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Traditional Chinese Medicine

Headaches, Migraines and Acupuncture

Do you suffer from headaches? If so, you are not alone. Over 50 million of us experience some form of headache at some point in our lives. Whether you experience minor head pain or severe migraines, headaches can take valuable time out of your day and your life, and leave you searching for relief.

One option is to reach for pain relieving drugs and other pharmaceuticals. This usually works for the short term, and is usually successful in stopping a headache quickly once it has started. Unfortunately, these medications do not address the “root” causes(s) of the headaches. I guarantee you are not suffering from a deficiency of aspirin. Many of these medications, when used over long periods of time, can also cause unwanted side effects.

Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a safe and effective approach to relieving headache pain, without causing harmful side effects. Chinese medicine incorporates a comprehensive diagnostic protocol that can help me, as your acupuncturist, to understand and address the “root” cause(s) of your headaches. continue reading »

Parkinson’s Disease And Traditional Chinese Medicine

From a western medicine perspective, Parkinson’s Disease is one of a group of motor system disorders that are caused by the loss of dopamine producing brain cells. The general symptoms include tremor, slowed motion (bradykinesia) which makes voluntary movements such as walking difficult, loss of automatic movements such as swinging your arms while you walk, and a “frozen” facial feature many times with unblinking eyes.

Associated conditions such as depression, insomnia, urinary issues, constipation and/or sexual issues may also be seen.  Western treatment focuses on medication, surgery, and/or physical therapy.

From a Chinese medicine perspective, syndromes in which patients suffer from spontaneous shaking, or from other muscular manifestations such as paralysis or tonic spasm, are thought to be the result of yin deficiency of the kidney and liver leading to generation of “internal wind.” continue reading »

Your Body as a Garden

The concept of gardening gives us an excellent illustration for the theories behind Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and acupuncture. Imagine you are a gardener whose job it is to help a garden thrive. To help nature along, you must provide necessities such as water and fertilizer. You must make sure plants receive the right amount of sun, and you must weed out any undesirable elements. Gardening takes time and effort, but the reward is a beautiful, healthy garden, abundant with flowers and vegetables.

Your body is just like a garden, and you and your acupuncturist are the gardeners. He or she will work closely with you to strengthen and balance your internal garden. By taking your entire self into account, your practitioner can help identify—and weed out—any imbalances that could cause problems. continue reading »

Heart Afire: The Fire Element

The organs in Chinese medicine are more than just a physical representation. The organs include not only their physiological function, but also their mental, emotional, spiritual and elemental qualities that align with nature and the seasons. Let’s explore the heart.

The heart season is summer, and heart is considered the most yang: hot, bountiful and abundant. Yang is what is bright, moving, outward, hot and loud. Yin is what is more inward, still, dark and cooler. The color of the heart is associated with red, the climate is heat, the flavor is bitter and it’s paired organ is the small intestine (many urinary issues are due to “heart fire” heat descending). The sense aligned with heart is the tongue, and the vessels associated with heart are the tissues. The heart sound is laughing, and the emotion is joy. The heart houses what is known as the shen, which is the mind and spirit. continue reading »

Valentine’s Day, TCM and Heart Health

Every February men all over the world flock to the local flower shops and jewelry stores in search of the perfect bouquet or piece of jewelry to express their undying love to their significant other. Why?  Nobody knows for certain, but there are at least a couple of theories.

One theory is a Catholic priest, Valentine, was imprisoned for helping Christians escape Roman prisons.  While he imprisoned himself, Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him. Allegedly, before his death, Valentine wrote a letter and signed it, “From your Valentine.”  Thus, the first Valentine’s Day card was created, or so it is reported. continue reading »

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