I always observe the condition of a patient’s skin in my clinic. You might wonder why the condition of a patient’s skin should matter to an acupuncturist since I am not a dermatologist. To an acupuncturist, the skin is the reflection of what is happening on the inside. The color, dryness, temperature, and the location […]
When you need to relax, the very first thing you do is take a deep breath. You do this unconsciously because deep breaths are the natural way to breathe. If you observe a newborn, you can see that the baby naturally breathes from the abdomen, not from the chest. The deep, natural breaths your body wants can only be achieved through abdominal breathing.
In Eastern Medicine, we often talk about the concept of “Han-Byo” (literal translation: half-sick), a state of health in which you are neither perfectly healthy nor sick enough to manifest a serious disease. Sadly, most people ignore their state of health until the condition is no longer manageable on their own and they finally must […]
Starting with Thanksgiving Day and ending with New Year’s, the Holiday Season is a festive period during this time of the year. Many of us reunite with our families and get invited to many parties. Social gatherings always involve good food, and lots of it. Thanksgiving Day is a true gorge fest for someone like […]
The world we live in gives us so much stress. The morning traffic is stressful. Once you get to work, the work itself is stressful. Even after work, our minds are usually filled with daily concerns and personal worries that lead to stress.
Yes, folks, it’s that season again. It happens to be a crisp, sunny day today, but normally winter in Portland is long, dark, and damp. On top of that, maybe you overworked before the holidays, you partied too much during the holidays, or maybe you’re just down because it’s a dreary January in Portland. Whatever […]
As I have mentioned in these articles, I often have different patients showing similar symptoms during the same period of time, as if there were symptoms of the month. In this last month, it was pain and numbness of the arms and hands. There were small differences, but what they all had in common was that the pain and numbness of the arms and hands were coming from problems in the neck and shoulders.
In the state of fight or flight, our bodies respond to stressors by producing adrenalin. It is good short term, but when the condition prolongs, it disturbs the healthy hormonal balance. The first physical sign of adrenal exhaustion is lower back pain. (Incidentally, the Adrenal Glands are located near common acupuncture points used for lower back pain.) Also, I have treated neck and shoulder pain, spinal pain, allergic rhinitis, chest pain that mimics a heart attack, and insomnia as adrenal exhaustion. They all fall into the category of exhaustion.