Using Chinese herbs doesn’t have to be confusing.  You can tap into their incredible healing powers just by pushing your cart through the grocery store because many Chinese herbs are also foods. Here are twenty that are awesome, accessible, and effective: -Ginger.  Yum!  This warm herb is incredibly effective for nausea and vomiting. It’s frequently used by people undergoing chemotherapy to control nausea. Ginger can also stop a cough, and can fight off a cold in its early stages.  The papery skin of the ginger root is used in Chinese medicine to drain edema (water swelling) and induce...

Your gut is an emotional organ. Don’t think so? You’ve heard people talk about having butterflies in their stomach, a gut feeling, a nervous stomach, or a visceral reaction—all of which allude to the idea that our emotions are strongly related to your gut and digestion. One of the most common patterns of imbalance that I see in the clinic is something called a Liver and Spleen disharmony. This just means that strong emotions are interfering with the digestive process. The example I use is when my high school boyfriend dumped me, I couldn’t eat for the better part of a month. A Liver and Spleen...

Sometimes when I’m buying vitamins or supplements, I think about Mary, a woman I knew many years ago. At the time, I was working in the non-profit world at an agency that attracted many volunteers. Mary was one of those volunteers. Her reason for volunteering a few hours each week was that she had become disabled from a mysterious illness caused by taking a dietary supplement called tryptophan. L-Tryptophan is an amino acid found in foods. It’s found in turkey in high concentrations, and is partially responsible for that drowsy feeling you get after Thanksgiving dinner. Tryptophan can be taken...

One of the most frustrating patients I’ve ever had was a woman I’ll call Emily, who came to me for weight loss.  She was in her late fifties, about 50 pounds overweight, and told me that she had tried every diet imaginable.   She said that she had gained and lost hundreds of pounds, and was trying acupuncture as a last resort. I spent a great deal of time talking with Emily about weight loss from the perspective of Chinese medicine.  I described what would be involved for her success, including the role of digestion, stress management, adequate sleep, and physical activity—beyond just...

Lately, I’ve been thinking lots about seasonal allergies.  It’s been a dry summer here in Minnesota, which means two things:  no mosquitoes (good) and a bumper crop of ragweed (bad).  I see the golden-yellow spikes of ragweed adding color to the empty fields and marshes I drive past on my way home from work.  As glorious as ragweed is to the local landscape, it’s the cause of hell on earth for anyone who suffers from hay fever.  And late summer in Minnesota is hay fever season. A second reason I’ve had allergies on my mind is because I just bought a new vacuum cleaner.  It’s hot stuff;...