Acuball for the Treatment and Prevention of Trigger Point Pain
I recently discovered the acu-ball, a small, heatable plastic ball that is excellent for the relief and prevention of trigger point and other myofascial pains such as plantar fasciitis and rotator cuff trigger point pain.. I personally love using it on my rotator cuff and on the sole of my foot where I have mild plantar fascitis. What you do in the case of the foot is stand on the small acuball (there are two sizes) and, while balancing yourself with one hand on a wall, let the weight of your body sink into the ball while breathing well and relaxing. As the fascia in your foot melts, very...
Read MoreSulindac, Clinoril, and Taking Ownership of Your Health
Today’s NY Times ( Generic Drug Damages Case) has a sad article about a law suit involving a woman who is now legally blind after taking a prescription pain drug, Sulindac, and almost dieing. Sulindac, or Clinoril, is an NSAID, or non-specific anti-inflammatory drug in the same family as Ibuprofen, and was prescribed by her M.D. for her shoulder pain. What kills me, first and foremost about this case is, why in heaven’s name did this woman’s M.D. not have her try Ibuprofen first, which is comparatively safe for short term use? Why give a prescription NSAID, which...
Read MoreAcupuncture for Trigger Point Pain Relief/Acupuncture in the News
CBS News Video on Acupuncture for Trigger Point Pain and Other Pain at Montifiore Hospital in New York The M.D. in this video doing acupuncture for trigger point pain is going to hurt his own back if he does not improve his bio-mechanics. If I were him i would use a wheeled stool, which is what I use in my own acupuncture practice here in San Diego. This report makes reference to trigger point pain, which is what the woman being treated for back and leg/buttock pain is being given acupuncture for. Trigger points are a significant factor in a huge percentage of acute and chronic pain...
Read MoreShoulder Pain Treatment by the Myofascial Acupuncture Method
Shoulder pain in the myofascial acupuncture clinic ranges from the tight, achy soreness and pain common with stress and overwork injury, to the more severe sports injuries involving tendonitis, sprain, strain, and partial tears of the rotator cuff, to what Chinese Medicine dubs “50 year shoulder”, or frozen shoulder in the west. All the above injuries are very well treated with an anatomy based therapy I call Myo-fascial Acupuncture. I began studying Myo-fascial methods while at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, a San Diego acupuncture school in 1990, studying Travell and...
Read MoreGERD: Chinese Medicine vs. Bio-Medicine.
From today’s New York Times, more short sightedness about the unwise use and overuse of drugs in primary care. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/combating-acid-reflux-may-bring-host-of-ills/ As many as four in 10 Americans have symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, and many depend on P.P.I.’s like Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium to reduce stomach acid. These are the third highest-selling class of drugs in the United States, after antipsychotics and statins, with more than 100 million prescriptions and $13.9 billion in sales in 2010, in addition to...
Read MoreAnchor the Yang: Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Moxabustion Therapies for Summer Solstice
The Chinese and Indian View: Life is a Passage Through Cycles In Chinese Medicine (as also Ayurveda) a fundamental concept is to prepare for what is ahead. This is not just generalized prevention as in eating a healthy diet or sleeping well, but is specific to how we relate to the passage of time. Chinese Medicine sees life as cyclical: a series of transitions, changes, phases, and cycles; as a continuous movement between the forces of yang and yin, rather than as a linear progression of fixed events. The hard thing about living is dealing with change. Cycles Involve...
Read MoreHormonal Acne Natural Treatment with Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture
Hormonal Acne Natural Treatment with Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture In a certain sense most acne is hormonal, as it is often associated with increased levels of the hormone testosterone, in both men and women. Testosterone is made in the adrenals and the ovaries, as well as the testes. And it is the adrenal glands that are involved in the fight or flight stress response. That is why we often see the appearance of acne during periods of high stress. There are other factors besides testosterone and inadequate stress management skills. A Diet rich in sugar, processed foods and...
