Acupuncture for IBS: A Chinese Medicine Guide to What’s Really Driving Your Gut If irritable bowel syndrome has been running your life, you know exactly how exhausting it is. The unpredictable trips to the bathroom, the bloating that shows up out of nowhere, the anxiety about eating the wrong thing, and the way it quietly…
Acupuncture for Insomnia: Why Your Brain Isn’t the Problem (And What’s Really Keeping You Up) You’ve tried the melatonin. You’ve put your phone away an hour before bed, darkened the room, run the white noise machine. Maybe you’ve done a round of sleep medication, or your doctor mentioned Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). Some…
Fluid Circulation and the Gut: The Two Most Important Systems for Health One of my teachers says something that is very obviously true but also quite helpful to think about: “The basic requirement of health is to have highly oxygenated, highly nutritious blood flowing to all of the tissues in the body.” This means you…
What is Chinese Medicine? Chinese medicine, which includes the acupuncture modality, is a nature-based healing modality that has thousands of years of rich history. It is still being used today in clinics and hospitals throughout China and most of Asia as a primary medical modality, and its popularity has been increasing in Europe and the…
Acupuncture for Stress: What *Your* Nervous System Is Actually Asking For If stress has become your default setting, not something that comes and goes but the background noise of your entire life, I want you to know something: your body is keeping score. The tight shoulders you can’t unclench. The sleep that never quite restores…
Why Acupuncture Is Fun & Not So Scary! After living in Portland, Oregon for five years where an acupuncture or naturopathic clinic is practically on every corner, and people seem almost bored if you tell them you’re an acupuncturist (only because they have one already, and 2.5 of their friends are acupuncturists), coming back home…
How to Pick An Acupuncturist Through conversations I’ve had with some folks lately, I’ve come to a fresh state of awareness regarding how overwhelming it can be when it comes to picking the right healthcare practitioner. It’s hard enough to find a doctor or a dentist that you like, and you don’t even really have…
Acupuncture for Flu (And Colds, Too!) It’s that time of year again in Richmond – the time when everyone around you is dropping like flies with the flu or some such – so it seems like a perfect time to write about what Chinese medicine can offer us in terms of avoiding getting sick. Have…