live a happy and healthy life.

   • Sleep well: Ensure sleep is sufficient and suitable.

   • Eat well: Eat three regular meals with balanced food. Avoid eating anything cold, fried, greasy, or spicy excessively.

   • Exercise well: moderately and regularly with proper forms.

   • Spirit well: manage your mind, spirit, and emotions well.

   • Acclimatize well: Live well by following the four seasons and weather. Stay warm to avoid the cold, and add more layers on cold days.

   • Work well: Manage ambitions, stress, and emotions, and live a balanced and peaceful life—keywords: Moderation and appropriateness.

   • See doctors: Get professional opinions when you have health issues and concerns.

2. Restore the healing process: this happens during the treatment.

   • Stage 1 of the healing process: Treat disease and symptoms. Requires consistent and regular treatments.

   • Stage 2: Build up the constitution. Strengthen Qi, Blood, Yin, and Yang and regulate Yin and Yang. This may slow down the treatment.

   • Stage 3: Live a harmonious life. Balance and harmonize body, mind, and spirit. Be well in life and work with nature. Merge Heaven and Humans into ONE to live healthier, longer, and younger. It will be your decision whether to reach this stage.

3. What will happen when you visit? During the first visit, an initial comprehensive evaluation will be done. Dr. Zhu will take your health history and conduct a physical exam. Reports of blood tests and imaging examinations will be collected. This information will be organized to create a diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It usually takes about an hour. After the interview, you may receive a treatment or an herbal formula if you feel ready. Treatment is not obligated if you don’t feel ready. The initial visit is about two hours. Subsequent treatment sessions are usually one to two hours each. Please consider a course of ten treatments first to try out the best combination of modalities and get a reasonable improvement. 

4.  How many treatments will you need?

After an initial consultation, the initial stage generally comes once or twice weekly to activate the healing process and build up the effects. It may take 10-20 treatments, delivered every week, bi-weekly, monthly, and seasonally. Each person is unique, so the frequency of treatment varies.

5. What modalities may be used in the acupuncture practice/treatments?

Acupuncture practice at Harmony AIM may use the following modalities or techniques. Technique-wise, acupuncture means needling, and it is one of them. An acupuncture session/treatment may include a consultation/re-evaluation and physical examination, followed by acupuncture (needling), moxibustion, electro-acupuncture, cupping, guasha, micro-bleeding, heat pad, bag, and lamp therapy, Chinese herbs, dietary/nutritional, and lifestyle recommendations. It is expected to use a combination of modalities rather than all of them in a single session.

6. How do acupuncture and moxibustion work to treat modern diseases effectively?

The Qi, or vital energy, flows through the Channel system to maintain the functions of the body, mind, and spirit. If Qi is deficient, excessive, or blocked, the human body will lose its functions, leading to symptoms and disease. In acupuncture practice, needles and/or moxa will be used to stimulate the acupoint along the channel to regulate Qi’s movement, so that the functions will be recovered. Simply put, acupuncture modulates Qi, while moxibustion warms and strengthens it. The Harmony AIM embodies Yin and Yang balance through equal use of acupuncture and moxibustion. In the busy, stressful modern society, most people have exhausted their vital Qi and Yang. So, the moxa treatment is combined, which produces better results than individual acupuncture.

Biomedical research and clinical trials have provided extensive evidence that acupuncture and moxibustion effectively treat modern diseases. If you are interested, you may search PubMed by the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA.

7. What should you do before you come to Harmony AIM?

If you are a new patient at the Harmony AIM clinic, complete the New Patient Intake Forms before you come. We will email you the Form after you have scheduled the initial consultation. You fill it out and bring it with you when you come. You may also get the lab tests and imaging examination reports if you have them.

The appointments can be rescheduled anytime if both you and I need to. Please give a 24-hour notice if you need to cancel.