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Acupuncture in Minneapolis

The first time acupuncture ever appeared on my radar was over 25 years ago when I was in school working toward my undergraduate degree. I fellow classmate asked me if I were interested in learning how to be an acupuncturist. At the time the suggestion was as ridiculous to me as if she had just proposed that I move to Antarctica.

Fast forward about ten years. I had pulled a muscle in my hip that was seriously hampering my plans to hike the Grand Canyon. In total desperation and willing to try anything for relief, I went to an acupuncturist. Happily, after about three sessions on his table, my problem was solved. That hip injury was the beginning of my fascination with acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

Fast forward again to today. I am a licensed acupuncturist, a credentialed herbalist, and one of the owners of Acupuncture in the Park—and have been for more than a dozen years. It’s amazing how much things change–in this case, my mind over the course of time.

Our clinic is in Minneapolis, a forward-looking Midwestern city. We have our share of great acupuncturists and acupuncture clinics. But there’s more—if you are looking for acupuncture in the Twin Cities, here are a few things you might want to know:

-There are a couple of styles of clinics here. One is the traditional private-room set up, in which you are treated on a massage-style table in a single room. There are also community acupuncture clinics, where you can be treated in a large, quiet room with other patients while parked comfortably in a reclining chair. In addition, you will now find acupuncturists working in integrative health clinics, in which several different health services are offered.

-Almost every hospital in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and several outside of the Twin Cities offer acupuncture to their patients.

-The cost for acupuncture here in Minneapolis and St. Paul is generally a little bit less than what you would pay on either the East or West coast, especially in larger cities, like L.A., San Francisco, and New York City. In addition, the cost for community-style acupuncture is usually considerably less than that for a session in a clinic with private rooms.

-In Minnesota, we have about 400 practitioners of acupuncture, many of whom are concentrated around Minneapolis and St. Paul. That said, many acupuncturists have opened their doors to patients in cities, such as Rochester, St. Cloud, and Duluth. Compared to Minnesota’s 400, there are 5,600 acupuncturists in California, 2,600 in New York, and almost 1,500 in Oregon. On the leaner side, there are fewer than ten acupuncture practitioners in North and South Dakota, and 11 in Mississippi.

-Here in the Twin Cities, we have two accredited acupuncture schools, offering advanced degrees in Acupuncture and in Oriental Medicine (Acupuncture plus training in Chinese herbs).

-Licensed acupuncturists (LAc’s) in Minnesota are granted their license by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice after thousands of hours of training and rigorous testing. There are other practitioners who can perform acupuncture here in the state, however, they generally have less training in acupuncture and Chinese medicine than LAc’s and are certified to do so by their own professional organizations—not the Board of Medical Practice.

The bottom line is that here in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and around the state of Minnesota, there are a number of well-trained acupuncturists practicing in a variety of clinical settings. If you are ready to try acupuncture, Minnesota’s practitioners are available, nearby, and ready to help you!

Seven Surprising Conditions Your Acupuncturist Can Treat

When I first opened my practice many years ago, I thought that most of the people I would be treating would have some kind of pain or overuse injury. In my previous career, I spent years researching women’s health and sports. So when I hung out my shingle, I just assumed that I would attract athletes and weekend warriors who had sustained some kind of injury.

While I indeed treated my share of athletes, the reality is that those where not the people who made up the bulk of my practice. Instead, I got calls from all kinds of people—men and women, young and old, very sick and pretty healthy—who wanted to know if I could treat their particular complaint. The end result is that I learned firsthand the remarkable variety of conditions that can be effectively treated with acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Among them:

1) Stress! If it weren’t for stressed out patients, I would have closed my doors long ago. Many people live incredibly stressful lives, and unfortunately most wait until that stress affects their health before they decide to do anything about it. The reality is that high levels of chronic stress affects absolutely every aspect of your health. The other reality is that acupuncture is a very effective way to calm you down and reverse the effects of an over-the-top lifestyle.

2) Infertility. I never set out to work with infertility patients. However, many years ago I agreed to treat a young woman going through infertility treatments. I was pretty much her last resort. We worked together for a couple of months when she became pregnant and ultimately delivered a healthy baby. Over the years that success story has fueled my passion and been repeated in my clinic numerous times.

3) Digestive issues. Frequently a by-product of stress, but often caused by other factors, digestive issues have proven to be effectively treated by acupuncture and Chinese dietary therapy. Patients often come with very low expectations because they have tried everything else, and after a series of sessions and some dietary tweaks find that their digestive symptoms have improved dramatically.

