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Step 1: 
Comprehensive Assessment

Healing begins with deep listening - both to you and your body. We take time to thoroughly assess your health history, current symptoms, lifestyle, and stressors, recognizing that your condition didn’t appear overnight. Our goal is to uncover the root cause, not just manage the symptoms.

Whether you are managing a chronic health condition, recovering from injury, or seeking to enhance physical performance, our integrated care model is designed to address the full spectrum of your health needs.

We recognise that long-term conditions require a comprehensive and personalised approach. Our team focuses on restoring function, reducing pain, and supporting optimal healing by addressing musculoskeletal health alongside other key systems such as the immune, nervous, and circulatory systems. 

Step 2: 
Restoring Balance and Reducing Inflammation

Once we understand where imbalance lives, we work to reduce systemic inflammation and restore physiological harmony. This process is essential, as inflammation often underpins chronic pain, fatigue, and long-term disease.

By addressing the interconnected systems of the body - the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems - we support deep and lasting restoration.

We help regulate immune responses to calm overactivity or strengthen defense as needed, balance hormonal communication within the endocrine system to stabilize mood, metabolism, and energy, and nurture the nervous system, including the adrenals, to build resilience and stress tolerance.

Throughout this process, we also enhance the body’s natural detoxification pathways and nourish the organs responsible for resilience, recovery, and overall regulation.

Step 3:
Integrating Therapy for Comprehensive Pain Management

Once foundational treatments are underway, physiotherapy is introduced to address musculoskeletal components of chronic pain:

Exercise Therapy

What It Is:
Exercise therapy involves the prescription of specific, individualised physical activities designed to restore muscle strength, joint mobility, balance, endurance, and overall function.

How It Helps Chronic Pain:

• Reduces Pain Sensitivity: Regular movement helps desensitise the nervous system.
• Improves Strength and Endurance: Weak muscles can exacerbate pain by increasing stress on joints and other tissues. Strengthening reduces this load.
• Promotes Mobility: Chronic pain often leads to stiffness; targeted exercises can improve range of motion and flexibility.
• Reinforces Movement Confidence: People with chronic pain often develop fear-avoidant behaviours; guided exercise therapy helps rebuild confidence in movement.

Examples:

• Core strengthening for back pain
• Gentle stretching routines for fibromyalgia
• Low-impact aerobic exercises for osteoarthritis
  
  

Manual Therapy

What It Is:
Manual therapy includes hands-on techniques performed by a physiotherapist to manipulate or mobilize joints, soft tissues, and muscles.

How It Helps Chronic Pain:

• Reduces Muscle Tension: Techniques like massage can release tight, painful muscles.
• Improves Joint Mobility: Mobilizations and manipulations help reduce stiffness and restore normal movement.
• Enhances Blood Flow: Promotes tissue healing and reduces inflammation.
• Interrupts Pain Signals: Physical touch can modulate the nervous system’s perception of pain.

Common Techniques:

• Joint mobilizations (gentle gliding movements)
• Soft tissue massage
• Myofascial release
• Trigger point therapy
  
  

Step 4: 
Targeting Inflammation, Toxins, and Pain

By this stage, we target the stubborn patterns - chronic inflammation, toxin accumulation, and persistent pain cycles - using customised treatment plans.

This may include dietary adjustments, targeted supplements, acupuncture, lymphatic support, and more. The goal is to support detoxification, calm the immune response, and strengthen your body’s adaptive capacity.

Key Herbal Approaches:

Anti-Inflammatory Herbs (Reducing Chronic Inflammation)

Chronic inflammation can contribute to a variety of health issues, including joint discomfort, fatigue, and immune system imbalance. In Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, several herbs are valued for their natural ability to reduce inflammation and support the body's healing processes:

Turmeric Root (Jiang Huang)

Ginger Rhizome (Gan Jiang / Sheng Jiang) 

Chinese Skullcap Root (Huang Qin)

Detoxifying Herbs (Liver Support and Toxin Elimination)

Supporting liver health is central to promoting the body's ability to eliminate internal waste and external toxins. TCHM includes several botanicals traditionally used to promote detoxification:

Schisandra Berry (Wu Wei Zi)

Bupleurum Root (Chai Hu)

Gardenia Fruit (Zhi Zi)

Pain-Relieving Herbs (Natural Analgesics and Muscle Relief)

Natural pain relief can be achieved through herbs that influence both the nervous system and circulation. TCHM employs several botanicals that ease pain without the harsh effects of synthetic analgesics:

Corydalis Root (Yan Hu Suo)

Frankincense Resin (Ru Xiang)

Myrrh Resin (Mo Yao)

These herbal treatments are administered throughout the week to reinforce the changes initiated by acupuncture, promoting sustained relief and healing.

Step 5: 
Supporting Gut Health, Inflammation, Nerve Function, and Hormones

Targeted supplementation plays a crucial role in managing chronic conditions.
At North Shore Health, we develop personalised supplement protocols to support gut health, reduce inflammation, alleviate nerve pain, and balance hormones.

Recommended Supplements:

Amino Acids and Their Benefits

1. L-Glutamine

• Function: Primary fuel source for intestinal epithelial cells.
• Benefits:
  • Maintains gut lining integrity (prevents "leaky gut").
  • Supports mucosal immunity.
  • Reduces intestinal inflammation by modulating cytokine production.
    
    

2. Taurine

• Function: Sulphur-containing amino acid involved in bile salt formation, antioxidant defence, and neurotransmission.
• Benefits:
  • Regulates blood pressure and electrolyte balance.
  • Supports nerve and cardiovascular function.
  • Has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
    
    

3. GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid)

• Function: Neurotransmitter that calms neural activity.
• Benefits:
  • Reduces stress-induced inflammation.
  • Supports mood regulation and sleep.
    
    

4. L-Theanine

• Function: Found primarily in green tea, a non-proteinogenic amino acid.
• Benefits:
  • Enhances alpha brain wave activity – promotes relaxation without drowsiness.
  • Reduces cortisol levels and neuroinflammation.
    
    

5. L-Tryptophan

• Function: Precursor to serotonin and melatonin.
• Benefits:
  • Regulates mood, sleep, and immune modulation.
  • Indirectly supports anti-inflammatory effects through serotonin signalling.
    
    

6. L-Arginine

• Function: Precursor to nitric oxide (NO), which supports vascular health.
• Benefits:
  • Promotes wound healing, immune function, and blood flow.
  • Modulates inflammatory responses via NO production.
    
    

7. L-Cysteine / N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

• Function: Precursor to glutathione, the body’s most potent antioxidant.
• Benefits:
  • Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation.
  • Supports lung and liver detoxification.
    
    

8. L-Glycine

• Function: Simple amino acid with inhibitory neurotransmitter properties.
• Benefits:
  • Reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines.
  • Supports sleep, immune modulation, and wound healing.
    
    

Probiotics and Gut Health

Key Functions:

• Modulate immune response and inflammation.
• Enhance gut microbiota diversity and intestinal barrier.
• Reduce pathogen overgrowth and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
  
  

Strains with Specific Benefits:

• Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG: Reduces intestinal inflammation and supports immune health.
• Bifidobacterium longum: Decreases markers of systemic inflammation.
• Saccharomyces boulardii: Prevents antibiotic-associated diarrhea and modulates immune responses.
  
  

Research:

• Probiotic supplementation can reduce C-reactive protein (CRP) and improve symptoms in IBS, IBD, and even mood disorders via the gut-brain axis.