I have studied a variety of martial arts including kickboxing, escrima stick fighting, American Jiu Jitsu, self defense, and mixed martial arts (MMA).  But what I love the most is kickboxing. So when I dislocated my right knee while sparring, I started acupuncture and topical herbs that very day to get me back into fighting as soon as possible. Then 6 months later I tore my left knee and I knew I had to give my body a break. I continued to do acupuncture on my knees and although I had pain for a year, I recovered completely with no medications or surgery.

This month I returned to kickboxing. When I told someone about my previous knee injuries, they remarked that knees never really heal completely. I was excited to tell him that mine are back to normal because of acupuncture. I’m still strengthening my knees, but they don’t hurt at all. And while my body is re-conditioning to the vigorous kickboxing drills, I’m trying to remind myself to savor these first few weeks back when my lungs are burning, my muscles are tired, and my arms are bruised. I’ve been waiting to come back for so long and although I love my yoga classes, there’s just something about punching and kicking someone until you’re exhausted. Sometimes it’s frustrating that I don’t have the coordination, strength, and endurance that I used to have, but it’s still really good to be back.

Are you suffering from fall allergies?  Ragweed season is upon us and here at Beautiful Ama we can help!  Acupuncture boosts the body’s immune system and rebalances it so those allergens don’t cause quite so much disruption.  Then we add herbs that further boost your body’s defenses and help eliminate symptoms.  Sound great?  It really is!  Come in and give your body the strength to fight back!

One of our favorite home remedies for treating fall allergies is the use of a neti pot.  Neti pots are used to run a saline solution through the nasal passages in the morning and the evening.  They stimulate the natural cleansing function of the mucous membranes and clear out nasal congestion, dust, pollen, and other allergens while maintaining healthy secretions of the ear, nose, and throat to help relieve sinus pressure.  And we sell stoneware neti pots made here in the U.S. in a variety of beautiful colors.  We just love them!

Everyone has been so excited about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and learning more about their own individual patterns of diagnosis that we’ve now started giving our patients a detailed report at their second visit called the Report of Findings.  In this customized report, we outline your TCM pattern diagnosis, explain what your diagnosis means, give you a treatment plan so you can see what to expect from your treatments, and outline foods and lifestyle recommendations specifically for your pattern diagnosis that you can do at home.  If you’ve come in before and would like us to do a free Report of Findings for you, schedule a treatment and let us know you want a Report of Findings so we can have it ready when you come in!

I treat patients for headaches and migraines all the time and I’m always surprised by how many people suffer from chronic daily headaches.  Last week I had a patient who had a headache for 19 days before coming to see me.  With only one acupuncture treatment, she has now gone 4 days without a headache.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing a patient of mine be able to enjoy life again.  Although that patient will need regular acupuncture for a while to keep her headaches from returning, the immediate results are really amazing.  Sometimes when we’ve been sick for awhile, we forget what it’s like to feel healthy again.  Acupuncture can bring us back to being the beautiful person we already are by balancing our body so it can heal itself.

I’m so excited about the Holistic Weight Loss Program that I’ve developed as a collaborative effort with Senia at Healing InSight that I can’t sleep.  We start with acupuncture, herbs, and food therapy (of course) and include other perks like weigh-ins, measurements, lifestyle coaching, books, and things you can do at home to increase your metabolism and lose that weight.  Recently we’ve expanded the program to include a 7 day weight loss detox, meal ideas, and new chapters of the food therapy books we’re writing.  My patients love the program so much that after the initial 10 weeks, they’ve been requesting phase 2 so they can continue losing weight with the same support that has been so successful in phase 1.  So we finally finished putting that together and we’re too excited to sleep!