Fall Back-to-School Acupuncture Tune-Up

Preparing for the New Season

The weather is changing, as you may have felt in the past few days. While the sun is still out during the day, a chill has crept into the morning and evening air. Summer has been beautiful this past August, but it’s coming to an end. As the weather starts to morph into fall, it will influence our bodies and minds. We are entering a quieter, more introspective time as the sun wanes, and many of us are prone to experience the blues.

Help armor yourself against the end-of-summer blues with some good self-care. Acupuncture is a great tool for treating the emotional letdown of summer’s end, as well as any aches and pains brought on by the chillier weather. These also benefit from cupping or guasha,which can both help you relax deep, hidden tension, especially when paired with some tuina. And some warm, toasty moxa will feel really good when you start to feel fall’s chill!

Take advantage of Artemesia Healing Art’s special online deals:

• New Patients Save $30: First Visit for Only $60!
• Free phone or email consults for both new and established patients.
• Sliding Scale Fees for those in financial need.

AHA is a preferred provider for many major insurance companies. We are happy to help you figure out your benefits.

Artemesia Healing Arts On Leave In March

Get It While You Can!

Happy New Year! Now is a great time to treat yourself to health. Whether you need a little tune-up or it’s finally time to start taking care of that nagging problem from 2010, come in soon! Artemesia is going to be growing, sometime in early March (or possibly even late February, you know how babies are) and I’d love to see you before then!

Special Pre-baby Deals for those without insurance coverage:

• New Patient Visits for just $60! (typically $90)
• Repeat Visits for as low as $45! (typically $75)

Got Insurance? Use It! It’s 2011 and your insurance has rolled over into the new calendar year. Even if you used up all of last year’s visits, January is your time for a fresh start.

Chinese New Year is coming, February 3rd. It’s the year of the rabbit. May this coming year bring you calm, peace and togetherness.

Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine for Insomnia During Pregnancy

Strategies for Sleep Success

As you move through the weeks of pregnancy, you are likely to find yourself suffering from insomnia. While it’s true that soon you will be waking up with your baby throughout the night, it’s nice to get sleep while you still can. Difficulty sleeping can be addressed with acupuncture and herbal medicine but there are also some simple things you can do for yourself to help address this issue.  Remember, if you are going to take herbs during pregnancy, make sure to consult with a knowledgeable practitioner first.

Proper sleep posture can do a lot to alleviate sleeplessness and body pain. As your pregnancy progresses, sleeping on your back can cause your growing uterus to compress your blood vessels, interfering with blood flow and leaving you with a feeling of breathlessness or vague discomfort. Since sleeping on your belly is out for obvious reasons, getting comfortable on your side is important. You can use a couple of regular pillows or one long body pillow for support. Place one of the pillows between your knees and hug the other pillow. You can also sleep with your bottom leg straightened out and place the first pillow under the bent knee of your top leg. Switch sides throughout the night to avoid compressing your bottom hip. You might also find it helpful to wedge a folded towel under your growing belly as you get further along.

Make sure to keep yourself well-fed. Eat healthy foods at regular intervals. Have a snack close to bedtime or when you find yourself awake late at night. Something light, like cereal, can often help you fall back to sleep. Remember that your calorie requirements are higher in pregnancy and that you may be happier eating multiple small meals through the day. It’s not unusual for your body to wake you at night up for a snack. It could even help allay morning sickness–one of the tricks to fighting nausea in pregnancy is to keep your stomach from ever being completely empty.

Go to bed at the same time every night. Give yourself some time to unwind. Turn off all electronic equipment, especially the TV and computer, about a half hour to an hour before bedtime. Try meditation, yoga, tai chi or qi gong to practice relaxation. Make sure to get plenty of exercise. The optimal time for these activities varies per person, so try doing them at different times of the day if you’re experiencing sleep difficulties.

