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Durham, North Carolina Clinic

We operate a busy practice in Durham, NC. Our team specializes in treating a variety of health problems with acupuncture, Chinese herbs, hypnosis, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), functional medicine, and dietary counseling. If you suffer from PMS, menstrual problems, menopause, infertility, frequent colds, cough, blood sugar disorders such as reactive hypoglycemia, diabetes, edema, urinary problems, digestive problems such as colitis or irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, anxiety, chronic pain, auto-immune disease, or any other condition now might be the time to get help. Our clinic has been in operation since 1989, initially in Santa Fe, NM with a subsequent clinic in Durham, NC which was established in 1999. Ken Morehead and Dagmar Ehling merged their existing clinics in 2004 to form Oriental Health Solutions. Fang Cai operated OHS branches in Kaneohe, Hawaii and Belfast, Maine for a period of four years.

In 2011 OHS was a finalist in the “Best Holistic Medicine” category and in 2012 OHS was a finalist in the “Best Acupuncture Clinic” category in Durham’s Independent Weekly newspaper.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions, would like to book an appointment, or would like to come in for a free 15 min consultation.

Our patients get results! We pride ourselves in providing excellent care. This site is funded and operated by Oriental Health Solutions, LLC.

Our Practitioners in Durham, NC

Fang Cai, MAOM, LAc, Dipl OM

Fang Cai, partner of Oriental Health Solutions, LLC, is a licensed practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in North Carolina, Maine, and Hawaii. Ms. Cai is nationally certified in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology.

Ms. Cai obtained a B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College. In 1998, she began her studies of Oriental medicine in Shanghai, China, and later received a Master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA). She has been on NESA’s Institutional Review Board to review proposals of acupuncture clinical studies, was an associate editor for the New England Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 2002 to 2006, and served as a board member of the North Carolina Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Ms. Cai has been a consultant on acupuncture clinical trials at UNC-Chapel Hill, and is a credentialed acupuncturist at Duke Integrative Medicine. She is fluent in the Mandarin and Sichuan dialects of Chinese.

Ms. Cai specializes in internal medicine, with focuses on dermatology, digestive disorders, headaches, and women’s health, including menstrual disorders, pregnancy, postpartum health, PMS, and menopause.

Click here to view Fang Cai's resume

Dagmar Ehling, MAc, LAc, DOM(NM), Dipl OM, FABORM

Dagmar Ehling, founding partner of Oriental Health Solutions, LLC, has been a licensed Doctor of Oriental Medicine in New Mexico since 1989. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Acupuncture from Southwest Acupuncture College in Santa Fe, NM, is North Carolina State licensed, and is nationally certified in Oriental Medicine by the NCCAOM (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine). In 1994 Ms. Ehling completed a postgraduate 18-months course in Traditional Chinese Medicine gynecology with Bob Flaws. She is the author of The Chinese Herbalist’s Handbook, which has also been published in German and Turkish.

She was a faculty member at the International Institute of Chinese Medicine for five years, served as a New Mexico State Licensure examiner for four years, and on the NCCAOM Exam Development Committee for the national Chinese herbal certification exam for seven years. She is a Fellow of the American Board of Reproductive Medicine (ABORM) and served on the ABORM board (http://www.aborm.org) as Exam Committee Chair for three years which offers a certification exam for practitioners specializing in the treatment of infertility. She is a credentialed acupuncturist at Duke Integrative Medicine, teaches Oriental medicine to physicians in Germany and Italy, and lectures nationally and via webinars internationally. Since 2005 she has been a clinical case consultant for colleagues. Ms Ehling specializes in women’s health issues such as menstrual disorders, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause. She assists with cancer therapies and enjoys treating blood sugar, auto-immune and hormonal imbalances.

