Night Sweats

Chronic qi stagnation over time will produce counterflow of qi and depressive heat. This depressive heat may cause sweating. Don't confuse this with yin vacuity. Diagnosis! Diagnosis!

I just saw a patient who was incorrectly diagnosed as having yin vacuous heat when she had depressive heat. The patient was given the incorrect herbal formula Da Bu Yin Wan.

How Many Needles?

This may sound silly but...more needles are not more effective. I had a patient yesterday, who I was treating for shoulder pain, request more needles because her pain was severe. That is not how it works.

All points are selected based on your diagnosis.

Seized Up Back Muscles

I will have to disagree with RICE on this one.  (Rest, ice, compression, elevation)

I had several patients walking in my door crooked, in pain, desperate.  I used acupuncture and TDP Infared heat, instructed moist heat twice daily with gradual stretching of the IT band, piriformis muscle and others. (knee hugs, hip opening stretches, hamstring stretches)

Works like a champ.  Use ice minimally as the ice in chinese medicine causes more stasis in the tissues.

Herbs for Common Cold

At the first sign of the common cold take yin chao as directed on the bottle.

It can be purchased at www.chineseherbsdirect.com

Existing patients, please call for more detailed dosing instructions.

Checking Tongue and Pulse

Several patients have asked why I don't check their tongue and pulse in every visit.  This depends on the reason the patient is coming in, age of patient, how many western medications they are on, if they are on chinese herbs and where they are in the acupuncture and/or herbal treatment plan.

As as example, if I am using acupuncture to help relieve pain from sciatica, checking the tongue every appointment will not provide me with valuable information that I can not ascertain from palpation and observation.

Furthermore, if I am using acupuncture to support IVF, checking the tongue and pulse which will be skewed from western stimulation medications will not change the treatment I will provide.

Back Online

Sorry! Due to a very heavy patient load I have not blogged. Over the past year, lots of good news for some patients and for others....new thoughts on what family means to them and adjustments.  Starting in November I will be taking Bob Flaws Advanced Gynecology.  This will give me greater skill from a Master in the field.  

I will post more frequently in 2011, promise.

In the mean time, follow me on Twitter @kerriwesthauser