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Students at the UCLA Ashe Center learn about traditional medicines but also about Chinese medicine practices, like acupuncture, herbal supplements, tai chi, yoga and massage. Program Director Ka-Kit Hui says the acupuncture classes are always full and described it this way: "Think of Western medicine as looking at the trees and Eastern medicine as looking at the whole forest, or a system." After all, why take Tylenol when a half hour of yoga stretches can produce the same effect, without exposing your body to toxins?

Acupuncture treatment: "I would go to a hospital for an emergency, but for pain, there is nothing better than acupuncture," states Dr. Teri Powers, dean of the Los Angeles Samra University of Oriental Medicine. Some people feel nervous when they think of long filiform needles being plunged into certain "acupuncture points" on the body to relieve pain.

However, many patients compare the feeling of acupuncture to the natural high from exercising. While the needles don't hurt going in, they say, there is some activity that can be felt around the entry-point, whether it's Qi energy, as Chinese medicine acupuncture teaches, or the body's natural endorphins. This may feel strange at first, but most visitors feel better than ever, prompting them to return for more treatments.

The popularity of Chinese medicine in the Western world is undoubtedly due to the number of over the counter medicines and herbal supplements available. When you walk into a Chinese drug store, you're assaulted by miraculous "cure all" things like: St John's Wort to rid you of depression, ginseng to improve sex drive or acai liquid to improve your cardiovascular system.

It can all seem a bit overwhelming. What has proven efficiency? What doesn't work? It's the American way to want one easy pill to do all the work, but Chinese experts say that the herbal medicines must be combined with a balanced diet, meditation and other variables that are necessary components to balancing the Yin and the Yang.

Most insurance companies refuse to cover acupuncture or Chinese remedies, therefore subduing the Western demand. However, the fact that schools are beginning to integrate things like Chinese medicines and Chinese massage into their curriculum is showing a gradual transformation and willingness to accept alternate therapies. The good news is that Chinese alternative medicines are usually less expensive, regardless of insurance regulations. "In general, people like to try to find whatever may work for them, whether it is Eastern medicine or other healing traditions such as Chinese medicine," said Ka-Kit Hui director of the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine.

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