Jenny Riegg | Holistic Health Acupuncture

April 3, 2020 by Jenny Riegg

Telehealth Appointments Now Available!

We have launched Telehealth video and phone meetings in order to maintain continuity of care to all our valued clients during this time.

Because Chinese Medicine is so much more than just Acupuncture.

Along with prescribing herbs and supplements, we can help you with diet, nutrition, kitchen medicine, physical exercises, breathing techniques, meditation for stress, stretches, ergonomics, sleeping habits, self acupressure, and more. Chinese Medicine is a complete system of healthcare and we are here to support you even when it can’t be hands-on.

Telehealth appointments are secure and HIPAA compliant and can be done from the convenience of your home. They usually last between 10-30 minutes. These visits will allow us to evaluate how you are doing, discuss the stress and pain levels you might be experiencing, stay on track with your treatment plan, prescribe herbs & supplements, and talk about anything new that may be happening for you and your health.

We encourage all clients who have been coming regularly to schedule this month so that we can stay connected with you. And for clients we haven’t seen in awhile, consider tapping back into our support.

All clients with health insurance, including OHP members, are eligible to have telehealth appointments in the upcoming months. If you don’t have insurance, we have reasonable cash rates to ensure everyone has access to the care they need.

For details and instructions read more here: https://holistichealthacupuncture.com/telehealth/

April 1, 2020 by Jenny Riegg

Recipes for Immune & Lung Support

Immune Boosting Chicken Stock Recipe

This stock is great to help build up your immunity now before any signs or symptoms of cold or flu set in.

Use this as a base to add to all your favorite soup recipes.

Ingredients:
1-2 two-inch pieces of fresh ginger
3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled & crushed
1 medium size onion, cut into three-inch pieces
1 pound chicken bones, chicken carcass
4 dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms
6 pieces (~ 20 grams) astragalus (Huang Qi)* and/or
6 pieces (~ 20 grams) codenopsis (Dang Shen)
12 cups water
Dried or fresh oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves to taste (optional)

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients (minus the herbs) in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Lower the heat and let simmer, covered, for 4-8 hours
3. Add astragalus and codenopsis for last hour
4. Add optional Mediterranean herbs for last half hour
5. Strain broth through strainer or mesh, removing
bones and herbs
6. Use broth immediately, store in fridge for several days, or divide into smaller portions and freeze for later use.

This stock is especially good for increasing immunity and to counteract frequent colds and fatigue. If using Astragalus or Codenopsis please stop at first sign of cold or flu.
The Chinese herbs help tonify Lung and Spleen qi, boost Wei qi. The Mediterranean herbs are great to upregulate the immune system and bring cold & flu symptoms to the surface of the body to be expelled.
* We have limited supplies of bulk Astragalus root available at the clinic for purchase

Healthy Lungs Fritillaria Pears
This dish is good for soothing a dry or
chronic cough, dry throat, bronchitis, asthma or
allergies. It will help moisten the Lungs, clear Heat
& transform phlegm.

Ingredients:

4 TBSP fritillaria (chuan bei mu) powder*

4 large ripe pears, any variety

4 teaspoons honey, or to taste

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp cardamom

Crushed walnuts

Directions:

1. Wash the pears but leave the skins on. Cut off the top 1/3 of the pear and save for later. Remove the core of the bottom part of the pear to create a hole that leaves the bottom and outside of the pear intact.
2. Place 1 Tbsp of the fritillaria powder, 1 tsp honey, ¼ tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp cardamom in the hole of each pear.

Replace the tops onto the pears.
3. Place the pears in a steamer, cover and cook for 40 minutes or until soft. Alternately, the pears can be baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until soft.

4. Sprinkle the pears with the crushed walnuts and serve warm.

*We sell fritallaria / chuan bei mu granules at our office. If
you have access to the fritallaria bulbs grind to powder
in a food mill, etc to use.

Adapted from Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen, a cook book by Wang, Sheir & Ono.

