Ancient acupuncture with modern tools.
I’m really not that old. At least, I don’t consider 41 very old, and I bet you don’t either. But let me tell you, my kids do. What can I say? They’re teenagers. This age difference was really apparent this summer when my oldest daughter spent an afternoon writing letters to her friends. And by letters, I don’t mean texts, Facebook updates, or even e-mails. I mean the good old-fashioned kind of letters–handwritten on paper, folded... Read more
The other day, my eight years old asked me what the word population meant. I used the same answer that my mom gave me when I was a kid: “Go and look it up in a dictionary.” She looked at me funny and then asked: “What is a dictionary?” I shook my head and showed her an old dictionary on the bookshelf. She then asked if she could just use the computer to look it... Read more
I love stories that illustrate life’s lessons. So here are two absolutely true stories that perfectly illustrate why we spent the last several months working on a new product to make your life easier. True story number one: I spoke to a man halfway around the world this morning. He told me he had recently “learned acupuncture” and was busy treating patients. His comments started me thinking: Is one ever really finished “learning” acupuncture? At... Read more
Recently, I had a patient come in as a referral from her OBGYN. She was 35 weeks pregnant and her baby was “Frank Breech.” Her doctor told her that she would probably have to have a c-section, but that she might consider seeing an acupuncturist first. She asked her doctor if acupuncture really works for turning breech babies, and got this answer: “I don’t know for sure, but you might as well give it a... Read more
So yesterday I posted a graph of a 37-year-old female patient, who was complaining of low back pain, abdominal bloating and constipation, poor digestion and exhaustion. She felt terrible, but her graph was practically perfect. If you didn’t see it yet, you can find it here. When I posted the case, I asked you to tell me your next move, and how you would explain a nearly perfect graph and a perfectly miserable patient. Here’s... Read more
I graphed a patient a few days ago. 37 year-old female, thin build, complaining of low back pain, abdominal bloating and discomfort, poor digestion, constipation, and overall exhaustion. Here’s her graph. It looks great, yet she is really suffering and feeling quite ill. How would you explain it? More importantly, what is your next move? Leave a comment with your thoughts and I’ll post the rest of the case tomorrow. Please rate this Please Rate... Read more
Here’s a Chinese Restaurant where you don’t want to eat: Judging by the lean build of all the people I met in China, I’m suspecting this restaurant must be in the USA or Canada. The Chinese still know how to do Chinese food right. But this was too funny not to share. Have a great day! Please rate this Please Rate This Post: Read more
I have come to the realization that almost everyone who comes in for treatment has some sort of neck and/or shoulder tension–whether they are complaining of pain or not. Also, patients who have a lot of stress and anxiety (and of course the neck and shoulder tension that goes with it) also have a lot of splits in their graph. I think all patients benefit from a little attention to the neck and shoulders now... Read more
I have had the AcuGraph for almost 4 weeks now, and am totally blown away! I got the system two days before a big health fair. The system was super simple to set up. I was able to get it working in minutes. I have a busy practice and only had about three hours to practice taking graphs. I set up at the show with just my laptop, the AcuGraph, and a printer. I graphed... Read more
Hello Friends, The title of today’s post reflects one of the questions I get asked very frequently: “How do I know if I’m using AcuGraph properly?” More specifically, I often get asked by new users how they can tell if their technique, point location, and equipment operation are all correct to produce accurate graph results. Of course, many factors contribute to the overall accuracy of the results, and without personally observing a user during the... Read more
How do you feel on Monday morning after eating TOO MUCH FOOD? You know that feeling you get after consuming an abundance of rich, greasy foods over the weekend? Loss of appetite, bloating, foul stool and gas, indigestion, diarrhea and/or constipation are all symptoms of what is termed “Food Stagnation” in TCM. According to Nigel Wiseman, in A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine, FOOD STAGNATION is any pattern of damage to the Stomach and... Read more
AcuGraph is filled with some really great little jewels that make my job easier as an acupuncturist. I thought that today I would share a few of my favorites. #1: Click the split. Did you realize that if you click on a channel in the graph, a picture comes up showing the distribution of the channel? I love this, and so do my patients. Whenever I see multiple splits with excess on one particular side... Read more
Hello Friends, In case you didn’t know, we were in China for 8 days in the beginning of May. Three of us traveled together: my wife, Tausha; my brother, Cameron (he’s also the general manager of Miridia) and me. It was the first time there for each of us and we had an incredible trip. We didn’t do much in the way of tourism, as we were there for business. But we did manage to... Read more
Talk about an AMAZING herbal formula that treats a large realm of symptoms. Can you find any “one” prescription in Western medicine that can treat both DEPRESSION and/or HEMORRHOIDS? How is this possible? In Chinese medicine we do not treat the symptom—but instead, we treat the imbalance causing the symptom to occur. The pattern responsible for both hemorrhoids and depression in TCM is Spleen Qi Sinking. The spleen channel energy has many functions. Transforms food... Read more
Alternative medicine is a big buzz word that I hear often in the medical community, meaning “any type of healing” that does not fall into the same realm as “conventional medicine,” and is used instead of standard medical care. Complementary medicine, on the other hand, means that you are using standard conventional medicine, hand in hand, with nonstandard treatments. It is important to respectfully work together with capable western medical professionals to provide the best... Read more