Laura's Favorite OTC Remedies for Cold Season

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Laura's Favorite OTC Remedies for Cold Season

Let’s face it, in spite of our best efforts we all get sick sometimes. Many of us would prefer a “natural” option to a pharmaceutical one, but the health aisle in the grocery store can be overwhelming. Since the FDA doesn’t regulate herbal medicine, there are a lot of products out there making claims about what they can do. So where you do start? As a trained herbalist, I want to share with you my favorite over-the-counter (OTC) remedies for cold season. Please know that none of these are sponsored, they’re just my personal go-tos

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5 Asian Medicine Diet Tips to Beat Summer’s Heat

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5 Asian Medicine Diet Tips to Beat Summer’s Heat

According to Asian medical theory, each season is associated with an element and summer is the season of the Fire element. Fire is the element of play, adventure, thrill-seeking, social connection, passion, joy, love, and trust. Fire energy also houses the mind. Harmonious Fire energy manifests with clear thinking, healthy relationships, charisma, and compassion.

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Intro to The Five Elements

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Intro to The Five Elements

Along with yin and yang theory, the core of Asian medicine revolves around the five natural elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Within the body, each element exists as a microcosm of its existence in the outside world. Each element is associated with an organ, an acupuncture meridian, a season, a body tissue, a smell, a flavor, and more. The elements interact with one another in predictable manners in nature as well as in the body. Acupuncturists learn how the elements interact and then apply this knowledge to each patient to determine why a particular symptom is present, how best to bring the body back into harmony with the elements to alleviate the symptom, and how to stabilize the elements to prevent future symptoms from arising. Five Element Theory has many layers; this post is meant to serve merely as an introduction to the five elements and one of the many ways they can interact in the body.

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Health Advocacy: Your Annual Gynecological Exam

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Health Advocacy: Your Annual Gynecological Exam

Every woman I know loves her annual visit to the lady-doctor. After all, there's nothing more fun than your yearly gynecological exam, right? Let's be honest, climbing into those stirrups is rarely anyone's favorite time of year, so let's talk about how to make the most out of your annual exam.

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Female Fertility: How to Track your BBT

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Female Fertility: How to Track your BBT

Whenever a woman asks me if acupuncture can support her fertility goals, my first question is always, "Are you tracking your BBT?" Basal Body Temperature, or BBT, data is the number one tool I use to assess where to begin with female fertility clients. Combining this western technique with the eastern tools of tongue and pulse diagnosis as well as detailed questioning about menstrual health and history is key to using acupuncture to boost fertility health.

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Herbaceous Black Sesame & Honey "Truffles"

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Herbaceous Black Sesame & Honey "Truffles"

3pm slump got you down? Instead of reaching for a cup of coffee or that donut in the break room, try these rich, energy-boosting "truffles" to help carry you through the rest of your day. These sweet treats are loaded with black sesame seeds to give you a more sustained energy boost than coffee. With honey and maple syrup, you will also get the short term pick-me-up the brain seeks from sugar when facing fatigue.

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Quick & Dirty Grocery Guide

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Quick & Dirty Grocery Guide

"You are what what you eat eats."
                - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

With a plethora of shiny, pretty options littering the shelves at the grocery store, it can be a challenge to make sure that the food you're buying isn't just glitzy, but also nutritious. Here are some basic tips for hitting the aisles.

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Equinox Cleanse: Reset Your Body for the Season

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Equinox Cleanse: Reset Your Body for the Season

Asian medicine treats the body in alignment with the natural world. When you come to see me for treatment, I not only look at you and your chief concern today, I also look at the weather outside, the season, the time of day, and more. When taking the reins on your own health care, aligning your body with seasonal energetics is a wonderful starting point. The spring and autumn equinoxes are of particular importance as they mark a shift between yin and yang energies, the two energies at the core of Asian medical theory. This makes the start of spring and fall an optimal time to make a shift within your own body. My favorite way to shift? A whole foods-based reset, or cleanse.

