Acupuncture Columbus Archives - Page 9 of 9 - Acupuncture & Massage Columbus Ohio

Welcome to Urban Acupuncture Center’s very first newsletter!

by urban-acupuncture | Nov 19, 2012 | Acupuncture Columbus

Urban Acupuncture Center Logo We decided to create a way to help educate our patients and our community on various ways to help bring about better health from the approach we have learned, through Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). While we do primarily acupuncture at the clinic, TCM encompasses an even broader view. It is a medical theory and practice that has evolved in China over thousands of years. In these emails we’ll be able to dig a bit deeper to help explain some of the concepts of TCM. It uses a very different language and way of explaining how imbalances in the body cause disease. We will do our best here to help make this ancient medical system more understandable and applicable in our daily lives.

Thousands of years ago in China when this medical theory evolved, they didn’t have lab tests and x-ray machines. What they did have was plenty of time to observe the body and the tongue and feel the pulse to better understand the patterns of disease. They noticed how stimulating specific points alleviated pain, how emotions affected the body differently, how certain seasons made underlying patterns improve or worsen, the benefits of the practices to cultivate our energy, and, they believed that food should be the first medicine. Urban Acupuncture Center is set up to allow our patients to receive affordable acupuncture, and with each session we hope to be able to increase your level of understanding of what we do, how acupuncture works, and what else you can do for yourself.

In this issue we’ll be discussing dietary ideas to eat right according to the seasons- and why that is so important. Anne Van Druten has a special interest and education in nutrition, and has shared suggestions for how to adjust your diet for the winter season. Also, Kit Yoon writes about the very foundation of it all, Qi. It’s a big concept to explain and is important to understand, as we use that word so much within the clinic and in our approach to help determine treatments. We will discuss what we sell at the clinic and why we believe these to be useful adjuncts to better health. We will be highlighting an acupressure point that may be helpful during the winter season. UAC now is beginning to offer classes and we will keep you posted on the current schedule. Soaring Crane style Qi Gong will be offered again at the beginning of January. If you have any subject matter you would like to learn more about, we would love to hear from you. Please send us an email, and we will try to touch on it for future issues. We love testimonials, if you have an experience with acupuncture you don’t mind sharing, that is the most powerful way for us to spread the word about how acupuncture can help. Also please forward this to a friend if you know anyone who would be interested in receiving these newsletters. They can also sign up at the bottom of our website to subscribe to the email list.

Contact Us For More Information or to Get on Our Mailing List

For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.

What is Qi?

by urban-acupuncture | Nov 15, 2012 | Acupuncture Columbus

by Kit Yoon L.Ac.

The first time you receive an acupuncture treatment, you might be surprised by the sensations following each needle penetration. At first you may feel nothing. A few seconds later, with a little more needle depth and stimulation, your eyes widen and your body wakes up to an unfamiliar wave spreading at the local acupoint, or throughout your body.

What you feel is what we consider the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is what we as practitioners try to move, manipulate, nourish or diminish, depending on your conditions or ailments. What you feel is a rather complex entity, but is simply known as Qi.

Pronounced ‘chee’, and often translated as ‘life force’, Qi is intangible and invisible, and yet ubiquitous in all living beings. Chinese Medicine divides Qi into several forms, some of which include Prenatal Qi, Nourishing Qi, Defensive Qi, and Organ Qi. But we tend to group them up, and refer to Qi in general as your well-being, your energy, your life force.

Qi is a unique concept to Chinese Medicine, but far from being unknown in other cultures and practices. Qi is synonymous with mana to the Hawaiians, pneuma to the Greeks. And for yoga practitioners, Qi is one and the same as prana.

When the body and mind are in balance, Qi flows freely. You feel nourished and energized: you are healthy. When Qi is blocked, you may experience aches and pain, depression and anxiety. When Qi is depleted, you may feel fatigue, or dis-ease.

Acupuncture, the placement of thin needles into specific therapeutic points along the body’s meridians, works to re-direct your Qi towards optimum health. Practitioners select certain points along the meridians that best suit your needs. You may find that some acupuncture points deliver more Qi sensations than others. It is not uncommon for you to experience an underlying vibration throughout your body during the treatments.

Because acupuncture has been very beneficial in treating several health conditions, the scientific community is curious about how it works. Several studies have attempted to study the impact of acupuncture; some studies have even tried to measure Qi. Many studies agree that acupuncture does offer positive benefits, from headaches to arthritis, anxiety to sciatica, among other conditions.

For some uncomplicated blocked Qi (i.e. jaw pain), patients often feel less or no pain as soon as the acupuncture takes effect. As my teacher reminded us over and over again: “Where there is blocked Qi, there is pain. Where there is Qi flow, there is no pain.”

Although Qi may always be that ethereal entity; only something that we can feel, we could say it probably is associated with circulation, both of lymphatic fluid and blood. In fact, because Qi is such an important part of all living things, it is fair to say that there is Qi in every part of the body. Qi is truly the essence of life.