Aug 112026
Aug 112026
Aug 112026
“There exist no miraculous methods in the world, only plain ones, but the perfection of the plain is miraculous.”
Fei Boxiong 1863
“Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted”.
Chinese proverb
“Taking medicine but neglecting diet wastes the skills of the physician”
Chinese proverb
“When eating stop when you are seven tenths full”
Chinese proverb
Article: How Acupuncture Treats Concussion and Brain Injury
Acupuncture News and Research, Neurological Disorders Comments Off on Article: How Acupuncture Treats Concussion and Brain Injury
Aug 112026
Aug 232024
Jun 152018
Spring seems to be my favorite time to talk about Chinese Medicine Food Therapy and how one can tailor their diet to the season for healing. In May 2018, I did a lecture on this topic and am posting my notes and recipes here:
Spring: Time to Tame the Liver
Summary Table of Spring Foods discussed
Five Element Chart
Recipes, etc.
Anti-Aging Brain Mix recipe
Raspberry-Lime Aqua Fresca
Ban Lan Gen Chong Ji
Dandelion Flower Syrup
Stir-fried Watercress with Almonds and Ginger
No-Cook Mint Syrup
Mint Syrup (cooking required)
Rose Hips Lemonade (with Hibiscus)
Note:
References for recipes are in the documents themselves.
This is an update to notes in my Spring 2013 Newsletter.
Jun 142018
Wow! UC Davis School of Veterinary School of Medicine using acupuncture to help burned bears!! (And they were able to be returned back to the wild too!)
Pregnant Burned Bear in California Fire Gets Acupuncture and Fish Skin Paws
Vets Use Fish Skin and Acupuncture to Treat Burned Bears
Apr 122018
Research into the importance of and benefits from an integrated model of health care has been recognized at the federal level for at least 20 years now with the formation the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (NCCAM was renamed to National Center of Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) in 2014). One important indication of integrative medicine’s increased acceptance is NCCIH’s recent educational campaign geared towards veterans and military personnel discussing such topics such as managing chronic pain, PTSD, stress/anxiety and insomnia using ‘complementary practices’. A recent new analysis (3/17) of a National Health Interview Study, which was conducted by the CDC from 2010 to 2014, shows that veterans are in much more pain on average than non-veterans, and the ‘NCCIH is partnering with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense on 13 grants to research military and veteran health with a focus on non-pharmacological approaches to pain and related conditions’. The Veterans Health Administration has used acupuncture and chiropractic treatments for many years now, amongst other complementary practices, such as massage, hypnosis, meditation and yoga. The Veterans Choice program, which began in 2015, also allows veterans to go to local acupuncturists and chiropractors for pain management treatments, with prior authorization, so that a veteran does not have to wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to the closest VA facility. For Butte County residents, that includes every veteran needing such services for pain management, given VA authorization or approval.
Originally published April 2017 in the ‘PARADISE RIDGE Lifestyle & Resource Guide’, a Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau publication.
Feb 232017
New Guidelines Say Exercise, Yoga, and Acupuncture Beat Medications for Back Pain.
Other article links on this blog about acupuncture and back pain.
Feb 232017
Smell Test Outperforms Brain Imaging in Predicting Dementia
Research showing the link between loss of sense of smell and Alzheimer’s disease dates back as far as 2002, with this small study showing a “classification accuracy of 95%”. Sounds like an easy, low-cost tool that the medical community should routinely use to help patients and their families prepare to prevent and/or treat this increasingly common health tragedy!
Please note that natural medicine, especially including nutritional support1 (which is much more comprehensive than just your ‘diet’ and what you food you eat), exercise2, and Traditional Chinese Medicine3, all offer many benefits for preventing dementia.
References:
A sampling of Traditional Chinese herbal formulas for brain and cognitive function.
Feb 232017
UC Davis Pediatric GI MD Uses Acupuncture on Children for Stomach Pain
Other article links on this blog about acupuncture and IBS.
Aug 112016
Menopausal Symptoms Helped by Acupuncture
From the conclusion of this study: “We found that a course of acupuncture treatments was associated with significant reduction in VMS, and several quality-of-life measures, compared with no acupuncture, and that clinical benefit persisted for at least 6 months beyond the end of treatment.”
Note: VMS is vasomotor symptoms, or hot flashes.
