Latest News | Holistic Health Acupuncture

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.

May 1, 2017 by Jenn Collins

Fertility Acupuncture in Medford and Ashland

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine are becoming famous in the world of helping couples who face fertility challenges. Jenn Collins and Jenny Riegg are experts in this aspect of Chinese Medicine and truly love working with couples who are trying to create a family.

We have spent hundreds of hours in advanced training on the treatment of disorders such as: PCOS, Unexplained Infertility, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, Hormonal Imbalance, poor sperm count and quality, Endometriosis, and poor quality egg and endometrial lining . These disorders are often so complex and there can be many levels to their treatment. Chinese medicine truly shines in this area, and often offers a unique perspective of care that can work on its own, or in concordance with western reproductive medicine.

What We Treat with Chinese Medicine

At Holistic Health Acupuncture, couples can expect a long history and intake with us on the initial visit to uncover all the underlying aspects of the fertility picture. We may recommend blood tests, or we might want to look at basal Body temperatures and discuss length and description of the menstrual cycle. Couples should expect to come regularly for 4 months of treatment and possibly more depending upon the complexity of the diagnosis. Chinese Herbs are often prescribed unless the couple is undergoing IVF. Once a woman becomes pregnant it is up to her if she chooses to continue treatment, but many women love to keep coming for the deep relaxation and comfort that they get from the treatments.

It is one of our biggest joys when we get those emails or calls that a patient has gotten a positive pregnancy test. It just warms up our hearts and there are often tears of joy exchanged here at the clinic on these occasions.

We offer free consultations for those who are interested in learning more about our fertility acupuncture program. For a short video presentation, view How Acupuncture Helps Fertility.

March 15, 2017 by Jenny Riegg

Immune Boosting Chicken Stock Recipe

This stock is great to help build up immunity through the rest of the winter cold and flu season. 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)
6 pieces (~ 20 grams) codenopsis (Dang Shen)
12 cups water
Dried or fresh oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves to taste (optional)

Directions:

Place all ingredients (minus the herbs) in a large pot and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and let simmer, covered, for 4-8 hours
Add astragalus and codenopsis for last hour
Add optional Mediterranean herbs for last half hour
Strain broth through strainer or mesh, removing bones and herbs
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, to counteract frequent colds and fatigue, and to help strengthen bones.

The Chinese herbs help tonify Lung and Spleen qi, boost deep immunity, and harmonize ying and wei qi.

The Mediterranean herbs are great to upregulate the immune system and bring cold & flu systems to the surface of the body to be expelled.

February 3, 2017 by Jenn Collins

Year of the Fire Rooster 2017

Feb 3th marks the beginning of the Yang wood month which is the start of our year of the Yin Fire Rooster. The rooster bodes well for new businesses and new endeavors in 2017. New businesses that are earned with hard work and consistent effort will do well. This is a year to spread the word about your projects, your offerings, your business, your accomplishments etc. The rooster isn’t afraid to boast and cock to all those around him. Be mindful that too much arrogance is not a blessing and that we should all try to remember to take pride in our offerings without boasting too loudly about our achievements.

It should be a much more predictable year than last year’s Monkey year…. the Rooster wakes us up each day and is timely and consistent. Roosters care about family and home life, protecting what they love.

2017 in Chinese astrology brings us yin fire over yin metal. Yin fire is like the candle or spark, and yin metal under it is like a precious jewel. So these two elements together bring an image of sparkling stones or gems. This is a very lovely and auspicious image and can bring much beauty for those who need more metal and fire in their BaZi. Of course how this affects your personal year will depend upon what elements are present in your birth chart and whether or not fire and metal influence you in a positive or negative way. Fire above metal also has the relationship of control because it is fire that yields the metal and bends it into form. This can bring organization, better systems, and more order to us all as we enter the new year.

Whatever the Rooster brings to you, we wish you an auspicious year filled with beauty, success, and good fortune.

October 15, 2016 by Jenn Collins

Staying Healthy this Fall Season

Chinese Medicine truly shines in the area of preventing, and curing colds and flus. When seen at the earliest sign of a cold, patients can get acupuncture at just the right moment to stave off the cold, or can be prescribed herbs that just literally can turn symptoms around overnight. Remember to come in at the very first signs of illness. That slight tickle in the throat, achey muscles, and slight chill or fever is what we are talking about here. And if you don’t have time for a treatment, please stop in for herbs. In just a few minutes we can prescribe a formula that can be very beneficial for early stage invasion.