May 2, 2019 by Jenny Riegg

Pearls of Postpartum Wisdom from Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine has a long, rich history of special consideration and treatment for the postpartum mother. These traditional practices see it as essential for the new mother to couple rest with gentle activities and to be deeply nourished, warmed, and supported to help the vital substances (Qi, Blood, Yin & Yang) come back into a state of balance. The postpartum time, and the care a mother is able to receive, can be a crucial period in a woman’s life and often greatly influence her state of health well into the future.

Take Your Time
– Adequate time & care are needed to recover from the tremendous task of pregnancy and childbirth. This is the time to replenish & rebuild energy and blood that were lost during birth as well as boost nutrients and reserves needed to produce breast milk, regulate hormones and give stamina to care for a new baby.
– It is thought that a full 3 months are needed after a baby is born for the womb to fully recover and for vital substances to be fully restored. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Golden Month’ or ‘Sitting Moon’, the first month postpartum is considered the most important.

Stay Warm
– Avoid exposing your body to extreme weather or temperatures. Wind, cold and damp can easily penetrate the postpartum mother as the channels & pores are still open after childbirth and can lead to infections, pathological bleeding & longer recovery time.
– Use moxibustion, a warming therapy with dried Chinese mugwort. Mother Warming or Mother Roasting uses indirect moxa or a moxa box over the lower abdomen and/ or low back to create a deep & penetrating sensation of warmth. Moxa can be used for 10-20 minute sessions until the desired level of heat is felt. This practice helps to encourage the uterus to return to its pre pregnancy size, shape & location, it aids in decreasing after-birth pains, builds breast milk supply, can assist in healing scars from cesarean sections and strengthens overall vitality.

Be Nourished
– Warm yourself from the inside by prioritizing warmed & cooked foods and drinking warm or room temperature beverages. Use warming spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black & white pepper, clove, nutmeg, fennel & anise.
– Broths are highly encouraged and a core staple of the traditional postpartum diet. Broths made from meat & bones of beef, chicken, lamb or fish and from veggies, seaweeds or mushrooms can be drunk daily and become the base for soups, stews, sauces and congees (grain porridge).
– Emphasizing foods & drinks that are easy to process (i.e. warm temperature, well cooked, soups, broths & congees) are beneficial as digestion is often weak postpartum.
– Eat foods that build Blood to restore what was lost during birth and to encourage lactation. Examples include red meat, organ meats & bone marrow, dark leafy greens, barley, quinoa, oats, dates, avocado, adzuki & kidney beans, black sesame seeds, eggs, nettles & parsley.

Please always check with your acupuncturist to be sure any recommendations are appropriate for your specific constitution and postpartum presentation.

May 30, 2017 by Jenny Riegg

Acupuncture for Healthy Pregnancy

It is a joy and honor to work with women during pregnancy and both Jenn & Jenny have specialty acupuncture training in maternity care. Acupuncture is able to offer safe and effective support for myriad conditions through all stages of gestation encouraging wellness for both mom and baby.

Some women sail through pregnancy with few issues while others need extra support and medical care. Acupuncture and some herbal remedies can be safely used throughout all trimesters offering a viable alternative to prescription medications and more invasive interventions. The most common conditions seen to respond well to acupuncture during pregnancy include morning sickness, fatigue, heartburn, constipation, hemorrhoids, back and pelvic pain, sciatica, headaches, stress and anxiety. Through acupuncture and herbs we also work with abnormal bleeding and threatened miscarriage as well providing complementary care for certain higher risk conditions such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and breech presentations.

We encourage our maternity clients to begin coming in weekly starting at 36 weeks for our Pre-Birth treatment series. These are treatments using standardized point protocols shown to encourage cervical ripening helping to optimize efficient and safe births and fewer medical interventions.

And don’t forget to include acupuncture and herbs for post partum care. A tremendous amount of Qi & Blood is expended during gestation, birth and lactation and we highly encourage new mothers to come in to rebuild their vitality and for self care after baby has arrived. We can assist in post-partum hormone balance and depression, lactation issues and more.