4) PMS. Many women see a decrease in their cyclical symptoms after a few sessions on the acupuncture table. In most cases, women with PMS are diagnosed with a stagnation of Qi—which simply means that things aren’t moving very well. Frequently PMS is aggravated by high levels of personal stress. When both of those imbalances are addressed, many women find relief from their symptoms.

5) Seasonal allergies. In Chinese medicine, immunity is viewed as a kind of protective bubble that keeps outside invaders at bay—things like bacteria, viruses, and allergens. People who suffer from seasonal allergies generally have a weakness is that protective bubble, which is considered to be a kind of Qi, or energy. When that energy is strengthened through acupuncture, diet, and sometimes an herbal formula, most sufferers are able to get through their allergy season with few or no symptoms.

6) Anxiety. Most people are surprised to find that acupuncture can treat anxiety. However, research on the physiological effects of acupuncture has documented that acupuncture affects your brain chemistry in a good way. It increases chemicals in the brain that have a calming, feel-good effect, as well as increasing chemicals that fight pain.

7) Fatigue. Chinese medicine is all about energy. Every cell in your body makes energy; it’s the stuff of cellular biology and the Krebs cycle in science. In Chinese medicine, good health depends of you having enough of that energy to maintain all your bodily functions, and it needs to flow unimpeded. When you are tired, fatigued, exhausted, or just plain pooped out, it’s because you are down a quart of energy. There are numerous possible causes for your low energy, but the good news is that acupuncture, herbs, and dietary changes can help.

Can Acupuncture Help Rotator Cuff Injuries?

Your shoulder is an amazing thing. It can carry groceries, throw a fastball, high five a pal, comb your hair, and shrug when you don’t know the answer. It’s one of the most versatile joints in your body, able to move in almost any direction. That versatility comes with a price, however, which is that shoulders are prone to all kinds of injuries.

One of the most common kinds of shoulder injuries is damage to the muscles and tendons that make up your rotator cuff. Your shoulder is a ball and socket joint, like your hip. However, your shoulder has a very shallow socket, in order to allow for that flexibility of movement. This means that your shoulder depends on the surrounding muscles and tendons to hold it together. Many of those muscles and tendons make up the rotator cuff, or a kind of sleeve that holds your arm in place in the socket.

Many people talk about the rotator cuff as if it were a single entity, but in reality it is a group of four muscles and tendons that converge near the top of your shoulder. For anatomy geeks, those four muscles are supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis–easily remembered by the acronym SITS. Interestingly, the rotator cuff muscles live behind your shoulder, around your scapula (your chicken wing). However, the tendons to those muscles are anchored at the front of your shoulder, enabling a wide range of motion.

Shoulder injuries are common, and can be caused by repetitive movements of the arm, injuries, trauma, muscles tears, swelling of the tendons, and aging. Symptoms of rotator cuff injuries include pain, especially in the front of the shoulder and down your arm; weakness; problems moving your shoulder; the sensation of a “catch” when lifting your arm; noise with movement; and the inability to sleep on the affected shoulder.

If you are experiencing shoulder pain, the first order of business is to give it a rest. If your pain is from overuse, this means you need to quit doing the activities that have been stressing your shoulder out. I am also a big fan of physical therapy for shoulder injuries, as a good therapist will give you exercises and stretches to increase your range of motion and over time, strengthen the involved muscles.

Can acupuncture help rotator cuff injuries? In many instances, it can. I have found that the majority of shoulder problems originate at the supraspinatus muscle, which sits at the top of your scapula and runs under the AC joint (where your collar bone ends at your shoulder) to anchor at the front of your shoulder. Pain can be from a weak or partially torn muscle, tendinitis, or swelling as the muscle passes under the AC joint. A sign that the supraspinatus is involved is the sensation of a painful catch when you raise your arm upward from your side.

Acupuncture can relieve the pain in your shoulder, reduce inflammation, and speed up the healing process. An acupuncture treatment involves taking a history of the injury, mapping the pain, and determining the muscles and tendons that are involved. In many cases, the pain is coming from one of the rotator cuff muscles in your back. Patients are often surprised to find that a couple of well-placed needles in their back can actually provide a great deal of relief and healing in their shoulder. If you’re suffering from shoulder pain, set up a time for a free consultation to see if acupuncture can help you!

