pain

Headaches can be a real pain! Here’s a guide to identify what kind you’re dealing with, and the best way to treat it.

A handshake, a hug, a massage- touch helps people from all walks of life connect. This connection can help reduce stress and improve health and wellbeing.

By Kiiko Matsumoto, LAc & Monika Kobylecka, LAc In the United States, as many as 50-70% of kids wear braces; many adults also use these and other orthodontic devices. Requests to take pressure off a painful or tight TMJ are all too common in our practices. While wearing enamel-protecting night...

Have you ever experienced a burn that instantly felt better once you put ice on it? After a few minutes of relief, it is natural to assume that removing the ice would not cause an increase of pain, so you remove the ice. Surprise, the burn becomes more intense and the pain sinks deeper into your body. You reapply the ice. This goes on for a while. Ice goes on, ice comes off to surprise you with burning pain. On again, off again. Finally you can remove the ice and the pain will have sufficiently subsided. Trauma works the same way in that it continues to trickle into your body unless you stop it. If left unchecked, this silent, toxic force seeps deeper continually over the course of years.

One of the four categories of examination in Chinese medicine is the “looking diagnosis”. Observing the patient's skin tone, the Shen in the eyes, and checking the tongue are all elements of creating a clear, effective diagnosis. Observing posture can add a layer to the examination that is insightful, especially given the frequent occurrence of postural distortion in modern times. We can start looking at our patients as soon as we greet them in the waiting room. How do they sit, stand, and walk? What kind of posture do they have? Instinctively, many of us sense that a slouching or hunching patient has a qi deficiency.

Tendonitis is the single most diagnosed chronic connective tissue disease in Western medicine. It affects every major joint within the body and can make the most well conditioned athlete limp to the sidelines, as the pain can be overwhelming. Whether it afflicts a professional golfer or weekend tennis player, tendon pain is a huge problem affecting all sports. In our everyday lives, tendon pain also creates major problems. According to statistics of Workers Compensation injuries in California, repetitive motion disease (aka tendonitis) is the leading diagnosis for claims and disability in the state.

Most people’s jobs involve repetitive movements of the hands and wrists, like typing for long hours at a time. Whether you’re far into your career or just getting started, there are some actions you can take to guard against the effects of carpal tunnel. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by...

Did you know that more people complain about headaches than any other type of ailment? There are approximately 45 million Americans suffering from chronic headaches each year, or about one in every six people, according to IHateHeadaches.org, and some of your choice painkillers may actually be...

Lower back pain and neck pain can have many potential causes. Pain in these areas can be anything from an occasional ache to a debilitating and constant discomfort that affects a person’s work and home life. These two areas are prone to tension accumulation due to how a person walks, sits, and even...

Acupuncture practitioners around the globe can tell you that migraine sufferers seek help from acupuncture clinics on a daily basis. Many find that this method of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers symptom relief unparalleled by oral medications. This ancient therapy is becoming more...