Read MoreThe Seven Essential Attitudes in Mindfulness Practice- Lesson1
Mindfulness Practice Lesson 1: Non Judging My favorite book that I recommend to my Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine patients for learning Mindfulness Meditation, which I think is invaluable as a tool for stress management and to address the underlying nervous system issues that lurk beneath a lot of diseases from pain to digestive complaints, and beyond that, for personal growth, is Calming Your Anxious Mind, , 2nd edition, by Jeffrey Brantley, M.D. Pick up a used copy on Amazon. In this book Brantley outlines the 7 attitudes that one cultivates in a mindfulness practice. Notice I say...
Read MoreHuang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic
I am very excited to have just received my copy of the new, comprehensive and annotated translation of the seminal text of Chinese Medicine, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic. I have studied this text before in various incomplete or limited translations, but this is the first complete and fully annotated translation by someone with both native level English and classical Chinese proficiency, along with excerpts from all the major commentaries, monographs and articles by Chinese and Japanese scholars over the past 1600 years. Familiarly known as the Su Wen, or Inner Classic, this...
Read MoreAcupuncture in the Seasons and for Prevention of Illness
While Acupuncture is most often used in the USA to treat an illness that has already occured, since ancient times acupuncture has been used to prevent illness. There are specific discussions on this topic in the Nei Jing, or Yellow Emporer’s Classic. In general, it is recommended that even health people receive acupuncture quarterly, before the change of each season, to help the body adjust to the natural climactic changes and prevent disease. This is the practice of chrono-biological acupunture, and I have found it especially helpful for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder...
Read MoreSliding Cups in the Treatment of Pain
Wind Evil and Cupping There is a concept in Chinese Medicine called Wind, or Wind Evil, which describes internal and external processes. Internal wind, can include stroke, bells palsey, migraine–all pathologies involving an excess of energy in the head, whether viral (palsey), cardiovascular (stroke), or neuromuscular-vascular (migraine.) External wind attacks the exterior of the body, as you see in colds, flus, measles, polio. There is another kind of wind “evil” that attacks the joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscular system. This is associated with arthritis, all the...
Read MoreAcupuncture
Acupuncture is an essential component in the treatment of all pain conditions. Here is a brief outline of pain conditions that I have personally had enormous success treating. Acute Pain: Sports’ Injuries Ligament and Joint Capsule Sprains Muscle and Tendon Strains Muscle Tears Disc Injuries Shoulder Soft Tissue Injuries Runner’s Knee Heel Spurs Tennis Elbow Golfer’s Elbow Low Back and Neck Injuries Surfers and Snow Boarders Bruise Injuries Trigger Point Pain Repetitive Use Injuries/Worker’s Comp Injuries Carpal Tunnel Tendonitis and Tenosyonovitis Wrist Pain Hand and Finger Pain...
Read MoreHormonal Acne Treatment with Acupuncture, Ayurveda, and Chinese Medicine
In a certain sense most acne is hormonal– teenaged acne is associated with increased levels of testosterone and progesterone, and even much adult acne is associated with some kind of hormonal fluctuation, in both men and women. The most common adult hormonal fluctuation associated with acne is the menstrual cycle. But that begs the question of why Sally gets acne with her cycle and Louisia does not. One factor is simple predisposition; some of us have oilier skin and higher testosterone levels, but a big factor, too, is stress and your reaction to it. Role of Stress Stress increases...
Read MoreMyofascial Pain: Treatment with Trigger Point Acupuncture
Definition and History of Trigger Points and Trigger Point Acupuncture The method of relief from pain, now called “trigger point acupuncture” or “myofasical acupuncture” has its origin in classical Chinese acupuncture which always looked at the human body and mind as a continuous whole. But modern western anatomists have had to reverse engineer their understanding of the way that pain and inflammation can cross barriers that used to be thought of as fixed. Because once science understood the role of the nervous system as a carrier of sensation, it was understood...
Read MoreHormonal Acne: Treatment with Chinese Body-Mind Medicine
Hormonal Acne Many women, especially young women, suffer from what can be termed hormonal acne. Hormonal acne typically, but not exclusively, occurs sometime during the 7 days prior to the onset of bleeding, known as, the pre-menstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. This is the stage during which both estrogen and progesterone have suddenly, and rather drastically, plummeted. Lutenizing hormone is also at an all-time monthly low, and FSH is slowly climbing out of its monthly trough found around day 21. (Counting begins with the first day of bleed; so day 1 of the menstrual cycle is...
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