Solutions
Why Functional Medicine & Acupuncture?
Patients often seek Functional Medicine when conventional Western medicine fails them. Then, they try to piece together their health on their own from a variety of sources and hope something sticks. Patients come in trying Googled health hacks, like “I heard this herb was good for asthma….” I used to be one of those people! I wasted time thinking ashwaganda is good for me because a study said it was iron-rich. I didn’t know the time of day to take it mattered or that my specific imbalances meant taking ashwaganda would make symptoms worse and require my body to work harder to get to homeostasis. The body is complex and nuanced. Functional Medicine and Chinese Medicine seek to understand what’s under the hood, identify underlying patterns of dysfunction, and apply targeted solutions. Most of those mechanisms, most of the targets, most of the solutions, are fundamentally immunological. Functional Medicine and Chinese Medicine excel at gut health and the immunity system.
Typical clinical Western medicine practice norms lag the research by ten to fifteen years. Chronic illness cannot wait. They need a clinical approach based on emerging research, skillfully applied with knowledge to handle their cases. The key drivers underlying most disease processes are inflammation, autoimmunity, infection, GI issues, food reactions, tissue degeneration, and environmental factors. They are all either inherently immunological or are powerfully influenced by immunological mechanisms. This is where my expertise comes in.
I treat the root cause of your illness using a personalized approach. Since I am a Chinese Medicine doctor, I also understand food energetics and our body’s internal meridians. I focus on nutrition first, using food as medicine, time-tested lifestyle practices, and work on achieving balance in all of the systems in the body so that it functions optimally. I partner with you to support your body’s natural ability to heal. I’m a doctor who looks at symptoms and illness as communication and as a normal consequence of the body doing its best to achieve balance when the body is overloaded and not prioritized. We can listen to the symptoms and messages, address the original cause, reduce inflammation, and bring the body back to homeostasis.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is the insertion of thin, disposable stainless steel needles through the skin at specific sites to regulate the body´s qi or the body’s oxygen, blood circulation, nerve impulses, and hormones. Qi flows throughout the body in a network of channels and vessels. Acupuncture serves to harmonize and distribute the qi to areas of the body that contain blockages or deficiencies in order to facilitate the healing process.
Cupping & Gua Sha Myofascial Release
Your body is a dynamic organism comprised of tensile structures—fascia–that uniquely act and react to keep your body in balance and sustain life.
Cupping is a technique that uses heat to suction the skin to stimulate deeper healing. The “upward suctioning” action loosens underlying structures to release adhesion and stiffness in ways that typical “pressure down” massage does not. The increase in localized blood flow flushes stagnant blood and fluids to promote healing. Cupping treats muscle aches and pains, digestive ailments, skin disorders, and more.
Gua sha is a skin-scraping technique using a massage tool. This action breaks up stagnant qi (or energy) to address issues such as chronic and acute pain.
Herbal Medicine
Our ancestors discovered therapeutic herbs in much the same way that they discovered edible foods: by trial and error and by observing what other animals ate. Herbal medicine is a very important aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is especially effective when used in conjunction with acupuncture. Today, most pharmaceutical drugs are isolated compounds derived from plants and herbs.
Nutritional Counseling
In traditional Chinese medical theory, there is truth to the saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Choosing foods according to one’s constitution and condition can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight, minimize digestive discomfort, increase energy, and even help with conception. During each nutritional counseling session, we will discuss your health challenges and goals, your current diet, and identify what dietary changes can help bring you into better balance.
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is the burning of mugwort, otherwise known as moxa or mogusa, on the tips of acupuncture needles or near acupuncture points. It is used on people who have a cold or stagnant condition. The burning of moxa warms the meridians, which leads to smoother flow of blood and qi. It is especially beneficial for arthritic and gynecological conditions, and has a special use in helping to turn breech babies into a normal head-down position prior to childbirth.