Authored by Marian Kimball Eichinger, LAc

Many women and men suffer from hormonal imbalances which can cause a variety of unpleasant symptoms such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, hair loss, weight gain, hot flashes, low energy, and infertility to name a few. Hormone balance is necessary for a healthy metabolism, menstrual cycles, sleep-wake cycle, growth and stress management. Hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are common culprits in conditions like perimenopause, dysmenorrhea, PMS/PMDD, poor libido and insomnia. Insulin, T3 and T4, cortisol, adrenaline, and follicle stimulating hormone can cause chronic and sometimes debilitating conditions such as diabetes, PCOS and hypothyroid when imbalanced. Remedies for hormonal imbalances range from hormone replacements, birth control pills, synthetics, and steroids to diet and lifestyle changes.

Another option could be acupuncture.  Acupuncture is an ancient, non-drug approach for regulating the body, treating and preventing disease and it can be very effective at treating the symptoms and underlying causes of hormonal imbalance.

Acupuncture is a means to regulate. As an acupuncturist, I turn a trained eye to identify imbalances within any bodily system whether it be digestive, respiratory, vascular, muscular, immune, or hormonal. While sometimes it is helpful to be told that a patient has a specific hormonal imbalance, my primary focus is on symptoms, and through the paradigm of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) I translate those symptoms into imbalances of Qi and Blood, or Yin and Yang. Symptoms can also inform which organ system (Kidney, Heart, Lung, Spleen or Liver) the imbalance derives from.
I begin each treatment with a detailed discussion of symptoms (onset, location, duration, severity, time of day or night, what makes it better or worse, and triggers) which helps determine the root of the imbalance. For example, depression, insomnia, and palpitations can point to the Heart system; fatigue and weight gain can point to Spleen; night sweating, hair loss and infertility can point to Kidney; irritability and anger point to Liver; and sweating during the day and frequent colds or allergies can point to Lung. After this differential diagnosis, I am armed to identify specific acupuncture points and protocols for each patient and the treatment begins.

Acupuncture and herbal therapies help by regulating, balancing, nourishing the affected organ systems. However, acupuncture is not a quick fix medicine. Depending on how long the condition has lasted it may need several weeks or months of regular treatments to improve. Dietary and lifestyle changes may also be necessary. Your job as a patient is to be honest, patient, and mindful of your symptoms and how they are changing and reacting to the treatments. My job is to listen and observe, reflect, connect and treat accordingly. Overall, acupuncture can help you feel more grounded, calm, balanced, rested, and restored.

If you know or suspect that you have a hormonal imbalance, make an appointment and see how acupuncture can help.

Authored by Marian Kimball Eichinger, LAc

Community Acupuncture can legitimately be called A Movement, and not just any movement, but a movement that is sweeping the national and international arenas. One of the main agendas of community acupuncture is to increase accessibility to acupuncture and eliminate the barrier of cost by sharing space. When receiving acupuncture, the patient is seated in a comfortable reclining or zero-gravity chair in a room where there are other people also receiving acupuncture. The mood in the room is meditative and serene. You remain clothed and needles can be placed on the head, arms below the elbows and/or legs below the knees. The needles remain in, you lay back and relax, for about 30 minutes. When you come for community acupuncture at Wellness Minneapolis, you will hear me walking about, other patients coming and going, and whispers being exchanged. You will feel the reassurance and community of others who are on this path toward wellness with you.  

This is quite a different model from traditional acupuncture where patients receive treatment in a private room on a massage table. The solitude of a traditional treatment is essential for some people in this busy and over-stimulating world we live in. A traditional acupuncture treatment involves a more comprehensive intake process at the initial appointment, and a longer check-in before each follow up treatment. This is simply because the practitioner has more one-on-one time with that patient. In this setting, the patient can receive needles in more areas of the body such as the upper arm and leg, the upper and lower abdomen, hips, neck, and back. Also, the practitioner can provide more modalities than just acupuncture (see Treatment below) for the patient which can maximize the acupuncture treatment.

Sometimes it is a hard choice to make between community and traditional one-on-one acupuncture. I offer both at Wellness Minneapolis, so I have hashed out some of the differences between them here for you:

Cost
Herein lies the primary reason for choosing community acupuncture – to reduce cost. Community Acupuncture at Wellness Minneapolis is $50 for your initial visit and $30 for each follow up visit. Traditional one-on-one Acupuncture is $100 for an initial treatment and $75 for each follow up.