Remember that you’re not the only pregnant woman out there who can’t sleep. Combined with the fatigue of early and late (and for some of us middle too!) pregnancy, this can affect other areas of your life. If you find yourself struggling to cope, or if you’d like to treat yourself to some rejuvenating relaxation, go see your acupuncturist.

Using Acupuncture to Treat Tendonitis

A Case Study on Posterior Tibial Tendonitis Treated Successfully with E-Stim (Electro-Acupuncture)

Acupuncture is a great modality for the treatment of injuries, whether acute or chronic. This particular injury had elements of both, with the onset of pain occurring suddenly during an hour-long run. The condition had been developing over the previous 4 months of training while the patient was in the process of increasing her mileage in order to run a half marathon. The pain was sharp and located on the right side only, inferior and posterior to the medial malleolus (inner ankle).

The patient was advised by a PT to rest her ankle and perform ice massage.  She took about a month off of running, did some irregular icing, and received very deep massage work, but the pain recurred immediately upon running.  She started seeing a different PT about 2 months after the onset of the pain, and a few weeks after that started to receive acupuncture. At this point, she had reduced her running from 5x/week to 3x/week and dropped her mileage to below 3 miles a run. She always took a day off between runs, and performed regular strengthening exercises assigned by the PT. After a few treatments using local tender points and moxibustion, I switched to e-stim. She came in 3x/week for 3 weeks. I needled Ki 2 and 7 and Sp 4 and 6 with e-stim at medium frequency for about 25 minutes at each visit. Following the 3rd week of this treatment, she reported her first pain-free run in 6 months. She has spent the past month pain-free and started to very slowly rebuild her mileage. Treatment frequency is now about once a month.

Do you have an injury? Are you in pain? Acupuncture can help facilitate the healing process. Get in touch for a free consultation.

Artemesia Healing Arts at the Fremont 5k and Briefcase Relay

Free Tuina Massage!

Stop by the Artemesia Healing Arts tent at the Fremont 5k and Briefcase Relay this Friday from 5-9:00 pm. I’ll be available to answer questions and give free consultations. Book an appointment and get a bonus Chinese Tuina massage back treatment for free!

Free Acupuncture in Wallingford/Fremont for Healthcare Professionals!

Summer Special

Are you a healthcare professional? Do you work with one? Would you like some free acupuncture? Schedule today and receive one free treatment! Enjoy an hour-long acupuncture appointment for free, just for being in or supporting the healing arts.

Not a healthcare professional? Artemesia Healing Arts is still offering $50 first visits for new patients through the end of June. Contact me to schedule an appointment or ask more questions.

Acupuncture for Depression During Pregnancy & Postpartum

How to Beat the Baby Blues

Depression during pregnancy and in the postpartum period occurs quite frequently. During pregnancy, a woman’s hormones are in a very different state of balance, with about 100 times the estrogen and 10 times the progesterone of a non-pregnant woman. These are the hormones that cause premenstrual mood swings and bring to mind the image of the hysterical pregnant woman that resounds through our culture–now she’s laughing, now crying, now raging mad; look out! The changes take some getting used to. It’s good to keep in mind that they are helping our bodies become the perfect environment for growing and raising a strong, healthy baby. Postpartum, these hormones suddenly swing back towards where they used to be, unsettling us once again. Almost every woman has at least a mild case of “baby blues” and finds herself crying easily or without reason. Having a new baby can be overwhelming and difficult to prepare for. Also, due to the collapse of the extended family structure, women find themselves without much support. Others often focus on the newborn baby to the exclusion of the mother. This shift in attention can be a bewildering and difficult transition for some. In addition, most new moms aren’t getting enough sleep and may be struggling with other issues, such as difficulty breastfeeding and relationship stress.

