Advanced acupuncturist, teacher, lecturer, and clinic supervisor Alfred Pomerleau has worked with well over five thousand individuals. Skilled with multiple diagnostic approaches, he clears dysfunction with thoroughness, skill, and compassion. What matters most to Alfred is the ongoing and “Ascending Health” of his patients; he combines a wide range of well focused techniques to resolve and improve each client’s well being. Having studied with masters in extremely sophisticated diagnoses, his ongoing scholarship in, acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, and tuina qualify Alfred as a unique Santa Barbara professional. He unites a compassionate personal treatment style while also assisting patients in enhanced lifestyles…. his results are worth discovering.

Overview of Ascending Health Philosophy

Chinese Medicine is a thorough and natural system based on 5000 years of experience and tradition. For Ascending Health, Alfred Pomerleau blends Chinese Medicine, technology, and a clear understanding of the modern physical environment to facilitate the body’s own curative process. In a unique partnership with each individual, Alfred and the client establish a collaborative relationship to encounter illness/disease and guide the body’s remedial process to facilitate healing. As the healing partnership progresses, the client is supported and sources of dysfunction are removed.

Perhaps the kernel of Ascending Health can best be understood by looking at one of the fundamentals of Chinese Medicine. At the basis of Chinese Medicine is the concept of Root and Branch. It is said that symptoms such as pain, discomfort or dysbiosis are often the branch manifestation of a deeper disorder referred to as the root cause. Alfred assists in eliminating pathogens, detoxifying and rebuilding tissue that may be weakened or damaged by injury or illness…, going to the root cause of the illness, and always working with the individual’s natural healing process.

As the symptoms leave the body, the individual is more and more restored to an increasing state of well being. Four direct quotes may best summarize individual experience.

“I took the herbs Alfred prescribed for one month….and I feel like a new person.”

“I can’t believe how much my life has improved. I feel like I have a new body. I feel sensational.”

“After being released from the hospital for severe malnourishment I sought the guidance of Ascending Health. Two months later my medical doctor was shocked at my lab results and thought there was a mistake, there wasn’t. Thanks Alfred”

“When I began acupuncture I had an open mind. I also was a beginning runner. This being said I have gone to Alfred’s office with a multitude of sports injuries including a pulled groin, a twisted ankle, severe leg cramps, and hip pain. I am in awe that Alfred’s educated and caring approach has cut my recovery time from weeks to days. Highly recommended!”

Many individuals have found relief for:

Pain reduction: back (compressed disk), sciatica, headache, arthritis, inflamed and painful joints...
Complaints: Common cold, digestive, ulcers, pains, etc.
Men’s issues: Prostatitis, incontinence, impotence…
Women’s issues: Dysmenorrhea, infertility, menopause, breached babies, pregnancy pain, facilitation of labor…
Children: Earache, common cold, stomachache, asthma, acne, enuresis, aches & pains…
Disorders: Fibromyalgia, digestive, skin, ear problem...
Disharmonies: Insomnia, hair loss, depression, addictive disorders…
Imbalances: Being overweight, bi-polar syndrome, panic…
Post-Operative: Accelerating healing, detoxifying from strong anesthesia, rehabilitating…
Complimentary: Treatment of associated symptoms of chemotherapy, radiation…

Initial Visit

Conveniently located on Sola Street, Alfred Pomerleau’s practice is within the Santa Barbara Center for Natural Medicine. The receptionist guides you to his calmly relaxed professional office where an initial session begins.

A thorough intake is made to create a baseline; the visit addresses the immediate, primary complaint, proceeds to a specifically focused treatment, and culminates with recommendation of exercise, food, and, if appropriate, an herbal prescription.

Regular Hours
Monday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Rates
My rates are $90 per treatment with an initial visit fee of $45. Discounts are offered on request to seniors, students, or those experiencing financial hardships.

Appointments are also available on off days with prior arrangement or for emergencies.

Specific Individualized Treatments

After clear diagnosis is discerned. Treatment involves re-balancing the body, mind and spirit, expelling pathogens if present, detoxifying as required, and nourishing those aspects that are deficient, ultimately reestablishing a normal free flow of energy (Qi) in the body and stimulating the body’s natural healing power.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is the process of inserting thin surgical steel (typically) needles into specific points on the meridians of the body thereby directing the flow of Qi. Points are selected to treat the symptomatic condition presented and/or to treat the causative (root) factor.

Acupuncture remains the primary treatment modality associated with Oriental Medicine in the West. Nationally introduced in the 1970’s after a group of American Doctors (Nixon’s diplomatic relations) visited China where they observed the anesthetic effects of acupuncture. Since then the Occident has continued to explore its effectiveness, learned that acupuncture treats much more than pain, and in the last few years medical insurances have begun to pay for the services. A doctor of Oriental Medicine receives a license to practice medicine in California as a licensed acupuncturist, but the medicine is much more than acupuncture.

Bodywork

Bodywork including tuina, shiatsu, cupping, guasha, and others, along with acupuncture, treats the neurological, tendino-muscular, organ, and fascia body systems to alleviate pain and discomfort, and correct imbalances. These hands-on pressure techniques are used on corresponding acupuncture points and meridians to treat the organs and inner body, and on areas of pain or problems. All traumas affect the surrounding soft tissue and if unresolved can cause pain, restricted movement, and in more serious situations cause degeneration. Using manipulative techniques these soft tissues are released allowing healing to occur. The tissue realign according to their intrinsic structure and movement.
Occasionally, adhesions and scarring occurs inhibiting the complete healing or incorrect healing of injuries. In this case very specific manipulations are possible to correct the problem, releasing adhesions, breaking down scars, and freeing the joint and tissue to move and function normally. Specific finger tuina can correct age old or recent injuries.