Private vs. Public
To lower the cost of acupuncture treatment, in community acupuncture patients share their space with other patients. There is a sense of camaraderie, empathy and reassurance that comes with this type of treatment and setting. Many find this togetherness comfortable and comforting. You can bring a friend and receive acupuncture at the same time! Traditional one-on-one acupuncture is solitary, quiet, and still. It is just you, me and some meditative music. Sometimes acupuncture can produce an emotional response such as a burst of laughter or tears. In the quiet of your own room, you are free to fully express that. I feel that perhaps this characteristic, more than any other difference between community and one-on-one acupuncture, is an important deciding factor for many people. If cost is not your main concern, privacy may be.
 
Clothing
For community acupuncture you are fully clothed and will only be asked to remove shoes and socks, and to roll up shirt sleeves and pant legs. For traditional one-on-one acupuncture you may also be fully clothed with rolled up sleeves and pants depending on the reason for your visit. Yet, in the private setting you will have the flexibility to wear a gown or a drape, or partially disrobe to allow the needles to be placed on hips, back, upper legs or lower abdomen.

Intake/Check-in
Another important difference between a community visit and a one-on-one visit is the time spent at initial intake and follow-up check-in. For a one-on-one appointment, your initial visit lasts 90 minutes during which time I will collect a comprehensive medical and personal history, and discuss your condition at length before you receive your acupuncture treatment. We also spend time checking in during each follow up appointment (60 minutes), discussing changes, and addressing questions and/or concerns prior to your treatment.

Your initial visit for community acupuncture is about an hour. Intake will take place briefly in a private room, followed by acupuncture in the group room. With each follow up visit, you will come directly to the group room, have a brief whispered check-in with me and then receive treatment. Those visits are generally about 45 minutes.

Treatment
It may surprise you to learn that the effectiveness of acupuncture is equal in a community setting as it is in a one-on-one setting. I have studied various techniques that allow me to treat each patient holistically regardless of whether I have access to their entire bodies or only parts. So in a nutshell, the acupuncture treatment you receive in community acupuncture can be just as effective as one you receive in a one-on-one setting.

That being said, I am limited to using only acupuncture in the community setting and cannot utilize other therapies in my toolset. For one-on-one treatments, I can use additional modalities to treat your condition such as moxibustion (heat therapy), cupping, electrical stimulation, or gua sha (rubbing therapy). These modalities wonderfully supplement and enhance your acupuncture treatment...and they feel great!

In the end the choice is yours. Weighing the options between community acupuncture and one-on-one acupuncture can be confusing. If cost is your main concern, I would recommend community. One pattern I see often with my patients, is that they choose to start with traditional one-on-one acupuncture for the first few treatments, then once they feel better they switch to community acupuncture for their long-term health maintenance. On the other hand, I have patients that even after receiving acupuncture for over a year, still choose to have one-on-one treatments, as well as patients that have only ever come to community. There is no right or wrong answer. Consider the differences above and make the choice that is right for you.

Authored by Marian Kimball Eichinger

As a licensed acupuncturist, I have successfully treated the pain caused by osteoarthritis in the knee with acupuncture and other Chinese medical modalities. Acupuncture treatment for this condition has been shown to relieve knee pain and weakness, and could serve as an alternative to steroid shots or even surgery depending on when treatment begins and how your body responds.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis. It is caused by the wearing away of the cartilage that acts as a cushion in our joints. There are many different causes of osteoarthritis in the knee such as genetics, overuse, infection, and repetitive stress injuries. Interestingly, knee arthritis is most commonly seen in women over the age of 55. The symptoms are swelling, pain, stiffness, weakness and decreased range of motion. Western medical treatment includes everything from rest, ice, heat, maintaining body weight, as well as steroid shots and surgery.

The Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) model looks at OA with an eye on the whole body, not just the knees. The smooth flow of Qi and Blood is essential to a healthy body. In TCM, pain is generally caused when Qi and Blood are not flowing properly in the body to nourish muscles and tendons. There are several TCM patterns that could impede the flow of Qi and Blood to the knees including Qi and Blood Deficiency, Deficiency of the Kidney and Liver organ systems (in TCM the Kidney organ system governs the bones, while the Liver organ system governs the tendons), Wind Cold Damp or Wind Heat invasion or Phlegm Stagnation. To determine the TCM diagnosis, a licensed acupuncturist will ask a series of seemingly unrelated questions looking for indicators that point toward one or more of the potential patterns mentioned above. For example, if the patient prefers cold on his or her knees, then the pattern most likely involves heat, whereas if the patient prefers heat, then the pattern most likely involves cold. This is how I approached my last patient with OA of the knee.