Five Things to Know About Back Pain

Like a lightning bolt out of the blue, back pain seems to strike at the most unlikely of times. It can be set off by some seemingly harmless activity like reaching for soap in the shower, trying to grab something from under the bed, or simply by putting on your shoes. When it happens, the pain is sudden and sharp and can’t be ignored. When my back goes out, the episodes of pain are intense, short-lived, and muscular in nature. I realize that I am lucky when it comes to the health of my back. There are millions of people with back issues, who struggle with chronic back pain on a daily basis, often for years at a time.

If you suffer from back pain, here are a few things you might not know:

-In many cases, stretching can not only help with the pain, but it can help prevent injuries in the first place. Stretches to flex and extend your back, open up your sacrum, low back, and hip flexors can be invaluable in keeping back pain away.

-Most people believe that there is only one single cause of their back pain, when in reality, there may be a number of things going on. Like a perfect storm, issues like tight muscles, inflammation, trauma, muscle imbalances, misalignment, and inactivity may all be contributing to your pain. We have found that many patients come to us with a diagnosis of disk problems who have found a great deal of relief from our work on soft tissue (muscles).

-Similarly, while many people look for the one answer to their back pain, it may actually take a combination of therapies to get the job done. I have seen patients who have stopped all therapies except one, so they could see which was working for them. The reality is that a

combination of physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, stretching, and heat may work better to relieve back pain than any single one therapy one its own.

-Diet may also be a player in back pain. While what you eat and the condition of your back may seem to be unrelated, the reality is that your diet plays a role in back health on a couple of levels. First, when you blow out your back, either from a muscle pull, bulging or ruptured disk, or any other injury, inflammation is involved. Eating a diet geared toward reducing inflammation can help reduce the pain and the time it takes to heal. In addition, your spine needs a good supply of blood to bring vital oxygen and nutrients to the area. Unfortunately for many people as they age, the arteries to their spine are blocked with atherosclerotic plaques (blocked arteries) that inhibit blood flow. The end result is that vertebrae and disks that need nourishment to heal are increasingly cut off from an adequate blood supply.

-In Chinese medicine, low back pain is associated with your Kidney organ system. Your Chinese Kidneys are responsible for your body constitution—things like how healthy you will be, how you will mature, fertility, and how you will age. A chronically achy lower back is a sign that your Kidney system is depleted. A trip to your acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese medicine can help with acupuncture, food therapy, and lifestyle tweaks to get you back on track.

-Finally, even though acupuncture can’t change the structural causes of your back pain, it can help with pain relief in a couple of ways. First, acupuncture alters your brain chemistry by increasing the circulation of feel-good endorphins, up-regulating your body’s own opioid system, and limiting pain signals to your brain. Acupuncture also has the effect of increasing circulation, and that increase brings inflammation-reducing white blood cells to the area to support healing and reduce pain.

The bottom line is that even though you may have a diagnosis of a structural problem in your back, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be pain-free. Often, increasing the circulation to the area, relaxing the surrounding muscles, and calming down the inflammation can effectively help to relieve your back pain.

Rx for Fall Allergies

When I was a kid, allergies were something that was not on my radar. I grew up in a large family, and one of my sisters seemed to suffer for all the rest of us. She walked around the house with red eyes, a stuffy nose, and a tissue in hand. I know she was miserable, but I couldn’t relate.

Actually I couldn’t relate until I was about 30 and living in Colorado. One spring I found myself completely stuffed up with itchy eyes, ears, and entire face. I felt like my brains had been removed and replaced with cotton. Could this be allergies? As a grown-up?

Turns out that you can develop allergies at any time in your life. And it also turned out that for me it was the Russian Olive trees in bloom that were making my life a living hell.

Lately, I’ve been thinking lots about seasonal allergies. It’s the end of summer and drying out here in Minnesota, which means two things: no mosquitoes (good) and a bumper crop of ragweed (bad). I see the golden-yellow spikes of ragweed in full bloom in the empty fields and marshes throughout the countryside. While it adds color the the landscape, ragweed is like kryptonite to anyone who suffers from hay fever.
We practitioners of Chinese medicine consider allergens to be external pathogens–invaders from the outside that can make you sick, especially if you’re susceptible to them. However, you have a defense system called Wei Qi that guards the exterior of your body like a protective bubble or shield. When Wei Qi is weak, all kinds of pathogens, usually carried by the wind, can get into your body and cause colds, flu, and allergies.