Herbs

Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia includes herbs that are anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, stimulating, grounding, nourishing, adaptogenic, and immune enhancing, thereby addressing the body on a bio-chemical and energetic level. Chinese herbology is extensive (having over 5000 items) and very powerful medicine that can stand alone as a single therapy, or when used in conjunction with other therapies produces strong synergistic effects capable of treating most disorders.

Nutrition

Firstly, and foremost dietary needs must be met through our daily food consumption. Food is our first choice of medicine, fundamental to life, and must always be perceived as so. No supplements can substitute for the nourishment provided from regular whole food meals consisting of the essential substances required for maintaining and building tissue and for the facilitation of physiological functions. Having co-evolved with, and consuming these foods for millions of years has adapted us to efficiently absorb the micro and macronutrients they provide. In the form of whole food, individual nutrients are in their most biologically available form. Essential co-factors and co-minerals, vitamins, amino acids, fats, carbohydrates, etc. are combined in whole foods in such a way as to provide the essential combination for proper digestion and absorption. When appropriately chosen foods are consumed in a relaxed state, and the individual has a healthy digestion, the body is capable of maintaining and healing itself. If the digestion is compromised, or improper foods are selected, the body suffers, nutrition is inadequate, and disease ultimately arises.

The most nutritious foods are those that are pure, uncontaminated, naturally grown (as close as possible to nature) with organic methods, and served in it’s freshest state. In Chinese Medicine the most nutritious foods are those that have the most “Qi”. Qi is the vital energy that gives life, therefore the most Qi filled foods are those that are living. It behooves us to eat foods that are as close as possible to their “alive” state.

Fundamentals of Oriental Medicine and Healing

Healing (A Natural Process)

Health Practitioners are facilitators in the process of healing. The wisdom of healing resides within the patient. The practitioners are the conductors, educators, orchestrators whom are inspiring and guiding the body’s healing process through the use of therapies and information. Ultimately, we are aiming to provide a situation where the body’s own healing power is stimulated.
Traditional Chinese Medicine/Oriental Medicine is a natural and comprehensive medicine which facilitates the body’s own healing process by assisting in eliminating pathogens, detoxifying, and rebuilding tissue that can be weakened or damaged due to injury or illness. It is a system that seeks wholeness by restoring balance and normalizing the flow of Qi. It perceives an individual in its wholeness, including mind, spirit, body, and soul, each which can facilitate healing or be at the root of a disease.

Root & Branch
Symptoms such as pain, discomfort, or dysbiosis are often the branch manifestation of a deeper disorder referred to as the root cause. For instance a headache, the branch, may be due to different causes such as an external pathogenic factor, Qi stagnation, or Blood deficiency, dampness, etc, which are the root cause. Treatment would include treating the headache, the branch, and the causative factor or the root. A digestive disorder could be due to a zang organ being deficient or an imbalance of wood overacting on earth, etc. In Chinese medicine it is critical that both the root and branch be treated to restore balance. Treating only the branch will very often result in a reoccurrence of the disease.

Yin and Yang
Yin & Yang are basic concepts in Chinese philosophy that form the basis for understanding how things function in regards to each other. They represent the construct of “change”, how things transform and evolve from one to the other. Yin represents both the opposition and compliment to yang and vice-versa. They are interdependent and co-engendering. Within yang there is yin, within yin there is yang. From night emerges day and into the night merges the day, encompassing the totality of wholeness.
Yin is associated with rest, tranquility, cold, darkness, the deep ocean, the interior, responsiveness, yielding, winter, emptiness, substance, earth, the feminine, the soul, the front of the body, and blood. Yang is heat, movement, activity, function, summer, exterior, daytime, forceful, heaven, the masculine, the back of the body, brightness, spirit, and the sun. Within each is a piece of the other and from each other emerges the other. The balance of Yin & Yang within the body is key to maintaining health and harmony.

Qi & Blood
Qi is referred to as a fundamental substance of the human body responsible for movement, warming, and the functional aspect of life including the movement of blood within the vessels. It is derived from the Yang of the body. If Qi does not flow freely disease can result. One important goal of Chinese Medicine is to maintain the smooth flow of Qi. Many different “types of Qi” are involved in the body’s life and vitality.
Blood is one of the primary fluids in the body, yin in nature, and responsible for nourishing, moistening, and maintaining the body. Essential nutrients are transported by blood to the different tissue of the body. Blood is the mother of Qi and Qi the governor of blood. Adequate blood and Qi is dependent on a healthy digestive system.

Prevention of Disease
It is said that in the Chinese Imperial palace the attending physicians kept the royal subjects healthy through preventative practices. Tongues and pulses were observed to see the health within and treat individuals before a disease advanced. Certain foods were recommended, acupuncture treatments given and herbs prescribed as necessary for maintaining health and wellness.

Contact

Alfred Pomerleau
Phone & Fax: 805.698.1162
E-mail: apjpomerleau@verizon.net
Website: www.ascendinghealth.com