Open Up and Say Aaahhh… Tongue Diagnosis in TCM

WHY do you want to look at my tongue? What does an ideal tongue look like? What does my tongue show? Find answers to all these questions and more in this post about different tongue presentations we commonly see.

Preparing For Pregnancy: A Few Things To Consider BEFORE You Get Pregnant

When people get pregnant, they often put a lot of time towards preparing a physical space for the baby, but there are a lot of reasons for both women and men to start thinking about their physical health before they even conceive. In this post, we’ll continue our month-long series on fertility with a few things to consider when you start to think about getting pregnant.

6 Ways Acupuncture Can Support Your Pregnancy

We all know that acupuncture can help increase your fertility and chances of getting pregnant (right?), but do you also know that one of the best things you can do for yourself and your baby while you’re pregnant is to get acupuncture? That’s right! Integrating Health kicks off a month-long series on fertility and Chinese medicine with this post about how acupuncture can help ease your way through pregnancy.

Red Wine, Chocolate, and Coffee: When Is A Good Thing NOT A Good Thing? (Part Two)

Red wine, dark chocolate, and coffee are favorites for many of us, and a number of studies have shown them to have some good effects for your health. Are they always good for you? What does Chinese Medicine say about these three decadences-turned-health foods?

Chinese Medicine Makes Sense Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a chronic and debilitating gastrointestinal disorder that fits into the category of ‘functional’ diseases in Western medicine. This basically means that, while there are clear and present symptoms for the patient, Western medicine has not yet figured out the cause of the distress. This kind of disorder (‘functional’, a wide range of symptoms across systems, partly connected to emotions), is exactly the kind of situation where Traditional Chinese Medicine shines forth. Plus, the British Dietetic Association recently published some dietary guidelines for sufferers of IBS.

Supplements: When Is A Good Thing NOT A Good Thing?

Supplements may help some of us in certain situations, but for others, they may have unintended side effects. So, when is a good thing NOT a good thing? If studies have shown that a particular supplement has beneficial properties, how could it hurt? We’ll take a look at four popular supplements that our patients often take and get a better idea of how they should be taken.

Acupuncture In The News

What’s Good For You?? Acupuncture! Seems like acupuncture has been in the news more and more recently. Integrating Health has picked out a few recent highlights to share with you. Whether you’re suffering from seasonal allergies, knee pain, digestive distress, or just plain stress, acupuncture can help!

Change You Can Believe In

If there’s something about change that everyone can believe in, it’s that it WILL happen. Whether it’s in politics or relationships or our health, change is a given. Chinese medicine teaches about the balance of Yin and Yang and this …

What We Put On Our Skin Matters

As a friend once told me, after finding out that I rarely used lotion or oil on my skin, “Your skin is your biggest organ, you have to keep it healthy”. She was right, of course.  Our skin is the …

The calmest revolution: Making alternative medicine more affordable

Community acupuncture is in the news again, this time from Canada! Reblogged from National Post | News: By Howard Akler

Tic-Toc, The Body’s Clock Is Important For Your Health

It’s been said that timing is everything, and that may be particularly true when it comes to the body’s ability to fight off disease. Chinese and Western medicines both have a concept of a “body clock” with cycles of internal timing and regulation. New research published in the February issue of the journal Immunity shows that the success of our immune defense depends in part on our “body clock.”

Chinese Herb “Chang Shan” May Prove Effective For Auto-Immune Disorders

Chinese herbalists have been using bark, roots, seeds, and flowers to treat serious medical conditions for over 2,000 years. In modern times, pharmaceutical companies have made big money by isolating certain compounds from plants and replicating them synthetically. It is within this context that I want to highlight a new study from Harvard School of Dental Medicine that has isolated molecular properties in the Chinese herb Chang Shan, and found a use for it in treating auto-immune disorders like Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Six Habits of Happiness

Chinese Medicine teaches us that stuck emotions affect our health just as much as unhealthy food or lack of exercise.  Here’s a good reminder of how to cultivate happiness and get unstuck, from the Greater Good Science Center at UC …

You Don’t Have To Run A Marathon

Whether you have low back, neck, or shoulder pain from sitting at the computer, or acute knee pain from pounding the pavement too hard, Tai Chi and Qi Gong are two systems of exercise that get your Qi and blood moving, with great benefits for physical and mental health and recovery from pain.

Imagine Your Body As A City

Australia’s RMIT University has made a short video explaining the basics of acupuncture theory.