Wei Qi is connected to your Lung system in Chinese medicine, because in most cases it’s the first organ that’s affected when pathogens attack. You may have a cough, sore throat, or runny/stuffy nose–all considered to be symptoms associated with your Lungs. In addition, your Lungs are the most exterior of all your organs, because they are constantly in contact with the outside world through the air you breathe. So you can say that your Lungs guard the exterior of your body, and weak Lungs are the primary cause of weak Wei Qi.

The solution to dealing with allergies is two-fold in Chinese medicine. On the superficial level, you need to deal with the pathogens (allergens) that are causing your symptoms. At a deeper level, you will need to strengthen your protective Wei Qi, which can be done through a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and in some cases food therapy.

The short-term fix is to think of pollen as a toxic dust that settles on your clothes, hair, carpet, and even your pets. If you can get rid of the pollen, you can decrease your symptoms dramatically. Here are a few steps:

-Close your windows, especially when the weather is dry and windy.

-Shower in the evening to get the day’s toxic dust off your skin and out of your hair.

-Wash your hands after handling a pet that’s been outside. Wipe down your pet with a moist towel when it comes indoors (and wash your hands!).

-Get a really good vacuum, as pollen is extremely fine and will settle on your floors and pretty much everywhere else. Dusting is good, too. And you really should get someone who does not suffer from allergies to dust and vacuum for you.

-Change your clothes after you’ve been working outdoors.

-Get a Neti Pot and use it. (It’s a small pot to help you cleanse your nasal passages, and can be found at most drug stores.)

-A good time to go outdoors during allergy season is just after it has rained. The moisture washes away some of the pollen and causes it to settle for a day or two.

I still suffer from allergies for about two weeks in early June when the Russian Olives are blooming. However, here in Minnesota, there are far fewer of these evil trees. During those two weeks, I stay inside, take a lot of showers, and wait it out.

Why Am I So Tired?

As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, I work with many patients who are flat out tired. They struggle to get out of bed in the morning, poop out at night, or don’t have the energy to do the things they want to do throughout the day. Some come to me because exhaustion is their chief complaint; for others fatigue is a secondary symptom of something else going on. Regardless of how it manifests, there are many, many tired people just trying to get through the day.

I know all about exhaustion. Several years ago after major surgery, I was sent home to heal. After a couple of weeks, I was up and about and feeling pretty chipper, with one exception. Every evening after dinner, I experienced exhaustion so profound that that I could barely move. The only thing I could do was go to bed and crash. This fatigue lasted for almost a year after the surgery, but when it finally resolved, I knew that my healing was complete.

What’s interesting to me is that almost every patient I see is clueless as to why they’re so tired. This may be because the underlying cause can be seemingly unrelated to a patient’s symptoms. Most people think lack of sleep is the most common reason that they’re tired. While poor sleep can make you feel exhausted, there are many other causes of of fatigue. Here’s my short list:

-A recent illness or surgery. Your body is programmed to heal, but it takes a lot of energy to do so. It’s common to feel exhausted after an accident, illness, or surgery because all of your energy reserves are going toward putting you right. In addition, if there was blood loss involved, as in the case of surgery, it’s more likely that you will feel fatigued for some time–even years–afterward.

-Childbirth. Like an illness or surgery, it takes many months to regain your energy after giving birth. The actual event, coupled with blood loss and sleepless nights can leave new moms exhausted for as long as the first year of their baby’s life.

-Poor diet. You get your energy from the food you eat. If you’re not eating well, it’s like putting bad gas in your car’s tank–you won’t run well, either.

-Poor digestion. Your body converts food into nutrients and energy through the process of digestion. You can eat the best food in the world, but if your digestion is funky, it can leave you feeling depleted and tired. Signs that things aren’t going well gut-wise include heartburn, gas, bloating, stomachaches, nausea, loose stools, constipation, and lack of appetite.

-Overwork. Considered to be an underlying cause of illness and depletion in Chinese medicine, working long hours without a break can lead to exhaustion. Even when you’re getting enough sleep, working, studying, caretaking, or overexercising can translate into exhaustion.

-Stress. Unrelenting stress affects everything from your muscles to your mood to your digestion. Over time, stress has the ability to deplete you at the deepest level, causing an exhaustion so profound that it can take months to recover.

