Numbers have all kinds of meaning for different folks, and in Chinese medicine, it’s no different.  There are the five elements, the four examinations, and the eight principles of diagnosis.  For both men and women there are numeric cycles of growth.  As men age, they go through eight year cycles of growth, and women go through growth cycles every seven years. Today, girls are the subject of this post.  At age seven, according to Chinese medical texts, girls have replaced their baby teeth with permanent ones and their hair grows abundantly.  At age 14, girls have matured into young women, and...

If you are one of those women who are doubled over each month with menstrual cramps, here’s some good news:  acupuncture can help.  Think about it; acupuncture is really good for pain relief.   It makes sense that it would also be helpful for that day or two each month when cramps leave you on the couch with the heating pad or popping ibuprofen like there’s no tomorrow. The underlying premise behind acupuncture is that it’s an energetic form of healing.  While that may leave you thinking about your old mood ring and Earth shoes, the reality is that every cell in your body produces energy. ...

Vanessa was an athletic woman in her early 30’s who came to my clinic with a history of frequent miscarriages.  She was able to get pregnant, and had done so three or four times, but each pregnancy ended with a miscarriage sometime during the first trimester. Vanessa was soft spoken and committed to doing whatever it took to have a baby.  She had a history of an eating disorder, mild depression, and low energy.  Vanessa assured me, however, that she was eating well, and was trying unsuccessfully to gain weight.  Vanessa had a Chinese medical diagnosis of sinking Spleen Qi (energy). In Western...

Several years ago I worked with a realtor who set the combination to every lock box (like a hidden key) she had to P-M-S.  Clearly PMS was on her mind, and subsequently that of the realtors and clients with whom she worked.  If you suffer from monthly moods swings, food cravings, homicidal urges, and the like, you can understand the single mindedness of my realtor. PMS has been studied for decades and has been categorized according to symptom clusters.  It’s called a syndrome (Pre Menstrual Syndrome, right?) because the symptoms of PMS are broad and are wildly different for every woman. In Chinese...

Every women’s experience of menopause is different, based on her genetics, physical and psychological makeup and overall health. Her views of aging and menopause, and those of the people around her, will also shape the experience. Over the past 50 years, with the availability of hormone replacement therapies, women have had the option of treating the discomforts associated with menopause medically. The upshot of this practice is that menopause if viewed as a disease or hormone deficiency, and hormone supplementation is required to reestablish a healthy balance.  Beyond the physical experience of...