Category: Research & Articles

In a new study, the largest of its kind to date, researchers compared the effectiveness of acupuncture and cognitive behavioral therapy (using sleep restriction, stimulus control, cognitive restructuring, relaxation training, and education) for the management of insomnia in a group of 160 cancer survivors. Both reduced the severity of the insomnia over 20 weeks, and …

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Previous studies have shown that acupuncture can reduce inflammation, but the actual mechanism of the reduction is still not well-explored. In this new study, researchers conducted an investigation of distal electro-acupuncture at LI 4 on inflammatory pain in the hind paws of mice. Instead of simply testing whether acupuncture would reduce inflammation, they were attempting …

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Due to today’s fraught political climate and frenzied pace of life, Americans are experiencing increased levels of worry and stress. The New York Times recently reported that “in the United States, about 55 percent of adults said they had experienced stress during ‘a lot of the day’ prior, compared with just 35 percent globally. Statistically, …

Continue reading “Our Congee Calling”

You’re driving down the road, and your check engine light comes on. “Hmm, that’s strange,” you might say to yourself. What do you do? If you’re like most of us, you probably just ignore it. Maybe it will go away, right? Then you start to hear some weird noises coming from your engine. Clonk, bonk, …

Continue reading “COPE: A Strategy for Turning Burnout into Breakthrough”

In prior articles, this author has detailed the importance of diagnosing a patient’s primary elemental imbalance (aka Causative Factor or “CF”) via odor, color, sound, and emotion. Once we have cleared any and all of the energetic blocks to acupuncture treatment strategies efficacy, in this system of medicine, we turn our attention to supporting, balancing, …

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Written by: John K. Chen, PhD, PharmD, OMD, LAc Reviewed by Tina T. Chen, LAc; Donna Chow Sanchez, LAc; and Anita Chen Marshall, DAOM, PharmD, PhD, LAc Sulfa, sulfite, sulfate, and sulfur are four terms that sound similar but have very different allergy profiles. As healthcare practitioners, it is important to understand these four terms to establish …

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By Ann Wang, CMD, LAc Without a doubt, the work that has brought me the most joy in my 39 years of practice has been helping my patients to conceive and to bring healthy babies to term. Fertility has become one of my specialties not only because of my growing experience in the field but …

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By Hillary Thing, LAc Lyme and similar devastating stealth infections are on a rise across the world. Chinese medicine practitioners across the United States and beyond are being faced with patients with illnesses that are difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat. Many of us are drawn to Chinese medicine for its refined …

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This article is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published textbook Sports Medicine Acupuncture: An Integrated Approach to Combining Sports Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Chinese term ashi, translated as “that’s the point” or sometimes as another expletive, indicates pain upon palpation of the tissue. Ashi points were first mentioned in the Tang Dynasty text Thousand …

Continue reading “Diagnostic Ashi Points: A Focus on Muscle Motor Points”

The following is an extract from Jill Blakeway’s new book, Energy Medicine: The Science and Mystery of Healing, published by Harper Collins in April 2019. In 1996, scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, were keeping a radical project under wraps. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, including their colleagues in the scientific …

Continue reading “Moving the Needle”