-Stagnation. This is a term in Chinese medicine in which your energy just isn’t moving well. Stagnation is a little like a car’s engine that is seizing up, and can be the cause of a host of different symptoms. Physically, stagnation causes pain, poor digestion, menstrual symptoms, and muscle tightness. Emotionally, stagnation manifests as stress, frustration and depression. The link between stagnation and fatigue is simple: if your energy is all bound up, it’s not available to fuel your daily activities.

If you can’t muster the energy to get through the day, Chinese medicine and acupuncture has a lot to offer. At Acupuncture in the Park, our first order of business is to identify the cause. Our goal is to eliminate what’s wiping you out as well as to rebuild your energy stores. We have a number of tools to work with, including acupuncture, Chinese herbal formulas, food therapy, heat therapy, and lifestyle changes. You don’t have to walk through life like a zombie–acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help!

Acupuncture for Post Traumatic Stress – PTSD

When I was a teenager I witnessed a scary incident that involved a panicky young horse that was injured while being moved to his new home. Fortunately, the accident looked far worse than it was, and the horse arrived at his new digs shaken and bruised, but able to make a full recovery.

However, it was not as easy for me to shake off the incident. For several weeks after, I kept rehashing the scene in my mind, was unable to sleep, and felt shaken to my core. When I look back now, I realize that what I was experiencing during that time was a mild episode of post traumatic stress, or PTSD.

PTSD is a common disorder that develops after a frightening ordeal that involves physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The sufferer of PTSD may have been personally harmed or may have witnessed a harmful episode that happened to another. Many people experience PTSD after military combat, but it also frequently occurs to victims of violence, such as childhood abuse, rape, muggings, accidents, or natural disasters.

PTSD occurs because our bodies are wired to respond to danger through the activation of our sympathetic nervous system. This reaction is called the fight or flight response, in which our bodies are flooded with a cascade of chemicals, including cortisol, adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine that enable us to react quickly to the danger at hand. For people with PTSD, this normal reaction has been altered in some way, in that they feel danger and the accompanying stress even during times when they are not in danger. The symptoms of PTSD include recurrent and persistent memories of the traumatic incident, nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, acute anxiety, and reactivity to stimuli that remind them of the original trauma.

In Chinese medicine, each organ system is associated with an emotion. Fear at the deepest level is the realm of the Chinese Kidney, which is the deepest of the organs and governs your body’s overall health and vital substances. In addition, your Chinese Kidney is the organ system most damaged by chronic stress. Other organs affected by PTSD include the Spleen, which governs digestion and is associated with excessive worry and rehashing of ideas (think of indigestion of the mind in which ideas keep repeating.) The Heart organ system may also be involved in PTSD, in that it is the keeper of emotions, memories, and consciousness.

Several studies have shown acupuncture to be effective in treating the symptoms of PTSD, and the Veterans Administration is using ear acupuncture in some settings to treat this illness. While acupuncture and Chinese medicine can play an important role in treating PTSD, combining acupuncture with behavioral or talk therapy, and in many cases medical intervention may be most effective.

Some ways to begin the healing process from PTSD include:

-Educate yourself about the symptoms and treatment options for PTSD. The more you know about this illness, the better you will be able to make important decisions in the healing process.

-Understand that dealing with and managing the symptoms of PTSD is not the same as eliminating it altogether. The memories of past trauma will not go away completely; the healing process is aimed at altering your reactivity those memories.

-When you are feeling anxious, pay attention to your breathing. In stressful moments, we tend to breathe shallower and faster, which only makes things worse. Try inhaling for a count of four, holding your breath for a count of four, and exhaling for a count of four.

-Stay in the moment when you are feeling stressed or anxious. Think about what you are doing right now, and pay attention to the sights, sounds, and smells that are in your immediate environment right now.

-Find small moments and activities that bring you joy.

-Try writing about your feelings. For some, expressive writing—taking some quiet time to journal about what you are feeling can be therapeutic.

-Be kind to yourself. Eating well, connecting with supportive people, and getting adequate rest are important components of the the healing process.

-Find a good support system. Look for someone or several people in whom you can confide and feel comforted by.

-Get help! PTSD is very real. Find resources in your community—physicians, groups, acupuncturists, therapists, or other care providers who have treated PTSD and can provide you the therapeutic help that you need.

Upper Back and Shoulder Pain and Our Evolving Bodies

About a month ago I attended an acupuncture symposium, at which the keynote speaker talked about treating musculoskeletal injuries and pain. Early on in his presentation he made the remark that the bodies he treated thirty years ago are very different from those he treats today.