Click here to view Dagmar Ehling's resume

Ken Morehead, MSOM, LAc, DOM(NM), DAONB

Ken Morehead, founding partner of Oriental Health Solutions, LLC, is a licensed acupuncturist in Durham, NC, licensed as a Doctor of Oriental Medicine in New Mexico, is nationally board certified as an Acupuncture Orthopedist and is a credentialed acupuncturist at Duke Integrative Medicine. He is the past secretary and chairman of the NC State Acupuncture Licensing Board and an advisory board member of the Weston Price Foundation in Washington, D.C. A former member of the New Mexico licensing examination board, Mr. Morehead has lectured in New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina and Washington D.C. Mr. Morehead specializes in musculo-skeletal disorders and assists with cancer therapies and kidney disorders. In 2012, Mr. Morehead was a finalist in the Independent “Best of the Triangle” reader’s poll in the Best Holistic Medicine Practitioner category. Prior to pursuing Oriental Medicine as a career, Mr. Morehead was a symphony musician in Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

Click here to view Ken Morehead's resume

Larry Burk, MD

Dr. Larry Burk, member of Oriental Health Solutions, LLC, is a musculoskeletal radiologist and integrative physician specializing in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and hypnosis. He was previously Associate Professor of Radiology at Duke University Medical Center as well as Director of Education and Co-Founder of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine.  Dr. Burk left Duke after 11 years in 2004 to start his own consulting business as President of Healing Imager, Inc. He is co-author of “Physicians ethical obligations regarding alternative medicine” published in JAMA in 1998. He completed the UCLA Medical Acupuncture for Physicians Course in 1998 and practiced acupuncture at Duke in the Pain Clinic, Student Health and the Diet and Fitness Center.

Dr. Burk took his first course in hypnosis in 1990 and was trained in Anodyne Imagery in 1995.  In 2002, he learned EFT and has trained with Gary Craig and Dr. Carol Look.  He has taught quarterly group EFT sessions at OHS and the Rice Diet Program since 2004. He uses EFT, medical acupuncture and hypnosis for a broad variety of conditions with particular interest in musculoskeletal pain, sports performance, motor vehicle injuries, whiplash, trauma, anxiety, food cravings and weight loss.  Since his original training is in radiology, Dr. Burk does not provide primary care or prescribe medications.  However, he will review any relevant radiological studies as part of your evaluation.

Dr. Burk’s book Let Magic Happen: Adventures in Healing with a Holistic Radiologist will be published in July 2012 describing his journey from conventional radiology into holistic medicine. It will include how-to-do-it instructions for his top ten self-healing mind-body-spirit techniques.

Please visit his website Let Magic Happen

Click here to view Larry Burk's resume

Pamela Mears

Pam Mears, administration manager for Oriental Health Solutions, has extensive experience in hospital Facility Planning, project management, health planning, and as a research assistant. In her position as administration manager at OHS, she brings her natural desire to help others to the front office environment in order to offer patients clear and comprehensive service.

Jessica Reed

Jessica Reed, acupuncture assistant, loves helping people and being part of a team committed to the health and wellness of others. She enjoys building relationships with patients and working in an environment where she can facilitate smooth functioning of the office. She received her BFA in photography from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, and enjoys photographing infants and small children.

For further information please call Oriental Health Solutions at 919-286-9595.

What to Expect on a First Visit

Your first visit usually takes about 1½ to 2 hours. We will ask you a variety of questions – many you will expect and some will seem unusual or different from what you may have experienced when visiting other health care practitioners. As part of the examination we will check your pulse on your wrist, look at your tongue, and/or may press on certain acupuncture points. Typically, we perform an acupuncture treatment during the first visit unless there are specific reasons or you wish not to. Some patients only get herbs and/or come in for a nutritional consultation.

Most of our patients enjoy treatments and find them very relaxing. All needles are sterile and used only one time. You may feel a small prick lasting a couple of seconds when the needle is inserted. At about 90% of the time nothing is felt at all. Once the needle is in place you may not feel anything or it might feel slightly heavy or achy but not typically feel painful.

We would like you to understand your treatment and will do our best to explain the process. If this is your first visit to a practitioner of Oriental Medicine, we assume you will have many questions to ask. There are many variations of Oriental medicine – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Five-Element, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean styles, so even if it’s not your first time receiving acupuncture there may be some differences. We practice two styles at OHS, a Japanese style taught by Kiiko Matsumoto and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Both are based on the Chinese classics and modern medical pathophysiology. The Japanese style is our primary acupuncture style. It is a very “hands on” approach and is based on palpation of active reflexes on the abdomen (the hara), neck, back and their corresponding treatment points. This system of palpation and feedback gives the practitioner and patient immediate feedback on both diagnosis and treatment making treatment more succinct and efficient. Our herbal prescribing is done using TCM as our diagnostic and treatment style. It is tailored to use as an herbal therapy and we find our results are best with combining the best of both of these approaches, TCM herbal therapy and Japanese acupuncture.