Aug 102016
Aug 102016
Cupping Therapy is a tool I use almost daily in my office along with acupuncture treatments. I primarily use it on certain types of pain, or for post-stroke syndrome (i.e., paralysis), but it can be used to ‘release the exterior’ (as we say in TCM) for an upper respiratory infection, for COPD (especially phlegm in the lungs), and many other health conditions. Research on Cupping Therapy:
Effectiveness of Cupping Therapy on Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain
Photo Credit: Sheryl Sanchez, L.Ac., in Chengdu, China, 2000.
P.S. Don’t let the photo frighten you, it is a completely painless technique – it just looks a bit odd at first glance! Most patients love the procedure and especially the results – pain reduction!!
Aug 102016
This is a very good article about the benefits of Cupping Therapy:
Have a Stubborn Injury? Cupping Therapy May Help
This is another article about Cupping Therapy by a teacher and scholar in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) published in the August 2016 of Mayway Corporation’s Newsletter. (Mayway Corporation is the manufacturer of the Plum Flower brand, a premier traditional Chinese herbal line of formulas, which I use in my office). This article is geared towards the TCM professional, but may be of interest to the public:
Ancient Art of Cupping
Photo Credit: Sheryl Sanchez, L.Ac., in Chengdu, China, 2000.
Jul 192016
People’s Pharmacy, a National Public Radio (NPR) program, had their latest weekly show (on 7/14/16) about Acupuncture entitled How Acupuncture Can Help You Overcome Health Challenges. In this particular program, they highlight newly published research on acupuncture benefiting menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes (aka vasomotor symptoms) and answer basic questions about acupuncture.
The mission of People’s Pharmacy is “Empowering you to make wise decisions about your own health, by providing you with essential health information about both medical and alternative treatment options.”1, which is completely in line with my philosophy of healthcare! People’s Pharmacy is one of my favorite NPR programs, and I listen to it on my local NPR station, KCHO, or North State Public Radio.
Reference:
1 http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/about
Jun 092016
Brief article written in June 2016 about how acupuncture is beginning to play a role in reducing opioid use for chronic pain and also how acupuncture can help with opiate addiction.
One quote from this article regarding one study the US Department of Veterans Affairs conducted:
“By 2011, after employing acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage therapy, biofeedback and hypnosis among other things, the prescription narcotics consumed by the soldiers fell by 88% to 10.2%.”
Read more: Opioid Crisis Tamed Through Ancient Secret?
Mar 302016
Here’s an article about one of my favorite Chinese herbs:
The Cold Remedy That Actually Works!
Here’s more links about this herb on my blog:
Top Chinese Herb for Immune System Support
Mar 142016
I have understood for years that patients can use their Health Savings Accounts (HSA) for purchasing dietary supplements or herbal remedies that I recommend for treatment. This is the case also for Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA). As a licensed Acupuncturist in the state of California, I am called a “primary care provider” and it is within my scope of practice to “prescribe” herbs and supplements.
However, I have been told by many patients that they have been told that my supplement or herbal prescriptions would not be covered by their HSA or FSA. What I did in the past was give patients a “superbill”, which is a insurance bill or form. It shows my licensing information, my NPI# (National Provider Identifier), and has CPT codes for procedures performed (in my case, acupuncture), and diagnosis codes (for example, cervicalgia, lumbago, sciatica, knee pain, etc). However, now I have a formal form that I can give patients along with a superbill, which will be signed by me to give to the insurance company, or service company of your HSA or FSA.
For reference, this form can be found here:
Reimbursement Form
Sep 292015
I see Gabapentin, aka Neurontin, typically prescribed for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, or post-herpetic neuralgia (nerve pain), or more so nowadays, any type of pain. Anyhow, it has also been prescribed by some doctors to relieve the hot flashes associated with menopause (although this use was advised against by the FDA in 2013 ). Anyhow, this is another study showing how acupuncture will benefit hot flashes. In this research, acupuncture was used specifically on patients who had “treatment-related hot flashes”. This means that patients were taking pharmaceutical medications such as Tamoxifen and Arimidex (because they were diagnosed with Estrogen-Receptor Positive (ER-Positive) breast cancer), which results in hot flashes.
NOTE: See that the direct link to the MedScape article above does not work unless you log into MedScape unfortunately. But you can search for the title above on MedScape and find the article easily (or logging in anyway will take you directly to the article).