It took a minute for me to understand how profound a statement this was, because my first thought was, sure…we’re all getting older, so of course our bodies are different. But what he meant was that collectively our bodies are changing. We are evolving right before our very eyes.

So what’s happening, and why are we changing? A few things:

-For starters, we didn’t use computers thirty years ago in the way we do today. The vast majority of people around the world are sitting at a keyboard typing away at work, on social media, and even watching TV. Thirty years ago, typing was delegated to the office assistant or secretary. Today, both your boss and your eight-year-old type.

-In addition, we text today…hunched over a phone firing off witty messages with our opposable digits.

-Have you watched kids heading off to the school bus lately? They are wearing backpacks loaded down with books, folders, and school supplies. The weight of those packs cause most kids to lean forward to stabilize that weight.

-Even more than thirty years ago, women carried handbags. These were purses, or where I grew up, pocketbooks, with a short handle. The idea was that they were to be carried in your hand. Today, most bags come with a shoulder strap and are meant to be worn over one shoulder. And if you’re like me, worn over the same shoulder all the time, causing one shoulder to be perpetually higher than the other.

So why are these changes a big deal? The answer is that the biomechanics of our daily lives have changed. Today our backs are hunched, shoulders are rolled forward, and one side is frequently elevated above the other. It becomes a big deal in that I see a lot of patients with rotator cuff muscle injuries, neck pain, shoulder pain, and headaches caused from this forward roll of our collective shoulders.

Here’s where acupuncture comes in. Though the use of some strategically placed needles, we can get those tight muscles to release, those painful shoulders to relax, and relieve the pain from chronic overuse and plain bad posture. In addition, your practitioner can give you some specific stretches and exercises to strengthen and stretch the muscles involved. There are also things that you can do to help relieve the tightness, pain, and forward roll. Among them:

-Change your biomechanics. Can you work some of the time standing up? Our devices are now small enough that we can move them to just about anywhere. When I have the chance, I work standing with my iPad at chest height, which helps my posture dramatically.

-Open up your chest through stretching. One of the easiest is to stand in a doorway with your forearms in the frame and stretch your chest open. Do this with your upper arms in a “T” position, and then raise them and stretch in a “Y” position.

-Put a note on your computer to check your posture. It will take repeated reminders to change how you sit.

-Check your stress. Like the hackles on an alarmed dog, we tend to carry our stress in our shoulders and at the base of our neck. Whether it’s meditation, yoga, fishing, or taking a long vacation, do what it takes to get your stress under some kind of control.

-Shrug it off, really. Bring your shoulders up to your ears in a classic shrug and hold it there for a few seconds. Then very consciously let go of the shrug–it works wonders in loosening up a tight neck and shoulders.

-Deal with your shoulder bag. Either get a handbag with a short handle or wear your shoulder bag around your neck and across your chest. Either solution will help any imbalance you’ve developed from a handbag perpetually perched on one shoulder.

Infertility: Five Common Patterns of Imbalance in Chinese Medicine

When I began the practice of acupuncture over a decade ago, I never thought that I would treat women with infertility issues. It felt complicated and out of my league. But one day a young woman came to me who had been trying to conceive for years, and from a Chinese medical standpoint, her problem was obvious. We worked together for a few months, and she got pregnant. She told her friends, more women came to acupuncture for infertility issues, and more became pregnant. Over many years of treating women who are trying to become pregnant (while not 100 percent), the effectiveness of Chinese medicine is apparent.

When it comes to infertility, not all women are created equal. There are a number of patterns of imbalance in Chinese medicine that can be the underlying cause of an inability to become pregnant. Among them:

1) Kidney organ system depletion. Your Chinese Kidney is considered to be the deepest and most essential of the organ systems. It is the home to many of your body’s vital substance such as Yin and Yang and Essence. The Kidney system is responsible for your body constitution, which determines your overall health as well as how you will develop, mature, and age. It is also directly related to fertility. For most women seeking help from Chinese medicine for infertility issues, strengthening the Kidney system is often the primary focus of treatment.

Some signs that your Kidney system could be depleted include a weak and achy lower back or knees, waking hot at night or feeling cold to the core (or both), deep fatigue, metabolic issues, and frequent illnesses.

