About
The practitioner. The practice. The scope.
Rootworth is the online herbal arm of a clinical practice that has been operating since 2005. The clinic is Makari Wellness; the practitioner is Michael Woodworth. Rootworth is how the practice reaches people who cannot come to the clinic in person.
Two reaches. One practice. One breath.
The practitioner.
Michael Woodworth, L.Ac. — California-licensed acupuncturist (License #AC10818). Master of Science in Oriental Medicine. Classically trained in the foundational texts of Chinese medicine — the Shang Han Lun, the Jin Gui Yao Lue, the lineage Chinese medicine kept reading when modern medicine stopped looking.
Twenty-five-plus years of clinical practice. Specialist in neurodegenerative eye conditions — a focus carried into a field where most practitioners do not work. Classically-trained herbal specialist in a field where most herbal practitioners learn modern symptom-protocol patterns rather than classical root-pattern reasoning.
Both of those specializations are rare on their own. Together they are unusual enough that patients have traveled across the country to sit in front of him.
Rootworth is what happens when that practice extends past the room where the practitioner sits.
What this practice has worked with.
Conditions that conventional medicine has already named “irreversible,” “chronic,” “idiopathic,” or “without a clinical answer” — those are the conditions this practice has spent its career sitting with. Not because they are uniformly easier in this room than in any other, but because they are the conditions classical pattern-level reading is built for.
Common presentations the practice has held:
- Neurodegenerative eye conditions — macular degeneration, retinopathy, vision loss
- Autoimmune conditions
- Chronic and idiopathic pain
- Neurological conditions
- Hormonal and endocrine imbalance
- Long-standing digestive disorder
- Complex chronic presentations that do not fit a single specialist
The list is not a menu. Patterns do not match conditions one-to-one; the same condition in two people can be two different patterns. The intake is where the practitioner reads the actual pattern of the actual person.
Why classical training matters.
Most herbal practitioners trained in the modern era of Chinese medicine — the post-1950s standardization that took twenty centuries of clinical observation and compressed it into protocols. Classical training is the postgraduate work of going back to the texts the standardization condensed.
The practical difference: classical pattern-level reading can hold a complex chronic presentation where symptom-protocol matching cannot. The chronic and degenerative conditions named above are precisely the conditions classical reading was built for.
Why this isn’t generic telemedicine herbalism.
Not all acupuncturists know herbs. That’s a critical assumption most people make, and it’s often wrong.
Many states don’t even require herb study in acupuncture licensure. Even in those that do, the training is minimal. Modern TCM schools teach standardized TCM formulas — what you need to pass the boards — not the deep classical herbalism that actually changes outcomes for complex, chronic conditions.
I didn’t truly understand herbs until I pursued postgraduate studies with various herb masters and pulse masters. That’s when I realized how little I actually knew. Fourteen years of continuous study later, I feel I have a firm grasp — and yet the evolution continues.
Here’s the truth: any legitimate herbalist studies until the day they die. There are simply too many possibilities. Every person has lived a unique life up to the moment you see them. Every person encounters personalized daily stressors. Every person needs a custom approach to their custom existence.
That’s not scalable with standardized protocols. That’s not teachable in four years. That’s what real herbalism actually is.
Rootworth isn’t about convenience. It’s about access to practitioners who’ve actually spent years — decades — learning to think classically about herbs.
Two reaches, one practice.
Makari Wellness is the clinic — in-person acupuncture, licensed and insured, two San Diego locations (Oceanside and Rancho Bernardo). Operating continuously since 2005.
Rootworth is the online herbal arm — custom formulas, prepared by Michael, shipped to the patient. No acupuncture; that lives on the clinic side. The intake and patient records flow through Makari’s existing HIPAA-compliant medical management system. Same practice. Same practitioner. Same standard of care.
If you are in San Diego and want acupuncture, the clinic is the entry. If you are anywhere and want classically-prescribed herbal medicine, Rootworth is the entry.
The seed of this work.
The story of how this practice came to exist — and why Rootworth exists alongside the clinic — lives on the Seeds page.