My patient is a 60-year-old man who works as a remodeler. When he first came to see me in June, he had been feeling pain and weakness for about six months. He had been to an orthopedist and was diagnosed with OA and cartilage degeneration. He received steroid shots which relieved the pain, but he reports that the pain returned after about six weeks. On the day of his initial visit, he was experiencing severe pain when walking up and down stairs, and weakness with walking. He also reported that he had been unable to sit on his knees, or kneel for several months. I recommended that he come for acupuncture treatments once a week for six weeks to start, and then we would reevaluate. The acupuncture treatment involved placing needles in specific locations above, below and on both knees. Other points were included on the hands, feet and ears to facilitate Qi and Blood flow, strengthen the Kidney and Liver systems, dispel wind and reduce dampness, and calm the mind.

When the patient came for his second treatment, he reported much less pain in his knees after the first treatment. By the fourth visit he reported great improvement in his knee pain. He was back to working at his full speed with climbing stairs and ladders and other physically demanding work. We re-evaluated his treatment plan during the sixth visit and moved treatments to every other week, focusing on maintaining the pain-free state.

This patient has maintained his acupuncture treatments every other week for several months. He experiences a slight set back during a time when he has a particularly challenging work schedule or project, but overall his knees are much improved. The type of work he does is very challenging to his knees, therefore I recommend that he continue to come for acupuncture treatment every two weeks for the next few months, at which time he may improve to an even greater extent and be able to start coming once a month.

References:
https://nccih.nih.gov/news/2004/acu-osteo/pressrelease.htm
http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/natural/other-therapies/mind-body-pain-relief/oa-acupuncture.php

Authored by Emily Clark, LAc

I’d like to start off by sending a shout-out to the 2016 Summer Olympic Athletes that were spotted sporting (pun intended) cupping marks that quickly became local and national news stories. The healing modality known as “cupping” - which is a new concept to many even though it is actually thousands of years old - has been gaining some much deserved buzz over the last few years. I witness there being a shift towards and growing interest in healthcare that is more integrative and takes a holistic approach. And it certainly always helps spark interest when professional athletes and celebrities (ahem, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston) have been photographed with cupping marks and open advocates of the technique often used by practitioners of Chinese Medicine. Whenever I have cupping marks on me I joke that along with helping me feel good, it’s a marketing tactic because it always leads to inquiries and conversations about Chinese Medicine and my acupuncture practice. And I can’t recall many instances where a patient didn’t feel relief (often immediate) after having it as part of their treatment – many of whom often now request it and are on the #teamcupping train. However, there’s more to it than just putting suction cups on the body. Here’s a breakdown that will hopefully shed some light on the phenomenon.
 
A (brief) history: One of the earliest documentations of cupping dates back to 300 AD by a Taoist herbalist. While cupping is common practice in China and other Asian countries, it also has been used extensively throughout parts of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Until relatively recently (as in the early 1900’s), it provided an inexpensive form of medicine to those that couldn’t afford the unsubsidized doctors fees, visits, etc. There was a reliance on these “folk remedies” often passed on through generations. What’s old often becomes new again (hello, bell bottoms) and cupping is certainly back…and hopefully here to stay.
 
So what exactly is it?: The actual concept and procedure is really quite simple. Glass or plastic cups are placed over various areas of the body, including on meridians and acupuncture points. A vacuum is created either with fire or a pump, leading to a suction effect on the skin where it’s being placed. Drawing up the skin opens up the pores, and helps to stimulate the flow of blood, energy and oxygen to the area. One fundamental concept in Chinese Medicine is that where there is lack of blood flow and energy (often referred to as “Qi” or “Chi”), there is pain and disharmony. Cupping is helping to open up these areas of blockages and congestion by pulling them to the surface and out of the body – thus restoring the free flow of blood and energy and alleviating pain. Those prominent circular marks are the results of a micro trauma effect the suction has where it breaks up tiny capillaries on the skin (it sounds kind of dramatic, I know) that look like bruises. However they are often painless and fade within a week or so. The color variance signifies the amount of pressure used and time left on the skin, as well as how congested that area was prior to cupping. The darker the mark, the more suction pressure and/or congestion.
 
Benefits: There are oh so many! Cupping is a non-invasive and effective way to treat a wide variety of conditions. While helping alleviate muscle tension and pain is probably it’s most notable credential, it is also used to help anxiety and depression, stress, fatigue, headaches, coughs and other respiratory disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, insomnia, and even cellulite reduction, to name a few.
 
What to expect: Cupping is a technique most commonly administered by an acupuncturist or bodywork therapist. After a health history intake, your practitioner would place cups on selected areas of the body and generally leave them on from 5-15 minutes. The back is probably the most common site, but it can and is also used on various other areas of the body like the legs, arms, and sometimes abdomen. While a strange and often foreign sensation at first, most people think it feels good though can be intense just as deep tissue massage can be. The effects – particularly with pain – are often felt immediately. Cupping may be offered as a service separate from acupuncture or bodywork therapy, but is more commonly included in a full treatment.
 
