My wife’s and my struggle with infertility was the experience that led me to become an acupuncturist. After the birth of our first son where early labor was an issue beginning at week 34 of pregnancy, we experienced the wrenching loss of a baby with a miscarriage. Then we had difficulty conceiving again and consulted […]
Hydration – A Chinese Medical Theory Perspective
We constantly hear in health recommendations about the importance of hydration. “Drink eight glasses of water per day.” “We are 60% water so we need water.” “Drink 1/2 oz. of water per pound of body weight per day.” So what does Chinese medical theory have to say about hydration? It turns out that in the […]
Does Acupuncture Work? Explaining the Five Phases, Three Burners
I am often asked, “Does acupuncture work?” followed by, “How does acupuncture work?” My answer to the first is, “Yes acupuncture works, that’s why I have developed a thriving practice over 10 years.” The answer to the second is, “That’s a hard question to answer easily, but let’s start with a little medical theory of […]
The Acupuncture Channels
Just as western medicine uses the organizational models of anatomy and physiology as a way to classify the body, Chinese medicine uses the channel system as one of its organizational models. Meridians is another name for the channels. Here is an overview of the hierarchy of the channels. The channels of acupuncture are where the […]
Gastroparesis
A female patient age 33 came to me for acupuncture treatment of neck pain due to an automobile accident. As we began a review of her medical history she revealed that for 4 years she had suffered from gastroparesis, a stomach disorder where the stomach does not empty food to the intestines, leading to frequent […]
Inflammation, the Root of All Disease?
There is a new comment heard repeatedly in Western Medicine (conventional medicine) which says, “Inflammation is the root of all disease.” Let’s take a look at this concept and see why this assumption is both right, and wrong. Here is the definition of inflammation from Wikipedia: Inflammation (Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological […]
Patient Stories: Introduction
In this section I will share with you some of the stories of the work with my patients. I will give each the title of their western medical illness and tell you about how treatment progressed. Reading stories about the experience of others has always been meaningful to me with struggles in my life. The […]
Acupuncture Channels: Introduction
Welcome to my descriptions of the wonderful channels of acupuncture. These channels, also known as meridians, are a complete control and protection system in our bodies. As you will see in the sequence of the channels, they offer a model to analyze where poor function is rooted or pathology is located, and the therapeutic interface […]
Creating Health: Introduction
I am excited to begin presenting my ideas about creating health, the real focus of Chinese Medicine. In my blog I will present ideas from Chinese medicine and from western medicine. It is very helpful to see difficulties in creating health from both perspectives. We humans are such amazingly, wonderfully complex beings. We live in […]