Your treatment may include other modalities, such as:

Moxa – an herb (Artemisia vulgaris) that is burned either on a needle or used to warm a certain area or point.

Cups – a vacuum is created inside a glass cup and then it is placed on different parts of the body. It may stay in one place or be moved over an area such as your back.

Guasha – a form of bodywork using a Chinese porcelain spoon that is massaged over specific body areas.

Homework - We often give homework to patients. This might mean massaging certain points, using specific foods for their therapeutic value, or other complaint specific things. This enhances treatments and helps you participate in your healing process.

Herbal Formulas – Raw herbs or Granules - Herbal formulas are an important part of successful treatment outcomes with Oriental medicine. We have two large single herb pharmacies, each containing about 250 herbs. We carry the actual raw herbs which are the ones that have been used for thousands of years in China. They include roots, twigs, buds, rhizomes, and other parts of plants. We also carry those same herbs in granule form. Therefore, we can custom-tailor formulas for each patient based on his/her presentation and needs. We only work with suppliers that have stringent quality controls and both types of single herbs carry the “Good Manufacturing Process” (GMP) certification. In addition, our granules are ISO certified, complying with a stringent German certification system. We have had numerous communications with our suppliers to ensure the highest quality of our pharmacy, and are constantly pushing the leading edge in this regard.

Prepared Medicines - These are prepared formulas generally in the form of pills, capsules or tinctures. These are manufactured both in China and the US. The distributors we use routinely test their products by independent laboratories for the presence foreign substances, such as heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. All have been certified by “Good Manufacturing Process” (GMP). Prepared medicines cannot be custom-tailored as they have already been made into pills ahead of time, so you may be required to take more than one formula to get the best results.

Electro-acupuncture – on rare occasions a battery powered electrical device using low level electricity can be added to the needles usually for treatment of chronic pain.

Alpha-Stim – when experiencing electrical therapy, most patients feel strong electrical currents running through their body that can be uncomfortable. In these cases, milliamp stimulators (thousandths of an ampere) have been used. While they have their place in the therapeutic world the Alpha-Stim or microcurrent therapy uses a completely different approach. Microcurrent therapy is in the millionths of an ampere range and generally below our ability to feel the current. The gentle nature of this therapy is nourishing to the tissues and so safe that the European medical community rates it as save as stereo equipment! When using Alpha-Stim microcurrent the focus is on stimulating a healing response, and reduced pain is the result. The impact of microcurrent increases over time as the healing process continues. We also find that the Alpha-Stim device is wonderful for some central nervous complaints, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD from trauma. Its use is completely in harmony with the practice of Oriental Medicine. When needed we may rent a machine to patients so they can treat affected areas at home.

Our practice is very busy and we make an effort to stay on time. Please come to the office 5 minutes before your scheduled treatment. This will give you time to get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, or sit for a few minutes and take time to catch your breath. After your initial visit, we may want to see you either every week, every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks depending on the severity of your condition and whether we’re supporting your treatment progress with herbs and/or dietary adjustments. As your condition stabilizes we will phase out treatment or suggest interval treatments such as coming in for a quarterly or annual tune-up.

Appointments: All patients are seen on an appointment basis. Please call well in advance so we can reserve time for you. Please be aware that the full treatment fee will be charged for broken appointments unless a 24-hour notice is given. It is the patient’s responsibility to remember an appointment.  Reminder calls are made only as a courtesy.

Information regarding the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)/hypnosis can be found in the FAQ section.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you.

Online Dietary Phone Consultations

After many requests of current patients for family members in other parts of the country, we are proud to now offer nutritional phone consultations to patients nationwide. We often find there is a need to answer questions about diet in general or which foods would enhance your well-being using Chinese medical diet therapy. All meal plans and specific food suggestions are custom-tailored.

If you are planning to have a baby soon we can offer detailed instructions so that you too can have a baby that looks like those shown on the Healthy Baby Initiative. We’re getting a slew of cute, healthy baby photos! It will be unlikely that these kids will need braces when they’re teens if the diet is followed!

After your initial consultation which may last anywhere between 45 min to one hour you will receive various resource materials to help you implement the recommendations. Periodic follow-ups can be scheduled as needed to measure your progress and provide support. We’re used to lots of questions in this area.

Please contact the office @ 919-286-9595