Precautions: All in all, cupping is a very safe form of healing therapy. However, there are things to consider which is why it is important to go to a trained practitioner. It should not be used on areas of inflamed skin, directly over large veins and arteries and bony landmarks, on those that have a very weakened immune system, the very elderly, or the low back or abdomen of pregnant women.
 
Cupping is an effective, safe, non-invasive treatment modality that has finally shed its mysterious vibe and come into the light. Questions? Comments? Want to try it? Feel free to leave a comment or schedule a cupping session to treat yourself like an Olympian.

Authored by Brittany Corwin

Before working at Wellness Minneapolis I had never had an acupuncture treatment. When I threw out my back this past Spring everyone in the clinic swept in to help me heal and feel better. The Naturopathic Doctors suggested taking fish oil and curcumin (turmeric) to reduce the inflammation around the injury and I got on the books for an acupuncture treatment that same day. I filled out the detailed health history form and sat down with Marian to talk it over. She asked me about my sleep, digestion, allergies, skin, and much more- really digging into daily symptoms and discomforts to understand the unique way my body works.
 
The treatment was focused on my injury, so I laid face down on the massage table with some comfy body pillows as she cleaned small patches of my back with an alcohol swab and placed a thin needle just under the surface. (The picture above is from my actual treatment!) Most of the needles I didn’t feel, and some made the muscles that had tightened around the injury give a little twitch. Once the needles were placed, I just relaxed for about 20 minutes. With this first treatment I didn’t feel the needles much while they were in and when Marian returned to remove them I didn’t experience any twitching muscles.
 
She followed up this treatment with a session of cupping in the same area. This was truly my favorite part of the experience! My lower back had been in a lot of pain that felt like tightness and compression in my spine. Rather than loosening this tightness by putting pressure on the muscles, the cups suction away the tension and brought me immediate relief. After 20 minutes my time was up, but I really didn’t want it to end, the cupping was the most powerful pain-reducer I had tried. I left with six perfectly round hickies on my back from the cups tight suction (that took about a week to fade) but it was well worth it! Later in the week I saw a chiropractor who was very happy I had started with acupuncture and supplements which both reduce inflammation and didn’t agitate the injury. I was told to wait a couple weeks to have massage while it healed.
 

My next acupuncture experience was with Emily, later the same week. She gave me a treatment that would continue to help my back heal without putting a single needle in it! This is called using distal points, or points along channels that would affect my tight muscles and healing spine but are some distance away from the area. Along with treating my back in this way, Emily was also able to treat my general “constitution”. I am someone who is always cold, digests slowly, has seasonal allergies, and other indicators of a qi deficiency. Both Marian and Emily had made note of this after talking through my health history, and could confirm the diagnosis by looking at my tongue! Emily placed needles above my knees, in my wrists and hands, and even one right in the middle of the top of my head. She swabbed each place with alcohol just as Marian did and checked in with me to see if I felt ok after each needle. This time as I laid on the table I felt waves of different sensations across each point. Sometimes the points in my wrists had a dull pain and were warm and tender, other times I could feel energy flowing in a line between the needles on my ankles and my knees. I was really surprised to notice changes in my body between the points or have sensations that were nowhere near a needle.
 
When I left I felt rested and aligned, I was able to stand normally without compensating for my back and even felt a release and suppleness in my upper back and shoulders that get tense even without injury.
 
Since then I have returned for acupuncture many times. I typically fall asleep during my treatments now and love how I feel when I leave. I always notice improvements in my skin, posture, stress level and sleep like a baby either as soon as I get home or the night after a treatment. I ask questions each time I am in and am slowly learning more about the Chinese medicine theory, but the results more than the rationale keep me coming back.
 
Try it and tell us about your first acupuncture experience!

Authored by Marian Kimball Eichinger, L.Ac.

