Acupuncture Update
As you’ve hopefully heard, I’m now practicing at only one location, 961 Dewing Ave in Lafayette, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 am to 7 pm. I’d love to see you for an acupuncture tune-up!
I still use the same COVID Precautions that have successfully worked at my clinic for the past year (and have provided the additional benefit of much lower incidences of colds and flus!).
I’m also limiting treatments to 1 hour in length, and no longer doing front and back in the same acupuncture session. Moving forwards all sessions will be one-sided; as they are most often just as effective as the more luxurious 2-sided treatments, and provide a more efficient healing experience for you.
Functional Medicine
One of the projects I started last year was learning to practice Functional Medicine! With my scientific training in Nutrition and Food Science, along with the systems oriented thinking in Eastern Medicine, it comes easily to me.
Functional Medicine applies the field of ‘metabolomics’, the study of small molecules in living systems, to provide a holistic view of how well our systems are working. Whereas Acupuncture & Eastern Medicine is also a holistic systems-based medicine, the difference with Functional Medicine is the use of labs that provide quantifiable data that reflect our biochemistry and physiology.
The program I’ve chosen, The Kalish Institute, focuses on developing clinical expertise in a few key lab tests and their associated treatment protocols. The field of Functional Medicine is rapidly evolving, and I’m very impressed with the quality of knowledge provided by my teachers that nicely complements the Acupuncture and Eastern Medicine experience. If you’re interested in learning more, send me an email or schedule a free 15-minute call.
Adrenal Insufficiency
A common series of symptoms people experience from the cumulative effects of high stress over an extended period of time include the following:
• Fatigue, loss of endurance
• Digestive problems
• Slow metabolism
• Weight gain
• Food cravings
• Blood sugar issues
• Brain fog
• Insomnia
• Hair loss (female)
• Loss of libido
These kinds of things happen when your endocrine system and HPA Axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands) are out of balance. To assess this, we measure the levels and fluctuations of your stress hormones (cortisol and DHEA) over the course of a day.
Overwork, high-stress, irregular work hours, poor sleep, children, lack of exercise, poor diet, negative emotions, toxic exposures, etc., affect the HPA Axis and eventually the adrenals end up producing fewer hormones, creating Adrenal Insufficiency (also incorrectly referred to as adrenal deficiency, adrenal burnout). This is often the first lab test we use with our patients.
Depending on the the results, we would use a treatment protocol that includes dietary and lifestyle changes along with supplements to gently coax your body back into balance. (Acupuncture also helps). This takes about 6 months to do.
To learn more, send me an email or schedule a free 15-minute call.
(925) 297-4785