More and more data suggests that the less we rely on pharmaceutical solutions for issues during pregnancy, the better. Pharmaceuticals always carry the risk of side effects. Many drugs used during pregnancy have never actually been tested for their safety during pregnancy and are given out based on “expert opinion.” Why no testing? Since it’s unethical to test drugs on pregnant women, no one designs the tests. Yet pregnant women are given drugs with the hope that nothing will go wrong. Much of the time, nothing does. However, the track record does have some disturbing moments: DES and thalidomide, once commonly given to respectively prevent miscarriage and treat morning sickness, both caused horrible birth defects. Thalidomide babies suffered malformed limbs that often resembled flippers. DES babies suffered malformations of their reproductive tracts, effects which have even been shown to pass on to the grandchildren of women who took it.

There has been recent research on the use of antidepressants during pregnancy which shows that newborn babies suffer withdrawal symptoms and side effects including agitation, altered muscle tone, and breathing and suction problems. There is also evidence that these effects can occur through breastmilk transfer. The side effects are not just of concern for our babies, but for ourselves.  Depression has a varying range of severity and may require differing levels of treatment. The more we learn, the more desirable non-drug methods of treatment become in less severe cases. This may include personal therapy, support groups, yoga, exercise, massage, and acupuncture and Chinese herbs. A recent study found at least a 50% reduction in depression to be almost 20% higher when treated with acupuncture alone versus a sham treatment or massage.

Get in touch for questions or to schedule an appointment and experience the uplifting qualities of acupuncture yourself.

First Acupuncture Visit $50 Till June 30th!

Take Advantage of this New Patient Summer Special!

Need a tune-up? New or ongoing pain or illness? Pay cash or check and receive your first acupuncture treatment for nearly 1/2 price ($40 savings!).

Want to use your insurance? I am a preferred provider with most insurance companies.

Get in touch to schedule an appointment or for assistance in verifying your coverage.

Hope to see you in my Wallingford/Fremont location soon!

Acupuncture for Plantar Fasciitis

Keeping You on Your Feet

People who use their feet a lot are at risk of developing plantar fasciitis, a painful condition wherein the fascial tissue of the underside of the foot becomes inflamed and loses elasticity. It is seen often in athletes and those with occupations which keep them on their feet: runners, dancers, wait staff, even acupuncturists. The degree of pain ranges broadly and is often worst at the start of the day.

Conventional treatments include:

• rest (which workers can’t afford and athletes can’t imagine)
• massage (there’s even a subspecialty called reflexology, which focuses on the feet)
• steroid injection (which carries potential drug side effects and is a potentially temporary and painful solution which can rupture the fascia, an even worse condition)
• icing (which can stop pain temporarily but in the process also stops the flow of qi, which according to East Asian Medicine actually lengthens recovery time and/or causes future damage)
• surgery (which carries risks such as bad reactions to anesthesia, infection, potential for nerve injury, rupture of the fascia, and it isn’t even guaranteed to resolve your pain)
• orthotics (custom ones can be pricey, though there are affordable options; it’s not a guaranteed fix, however)
• stretching (free and carries additional health benefits of its own)

Luckily, there are alternatives. East Asian Medicine can treat the pain of plantar fasciitis through many different approaches, including traditional acupuncture, e-stim (whereby a gentle electrical current is run through acupuncture needles), moxibustion, and tuina.

To read more about acupuncture and plantar fasciitis, try some of the following links:

• Runner’s World article on e-stim (electro-acupuncture) treatment
• Acupuncture Today article on e-stim treatment
• Medical Acupuncture online journal article on e-stim treatment
• Livestrong article links

Email or call for a free consultation or to schedule an appt.

Acupuncture in the Wall St Journal

Modern Western Validation of an Ancient Eastern Art

The Wall St Journal published a short article on acupuncture about a month ago. The article cites a fair number of studies, most of which support the validity of acupuncture through Western eyes, namely by using double-blind, randomized control studies. Studies are cited which provide Western evidence for relief of conditions such as arthritis pain, headaches, low back pain, cancer, infertility and addiction. Some of the studies even link appropriate meridians to pain pathways (ie: heart attack pain follows the Heart channel).

Curious to find out for yourself how acupuncture and East Asian herbs can address your condition? Call or email to schedule an appointment or for a free consultation.