The winter season is characterized by its dark, cold, slow, inward energy and represents the most Yin aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is believed that harmonizing with the seasons helps you stay healthier and prevents disease. Therefore, it is believed that our diet and activities in winter should focus on enriching yin and subduing yang.

It’s getting cold here in New York, and to me that means one thing: Bone Broth Season.In recent years, bone broth has become widely popularized for its many nourishing uses, although it has actually been prepared as a healing staple for centuries across nearly every culture.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, bone broth is used to boost the body’s qi, blood, yin and even essence. It  nourishes the kidney system - the source of Qi that governs the bones, marrow and brain. Alongside acupuncture and medicinal herbs, regularly incorporating bone broth into your diet supports a healthy regimen. The vitamins, minerals, and collagen that one gets from regularly drinking bone broth have so many nutritious benefits for the human body.

Every culture has its own form of comfort food. For Chinese and other Asian cultures, congee - or jook - is an ancient recipe that dates back as early as the Han Dynasty in 206 BCE. With food and nourishment as one of the most important pillars of maintaining health in Traditional Chinese Medicine, congee has long since been considered a food that heals.

Moxibustion is a heat therapy used in Traditional Chinese Medicine in which dried mugwort is formed into sticks or cones called “moxa” and burned on or close to the skin’s surface. This technique has been used for more than 2,500 years, and is often used alongside Acupuncture to warm and invigorate the flow of Qi, dispel pathogenic influences and prevent or cure diseases.

While today, Halloween is synonymous with dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating, many forget that its origins are actually rooted in an annual Gaelic tradition called Samhain, a festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. Across many cultures, this time is synonymous with the belief that the veil that separates the earthly plane from the spiritual world thins, making it easier for spirits to cross over and walk amongst the living.

As the warm and blissful days of summer become further and further away in our rearview mirror, feelings of heaviness, stress and anxiety are not uncommon. My recent blog post discusses how adapting to darker days and cooler temperatures can trigger both physical and emotional responses as we transition into autumn.

While regular acupuncture treatments help to alleviate these disturbances throughout our body, there are a number of simple acupressure points that you can activate yourself that can help you de-stress.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the arrival of Autumn connects to the Metal element and with it, the Lungs and Large Intestine - the organs associated with what we take in and release, respectively. In response to this seasonal transformation, the body’s outward flowing energy begins to turn inward as it prepares for the colder months ahead.

It sounds counterintuitive. Needles + Body = Sleep. But acupuncture has long been recognized as a pathway to encourage more restfulness. Whether you struggle with insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, restlessness, or morning grogginess, most of us have experienced some form of sleep complaint in our lives.

At my Acupuncture practice in New York I frequently treat an oft-overlooked mood disturbance suffered by thousands of women: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). And as part of Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to examine and bring awareness to the condition and its drastic effects on mental health.

While it’s estimated that as many as 90% of women experience PMS, it’s believed that up to 10% of women experience PMDD. A severe form of the condition that includes both the physical symptoms of PMS with debilitating mood fluctuations.

Studies show that the chemicals released by the brain during periods of extended stress (like Adrenaline, and Dopamine our “Happy” neurotransmitter) can cause a chemical reaction as addictive as hard drugs. By activating the brain’s reward centers, dopamine release encourages repeat behaviors, making ongoing stress a sought-after mental state.

Frequent migraines and headaches can be a debilitating source of pain and frustration for millions of people. Oftentimes leading to reliance on prescription medication to manage symptoms.

However, there’s compelling evidence to support what Chinese Medicine practitioners have been practicing for decades: that Acupuncture offers a valid drug-free option to relieve pain and reduce frequency in thousands of headache sufferers.

As the name would suggest, this is a simple yet lively combination of fresh ginger, turmeric, black pepper and honey. These ingredients are packed with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-microbial benefits.

When folks ask me about the basic tenants of Chinese Medicine, I always default to the Theory of the Five Elements. It’s one of the very first concepts taught to every student of Acupuncture. And for this once-wide-eyed new pupil, it sparked an immediate connection. It’s been a years-long process of connecting with and internalizing this exquisitely simple paradigm of the world around us, and everything in it. It’s a concept that I truly love.

Endometriosis can be a debilitating condition, and is suffered by an untold number of women around the world. I use the term “untold” due to the previously stated reasons (eek), and in fact, countless women go through their entire reproductive lives at its mercy without proper medical recognition or intervention. In fact, recent estimates by the World Health Organization give the staggering figure that 1 in 10 women suffers from endometriosis during their reproductive years, and approximately 200,000 American women are effected per year.

Spring is just around the corner, and so are your lurking allergies.

But they don’t have to be. We all know the usual suspects: trees, grasses, those cheery-faced dandelions. All pretty to look at after a dreary winter dull-scape, and all murder on your sinuses every year. But how do seasonal allergies arise according to Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, and most importantly, how do these strategies help?

As with so many other techniques in the health and wellness sphere, Cupping has gained momentous notoriety over the past few years. And who can blame people for being curious? When superstar athletes like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, football star James Harrison, and Goop-founder Gwyneth Paltrow make this treatment a key part of their physical recovery, it’s bound to leave a mark (so to speak…).