Inflammation is not always a bad thing!

Inflammation is not always a bad thing 🔥

There’s a lot of talk about how to lower and suppress inflammation whether it's from an acute injury or from chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammation is your body's natural healing response and is designed to send the B and T cells via blood to repair damaged tissue. Chronic inflammation is not great, but we can harness this energy with acupuncture and herbs to treat the disease, reduce the unnecessary inflammation, and use it to support areas of the body that are deficient. 💪🏼

Acupuncture uses a balancing system by moving the "heat" from an area of concentration. This "heat" may need to be moved to another part of the body to support its energy or it may need to be cleared all together.

Your tongue 👅 and pulse💓 are like built in MRI machines and provide important lab results for us to use!

Arthritis, Inflammation + Acupuncture

Arthritis hurts‼️It can be a real challenge to find relief from joint pain especially when you want to continue to have a healthy and active life. Osteoarthitis is the most common type of arthritis, and occurs when the cartilage between the joints breaks down, typically effecting the hips, hands, knees, low back, or neck. I have #arthritis in my fingers ✌🏽and it can get really bad when my body is out of balance. I can feel the inflammation increasing when I'm eating less clean and over working my body and mind.

Rheumatoid arthitis is another common type and has the added symptoms of fatigue, flu-like symptoms, muscle pain, and weakness. 😱Not fun at all!

Most conventional treatment options focus on relieving pain with anti-inflammatory drugs. While this may help temporarily relieve the pain, it is certainly not heating or actually treating the pain. What's worse is that when the pain is masked, we continue to use injured joints when that pain mechanism is our alarm to stop! 🚫

We have to go deep to get to the root cause. Both #easternmedicine and #functionalmedicine aim to find the underlying issue behind the inflammation. While it isn't a #quickfix to treat this way, it is key to healing that damaged tissue. We can look at how your body is digesting and absorbing nutrients, if there are irritants fueling the inflammation fire, or energetic imbalances that block you bodies ability to function correctly. By working closely with your acupuncturist you will be taking charge of your arthritis and taking a stop toward a healthier life! 🙏🏼

Dandelion Herbal Spotlight

Dandelion herbal spotlight! ☀️Pu Gong Yin is the pinyin name for the dandelion herb that we use a ton in Chinese herbal formulas. Dandelion is truly one of my faves and we use the whole plant (dried and/or fresh) to treat and support the Liver. Dandelion is great for expelling heat and clearing fire toxicity, which can commonly manifest as clogged milk ducts, hepatitis, jaundice, sore throat, and even lung abscesses. This also is such a great herb for treating overall inflammation. Since gluten sometimes makes me feel a little inflamed after I eat it, I love to add the fresh dandelion leaves to pasta sauce for a little pasta digestion support. 🌾☀️🌱