Traditional Chinese medicine is thousands of years old and is based on the concept of a vital life force in the body called Qi, which may become unbalanced and cause illness. Increasingly, patients in the US opt to use practices from Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, and massage, to supplement or even replace Western medical treatments.

This photo shows Chu-Lan Chiong, clinical supervisor and acupuncturist at the Northwest Institute of Acupucture and Oriental Medicine (NIAOM) in Seattle, measuring out a medicinal herb for a patient. Behind her are hundreds of jars of herbs, roots and flowers. Founded in 1981 and one the most successful acupuncture schools in the country, NIAOM closed in 2002 due to financial difficulties. As of 2021, Chu-Lan Chiong is a practicing acupuncturist at East West Health in Seattle.

Caption information source: Northwest Institute Closes its Doors, September 2002, retrieved from Acupuncture Today magazine online at https://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=28050
Caption information source: "Beyond Modern Medicine - More Americans Truning to Ancient Chinese Therapies" by Lisa Schnellinger, Seattle Post-Intelligence, p. C1.