Achieving emotional health and balance is an inherent principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Five Element Theory. The basis of these theories of healing is the holistic and symbiotic concept of organ energy systems: the Lung system, the Liver system, the Heart system, the Spleen system and the Kidney system. Each organ system has a number of characteristics including an element (Lung is to metal as Heart is to fire), a season (Kidney is to winter as Liver is to spring), and an emotion. The emotion for Lung is Grief and Sadness. The emotion for Liver is Anger. The emotion for Heart is Joy. The emotion for Spleen is Over-Thinking. The emotion for Kidney is Fear. These emotions are referred to as the “Internal Demons” in traditional texts, which when acting out of balance can wreak havoc on the mind, body and spirit. If all is running and functioning smoothly through the organ systems in our body, then our emotions are balanced, our health is good and we are disease free. However, if there is a blockage within a system, caused by trauma, abuse, poor diet, an unhealthy lifestyle, or outside pathogens such as viruses, bacteria or allergens, an imbalance among the organ systems results. This imbalance can cause a physical symptoms such as pain, headache, cough, skin rash, or menstrual disorders, or emotional systems such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, and stress. As an acupuncturist, my job is to diagnose the affected organ system and then apply needles to specifically locate points on the body that will balance, tonify, move, warm, drain, unblock, cool, stimulate or regulate the organ systems. Interesting, of the 365 original acupuncture points, 135 of them (37%) are used to treat mental, emotional or spiritual disharmony.

Beyond the traditional concepts of organ systems, meridians and points on the torso and limbs, there are other more contemporary micro-arenas of points on the ear and scalp which contain points and combinations of points that are particularly effective at treating emotional disorders. For instance, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) Protocol which is made up of five points on the ear is used around the world to help people with substance abuse. Other auricular protocols are used to treat PTSD, cigarette addiction and overeating. One study shows how electrical stimulation added to scalp points can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety by stimulating the production centers of serotonin and norepinephrine, while another shows how acupuncture stimulates other emotion processing-related areas of the brain.
As you can see, the science is slowly catching up with the traditional knowledge developed over thousands of years of empirical observation and practice. More and more studies are being undertaken to show how acupuncture benefits emotional balance and overall health.

And best of all: it is a drug free choice that has no side effects!
 

References:
Dhond RP, Kettner N, Napadow V. Neuroimaging acupuncture effects in the human brain. J Altern Complement Med 2007, 13(6):603–616. 
Hammer, Leon. Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies: Psychology and Chinese Medicine. Eastland Press; Seattle, 2010.
Zhang Z-J, Ng R, Man SC, Li TYJ, Wong W, et al. Dense Cranial Electroacupuncture Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder—A Single-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Study. PLoS ONE 2012, 7(2): 10.1371.

By Autumn Compton
Many people have heard of Shiatsu, but still may not know exactly what it is.  Having been a shiatsu practitioner for almost 15 years, and also a teacher of shiatsu to beginner students for over 5 years, I feel that I have a pretty good grasp on the subject at this point!  So let me clarify  what our Shiatsu practitioners at Wellness Minneapolis have to offer.  

Shiatsu is a form of bodywork therapy that originates from Japan.  Literally Shiatsu translates to finger pressure, which describes the technique.  In addition to pressure applied to the body with thumbs, hands, elbows, knees or feet, Shiatsu also utilizes techniques such as kneading, stretching, vibrating, soothing and tapping the body. All of these techniques are applied to the patient in a rhythmic cadence in coordination with the client and practitioner’s breath, along pathways in the body called meridians. Like an acupuncturist, Shiatsu practitioners understand the traditional Chinese perspective of the body as a network of meridians through which Qi, or vital energy, flows.  According to this perspective, health is present when there is abundant Qi in the body and unobstructed flow.  When Qi is deficient or stagnant, imbalanced or obstructed, disharmony occurs and symptoms arise.   These symptoms could include, among others, frequent colds or flu, regular headaches, aches and pains, digestive issues, sleep disturbances or anxiety.  A Shiatsu therapist is trained to recognize patterns of disharmony, even prior to symptoms appearing, and will access the patients Qi through points along the meridians called vital points.  Balance can then be restored through proper assessment and regular Shiatsu treatments, along with lifestyle and activity recommendations.

In Japan, shiatsu is actually considered primary healthcare, and is used to prevent and treat a variety of conditions that one may not consider when thinking of utilizing bodywork therapies.  Shiatsu can be used in the treatment of a wide range of internal, musculoskeletal, and emotional conditions. It is thought to reduce muscle stiffness, stimulate the skin, aid digestion, and influence the nervous system. Shiatsu can treat a variety of chronic conditions, such as headaches, PMS, digestive disorders, fatigue, insomnia, fibromyalgia, stress, anxiety, and musculoskeletal pain, including low back, neck, and joint pain.  It uses no oils, and therapy is applied while the patient wears soft, comfortable clothing.   Most commonly my patients report that after a shiatsu they feel not only relaxed and looser, but also energized internally.  This would be the effect of getting the Qi moving in the body.  The ultimate goal I have with all of my patients is to support their body to come into a state of balanced Qi so it can do what it does best – be healthy and feel good!  

By Marian Kimball Eichinger, LAc