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Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes: a Quick Weeknight Meal

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Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes: a Quick Weeknight Meal

I love to cook, but that doesn't mean I love cooking elaborate meals every night. When I come home late from a full day of treating patients, the last thing I want to do is wait another 2 hours for dinner to be ready. Good thing is, making healthy food doesn't mean you have to spend hours prepping and cooking. These Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes are one of my go-to weeknight meals when I want healthy protein and fat, and I want them fast.

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Sweat into Spring: Spicy Mung Bean Soup Recipe

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Sweat into Spring: Spicy Mung Bean Soup Recipe

Many of you know that I am a huge advocate of soups. Cooking food low and slow has a "pre-digestive" effect that eases the stress on your GI tract, allowing maximum absorption of nutrients and smoother elimination. This spicy mung bean bowl of yum is extra special because it takes only about an hour to make. Bonus: the leftovers taste even better than the first bowl.

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Approaching Asian Medicine: Intro to Terminology

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Approaching Asian Medicine: Intro to Terminology

Let's dive into some the basics of Asian medicine, starting with simple terminology. First off, why do some people say acupuncture and others refer to Asian medicine as a whole? Acupuncture is just one of the eight branches within Asian medicine. The other branches are meditation, herbology, bodywork, nutrition, exercise (including qigong), astrology, and geomancy (such as feng shui).

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Intro to Yin and Yang Theory

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Intro to Yin and Yang Theory

Yin and Yang are at the core of Asian medical theory. Asian medicine developed from Daoist theory. If you’ve been introduced to Daoism, you are probably aware that the essence of the Dao is that all things have a complementary aspect. That is, nothing exists as one, but as two. Yang and yin are the names for these complementary aspects. Yin does not exist without yang and yang does not exist without yin.

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A Safe Space for ALL: Non-Discrimination Declaration

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A Safe Space for ALL: Non-Discrimination Declaration

My clinic will always be a safe space, free of discrimination. All patients can expect the same rigorous and thoughtful care regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, religious affiliation, immigration status, body size, or any other (self-)identifying qualities. I stand with you.

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Health Advocacy: Emergency Care for the Uninsured

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Health Advocacy: Emergency Care for the Uninsured

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, access to health insurance is easier than ever before in our country's history. Every single one of us should have health care (and are legally required to do so). There are a lot of "shoulds" in this world, and it is important to let go of some of them. Having health insurance is not a "should" to let fall by the wayside, and no one knows this truth more than an uninsured person looking at a bill from the emergency room.

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Health Advocacy: Your Yearly Physical

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Health Advocacy: Your Yearly Physical

Call it what you will: a physical, a check-up, or a wellness exam. If you've got health insurance, your plan is required to cover one wellness visit per year. The trick about these physical exams is that their scope is very limited - if you refill a prescription or ask your doctor a detailed diagnostic question, it may be billed as a different type of visit, resulting in a hefty medical bill in your mailbox. Let's talk about the do's and don'ts of your annual check-up.

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Health Advocacy: Medical Bills

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Health Advocacy: Medical Bills

Did you know that your medical bills are (somewhat) negotiable? This is not to say that you get to decide how much you want to pay. However, with a bit of preparation and knowledge, you can ensure that you are not being overcharged for your visit.

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Health Advocacy: Insurance Billing Terminology

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Health Advocacy: Insurance Billing Terminology

Insurance shminsurance. You paid your premium, you're done, right? Not if you're wearing your Health Avocate Hat! Understanding a few basic terms around your health insurance can take a lot of stress out of your life, particularly in relation to the documents you receive from your insurance company. While learning how to read documentation can sound a bit boring, doing so will not only make you a better health advocate, but can also save you money.

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Health Advocacy: Your Rights

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Health Advocacy: Your Rights

To be an effective health advocate for yourself or others, approach health care as business. After all, health care in the United State is business: we pay for services, and profit is involved.

With any business, there are basic rules of interaction. For example, when you wear shoes and a shirt to a restaurant at lunchtime, someone takes your order and brings you food. Learning the operating rules for health care, and how to work with them to meet your goals, is at the core of health advocacy.

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