From the category archives:

Wisdom for your Wednesday

Chinese Health Insurance…Something to Ponder!

May 16, 2012

It is fascinating to learn how the medical system in ancient China operated. It is so vastly opposite from our current system, where doctor’s compensation increases directly proportional to how sick the population is, that I think just understanding the difference can help us gain a perspective that might help us to improve our health. [...]

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Fibromyalgia, Stress, and your Liver: What Acupuncture has to Say about all Three!

May 2, 2012

Last week, I wrote about the connection between random pains that we get throughout our body, and the potential connection with our liver. This week, I will focus on fibromyalgia, which unfortunately is becoming more and more common. Fortunately though, acupuncture and Chinese medicine in general excel at treating this condition. While there is not [...]

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Avoid Random Pains by Keeping your Liver Healthy

April 25, 2012

Does this sound like you? “One day my right shoulder hurts, then the next my left hip.  Then suddenly, my wrist will hurt for no reason.  I’ve had X-rays done at various times and nothing is ever ‘wrong’”. To an acupuncturist, this is a classic case of Liver Qi Stagnation. While western medicine doesn’t recognize [...]

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An Acupuncturist’s Tip for Eating Raw Food without Eating Raw Food!

March 28, 2012

  It’s been unseasonably HOT! During warm weather like this, some days you just want to bite into a nice, cool, crisp salad. For many people though, because of Acupuncture theories about medicinal foods, I advise that they shouldn’t be eating raw foods. What to do then, when nourishing soups, stews, and casseroles are the [...]

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Uh-MAZing Beet Recipe for Beet Haters! An Acupuncturist’s Dream for Nourishing your Liver

March 21, 2012

People love hating beets. I do admit, they can go either way…if not cooked right, they have a taste that can be a little, well, bad. But I just tried a new recipe this week that has me fanatical over this humble red root. Because beets are so wonderful for nourishing your “liver blood”, and [...]

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An Acupuncturist’s Recipe for a Sane & Balanced Wood Season

March 14, 2012

“And the day came, when the risk it took to stay tight in a bud, became more painful than the risk it took to blossom” – Anaïs Nin Looking out my window, I see mostly still just a flat watercolor blend of dull browns and grays— for most members of the plant kingdom, dormancy is [...]

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An Acupuncturist’s Discovery: What your Insomnia and What I Saw in My Yard Have in Common

March 7, 2012

  Wake up, it’s Spring! Last week, I stepped into my garden for the first time since fall. Low and behold, there, shooting up like little explosive fireworks, were my Chives! In little 5 inch tall bundles, they announced the arrival of Spring. But doesn’t it seem early for this? And then the acupuncturist in [...]

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Acupuncture Helps Keep Emotions Up when Dreary Days Bring you Down!

February 15, 2012

Many people coming for acupuncture suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise appropriately known as SAD. For people with SAD, cloudy days bring cloudy emotional states, including depression, low energy, and fuzzy thinking. For those people, dark days can literally be dangerous…places like Seattle, where there are an unusually high number of dreary days, have some [...]

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Acupuncture Jing Meditation–5 Minute Meditation for Greater Strength, Vitality, and Joy!

January 25, 2012

The past few weeks I’ve been focusing on our Jing, which is stored in our Kidneys, and is related to the Water Element in Chinese Medicine. This week, I’m going to teach you a simple, pleasurable meditation exercise that you can do outside the acupuncture clinic, to increase your kidney function, build your vital Qi [...]

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Foods to Nourish Your Jing–An Acupuncturist’s Approach to using Chinese Medicine Nutritional Principles for Staying Healthy

January 18, 2012

Last week, I wrote about our Jing, how In Chinese Medicine it’s connected to our Kidney energy, and therefore the Water Element, and the season that we’re in right now, winter. Acupuncturists know that we want to do everything possible to avoid tapping into and therefore depleting our Jing—the root of all energy—so this week,  [...]

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Is Your Jing Depleted? A Chinese Medicine Concept you may Want to Know About

January 11, 2012

Jing is a concept that I don’t talk about much in the acupuncture clinic, but according to Chinese Medicine, it has everything to do with the elemental season we’re in now, Water.  It is all wrapped up with the kidney energy, and for those of you who read my winter seasonal article, you know that [...]

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The Gift of Inspiration: Tips for Holiday Shopping from the Metal Element

December 7, 2011

OK, so I admit it, I love shopping.  I love seeing all the colors, the new designs of things, the cool little handy gizmos that I can use around the house. But the holiday season takes shopping to a whole other level.  Typically, I try to avoid the whole thing…the frantic crowds, the shallow focus [...]

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Take a Hot Ginger Bath During the First Stages of a Common Cold

November 10, 2011

As we have hit cold season full-force, the past couple weeks I’ve been focusing on what we can do to keep our immune systems strong, and herbs we can take if we’ve come down with a cold. Today I’d like to share another tip, which can be used right when you first feel the cold [...]

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Chinese Medicine and your Immunity: Boost your Wei Qi Now to Stay Healthy This Winter

November 2, 2011

  I hope you’ve all been staying warm and cozy through our first couple snow storms of the year! As the weather gets colder, many people come to me for a few seasonal “tune-up” treatments to prepare their body for winter and ward off illness. While Chinese medicine has its own theory for why acupuncture [...]

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What We Learn from the Leaves, As they Leave…

October 26, 2011

As I write this, I am gearing up for our first big snow of the season…by the time you read these words, our city will likely be covered in white. While I know the snow will be magical and beautiful, I must admit that I already grieve the loss of the dazzling colors that grace [...]

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Metal Season: The Time for Learning we must Let Go, but that what’s of Value Remains

October 19, 2011

  The air is pungent with the quieting of the seasons. Everywhere around us we feel the downturn of energy, as leaves shine their last dying blasts of color before departing this world for their fall into the earth. Now is the time of letting go, of releasing—of bringing inward the scattered energies of the [...]

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Time to Inspire!

October 5, 2011

  We have reached an interesting time of year here…is it fall yet? Are we still in late summer? While the leaves are surely beginning to change color, the weather has still been very warm. Yet undeniably, something is stirring outside…the days are suddenly noticeably shorter and there’s a crispness to our nights that wasn’t [...]

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Beyond Nourishment: The Key to Feeding Yourself without Food

September 21, 2011

Last week, I sent out perhaps my most important email of the year (if you haven’t read it, it’s worth going back and reading now!).  As it pointed out, we are now in the season related to the Earth Element, and during the Earth season, the most important thing to focus on is nourishing your [...]

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Out of the Fire and Deep Into Earth

September 7, 2011

For those of you who have been my patients for some time, you’ve heard me talk a lot about the seasons and how they relate to our health, the foods we need to eat, the types of issues we are likely to be dealing with, and in general, what we can do to stay balanced. [...]

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A Powerful Recipe to Nourish and Cleanse your Heart/Fire Element

August 3, 2011

The ingredients for this week’s seasonal recipe are not foods, but instead words.  After an impactful event which occurred this week in my life, I am inspired to focus this week’s email on the connection between our words, or what we communicate, and our Heart/Fire Element. The good news is, the ingredients are free, completely [...]

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