2) Depletion of Qi or Blood. Qi is the energy necessary for your body to perform its functions—from digestion to moving your muscles. And in Chinese medicine, your Blood is considered to be only as strong as its nourishing function. Poor diet, eating disorders, blood loss, lack of adequate sleep, and overworking all have the ability to deplete your Qi or Blood, and in many cases, both.

Your body needs adequate Qi and Blood to become pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy. Some signs that your Qi is depleted include feeling tired, easy bruising, poor digestion, feeling cold, and catching frequent colds. Blood depletion may show up as looking pale, dry skin, brittle nails, dizziness or feeling light-headed, and scanty menstrual periods.

3) Liver Qi Stagnation. This is stress and strong emotions causing your body to “seize up”. Your Chinese Liver system is responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body, from your digestion and menstrual cycle, to your emotions and feelings of well-being. When you become very stressed out, emotional, or frustrated (what woman struggling with infertility isn’t?), your Liver Qi becomes bound up and causes a cascade of symptoms. Stress, irritability, a racing mind (especially as you try to sleep), feeling hot, and even pain under your ribs are signs that your emotions are getting the better of you.

4) Stagnation of Qi and Blood. This is similar to the pattern above, in that things aren’t moving very well in your body. However, while Liver Qi stagnation is more emotional in nature, stagnation of Qi and Blood is more physical. Symptoms of this pattern of imbalance include endometriosis, pelvic infections, and pelvic pain and cramping. Any kind of structural blockages of your reproductive system would fall under this pattern.

5) Phlegm and dampness. Wait…what? How can phlegm even be remotely associated with infertility? Let’s start with dampness, which is your body’s inability to properly metabolize fluids. Poor digestion, a slow metabolism, weight gain, and a funky diet all are contributors to this pattern. Dampness in your body may show up as…damp stuff, such as yeast infections, athlete’s foot, water retention, bladder infections, and swelling. When dampness sits around in your body for long enough, it congeals and becomes phlegm. It may show up as actual phlegm, such as sinus problems or congested lungs, but phlegm is also the culprit behind accumulations such as cysts, fibroids, and polycystic ovaries.

If you choose acupuncture and Chinese medicine for infertility issues, the first order of business for your practitioner is to determine what pattern is at the source of the problem. And because everything affects everything else in your body, more than one pattern may be at play here. Your practitioner will then use a variety of tools to set things right, including acupuncture, food therapy, Chinese herbs, heat therapy, stress relief, and other lifestyle changes.

Ear Acupuncture Relieves Anxiety

One of the most frequent questions I get asked about acupuncture is what kinds of conditions it can treat. Most people are well-aware of the benefits of acupuncture for relieving acute and chronic pain. However, many are surprised to learn that acupuncture and Chinese medicine has a lot to offer people who are struggling with mental health conditions.

At Acupuncture in the Park, we see a great number of patients who struggle with anxiety. Many have other health conditions, but some seek out acupuncture simply to help them calm down, slow down, relieve their anxious symptoms, and even help with panic attacks.

As a new acupuncturist, I used a combination of acupuncture points that included one needle in each ear for my patients with anxiety. I got good results, but felt I could do better. Several years ago, I began using a protocol that involved inserting five needles in each ear along with appropriate points on the patient’s body. I found that including a set of needles in each ear offered more effective and incredibly calming effects that began during the treatment and lasted for days (and for some, weeks) afterward.

Why stick needles in someone’s ear? Well, in Chinese medicine, your ear is considered a microsystem, in which you use one part of the body to treat another. Another healing microsystem commonly used throughout the world is foot reflexology. Ear acupuncture works because stimulating those points trigger electrical impulses from your ear to your brain. So, for example, if you had back pain, I could insert a needle in a place in your ear that corresponds with your back to help relieve the pain.

Research studies have documented the calming effects of ear acupuncture in the treatment of anxiety. They found that ear acupuncture exerts “a specific and measurable effect” in reducing anxiety before dental appointments, surgery, and during ambulance transport.

The point prescription that I use on my patients was initially developed for the treatment of addictions, but has found to be equally effective in relieving stress and anxiety. In fact, ear acupuncture (the same protocol that I use) is currently being used to effectively treat post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans returning from combat.

An additional benefit of auricular acupuncture is that I can send my patients home with small beads or seeds stuck to tiny adhesive patches placed in their ears that continue to stimulate the appropriate points for several days after their acupuncture session. The bottom line is that ear acupuncture is a safe, effective, and drug-free to decrease your anxiety.

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