Acupuncture Support for New Moms (Dads too!)

Traditional Chinese medicine has a very clear and simple prescription for the postpartum period: the new mother should stay in bed for three months.

I was astonished to hear this from my traditionally-trained Chinese herbal professor. And it turns out, that’s literal. A woman who just gave birth is to stay in bed, have her food brought to her, and not even bathe for three months. Others in the family take care of the baby, and bring it the mother for feeding and sleeping.

When I tell this to people in my office, they usually burst out laughing. The contrast between that scene, and what is actually happening, is so stark.  Continue reading

Sick of Antibiotics? Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs Can Help

A lot of people come into my office who have taken a lot of antibiotics.

Often it’s for a sinus infection, which mostly resolves, followed by another sinus infection, and so on. Sometimes it’s for a urinary tract infection that does the same thing.

This happens easily with antibiotic treatment. The overt symptoms get better, but something is not quite right afterward. There’s some residual congestion, or you just feel a little foggy-headed and “off”. With a bladder infection, there may be some lingering feelings of pressure, or cloudy urination.

Then the next infection comes more easily, and the not-quite-right afterwards gets a little worse every time. Continue reading

Conquering Your Sugar Cravings

My sister sent me a rum cake. She makes them every year; the recipe, I believe, involves super-moist cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and a lot of butter and rum poured over the top. It’s loaded with everything a self-respecting acupuncturist would avoid putting in her body. It’s obscenely delicious. And, in the name of holiday stress, celebration, and family tradition, I pretty much ate the whole thing.

The holidays are like that. And that’s fine. The entire purpose of holidays is to get us out of our daily rut, shake things up a little, and give us permission to enjoy pleasures that we don’t indulge in every day. Continue reading

Three Kinds of Tired: Which One Are You?

I have a client who moved here recently from a much warmer climate. About a month ago she came in saying, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m tired all the time. I’m sleeping 9 or 10 hours a night, and I still don’t want to get out of bed. I don’t feel like doing much during the day. I’m not usually this unmotivated.

I thought for a minute and then realized, oh, she’s never done November in the Northern Hemisphere before! I told her, actually, this is normal. And sometime around May you’ll be feeling downright manic to make up for it.

Continue reading

Acupuncture, Chronic Pain, and Re-Training the Nervous System

Pain researcher Lorimer Moseley tells this story: he was hiking in the Australian Outback with friends, and felt something scratch his left ankle. It was painful enough to make him pull his leg away a little bit, but he just kept walking, figuring he’d scraped his ankle on a stick, and forgot about it – until he woke up two days later in the hospital. Doctors told him he’d been bitten by an eastern brown snake, and was lucky to be alive.

Dr. Moseley tells this story to illustrate how contextual our experience of pain is – even with a pretty severe injury, if the brain has reason to think it’s no big deal (ankles get scratched all the time, and it’s not dangerous), we probably won’t feel the sensation very strongly. Continue reading

Free Workshop: Acupuncture and Self-Care for Headache and Migraine — Boston


On Monday, October 17, I will be offering a free one-hour workshop on dealing with migraines and other headaches using Chinese Medicine. The workshop is part of an ongoing series sponsored by Pathways to Wellness.

The workshop will cover:

  • The Chinese medical view of headaches and their causes

  • Acupressure points you can use yourself to treat headache and migraine

  • How you can prevent headaches with self-care techniques specific to your type of headache

  • When to use acupuncture for headaches, and what to expect from treatment

The time:

Monday, October 17
6:30-7:30 PM

The location:

Pathways to Wellness
1601 Washington St. 2nd floor
Boston, MA (South End)

Find directions at the link below, or call Pathways at 617-859-3036 x0.   Continue reading

Fertility, Stress, and Acupuncture

It’s a commonly accepted idea that it’s harder to get pregnant when you’re under stress. It does make sense — stress is not known for improving any area of our health.

And, since struggling with fertility is itself stressful — between the waiting, wondering what’s wrong, and dealing with medical appointments and procedures — this can really put people in a bind.

One day, not for the first time, I was listening to a patient talk about how she was trying to manage her stress, but she thought she wasn’t doing a very good job, and she knew this is probably why she wasn’t getting pregnant. Continue reading