Jessica Shaw Acupuncture

Every day I am able to work with incredible people who have stories of adversity that I can only vaguely understand. This woman is one of them. I am so proud of her for putting her suffering into words that might help other people who also suffer from trigeminal neuralgia.

My Chronic Migraines Turned Out to Be "Su***de Disease" I sadly know from experience that it is aptly named.

I saw my primary care doctor for my yearly physical yesterday and one of the things we talked about at length were the connections between different types of cancer and sugar. She was adamant about it.

The Milky Way Index: How Much Sugar Is In Your Food? The husband was drinking a glass of orange juice a few days ago when he turned to me and asked “Is juice bad for you?” I said, “Yeah, it is – because it’s basically fu…

This study shows that people who regularly get tattoos report incidentally fewer colds than people who do not, suggesting that tattoos offer a kind of "heavy lifting" for the immune system. In Chinese medicine, Wei Qi travels around the surface of the skin, acting as a "protector" against external pathogens trying to get in. Using this metaphor, tattoos can be thought of as a breach in the wall of Wei Qi that unlitmatly tests the boundary and makes it stronger in the long run!

Getting Multiple Tattoos Can Help Prevent Colds, Study Says The more ink you get, the more your ability to fight off the common cold improves, according to a new study.

Sometimes we just need to get out of our pajamas and have something to eat. I have used the instructions on this sheet more than once in my life. Please feel free to print it out and use at it as needed!

selfcare_printable.pdf

There are so many different ways that our conscious awareness of our physical body interacts with the physical reality of our body. All of them have relevance to healing.

French Polymath Paul Valéry on “The Three-Body Problem” "Everything that is masks for us something that might be."

I see a lot of people in my practice who are just plain over worked. Sometimes the only way we feel better is to slow down.

No, it's not you: why 'wellness' isn't the answer to overwork More and more workplaces are turning to the wellness industry to try and solve the problem of overwork.

***CAUTION***
This is a good example of how Western medicine may be mis-interpreting study results. Chinese Medicine diagnoses some women who have trouble conceiving with "thin" blood and some with "thick," or "stagnant" blood, depending on their presentation.

This study suggests that low doses of aspirin could increase pregnancy chances for ALL women trying to get pregnant. It is well documented that aspirin is a blood thinner, so perhaps it only helps those women with "thick" blood and actually makes it harder for women with already "thin" blood to conceive.

Daily aspirin could increase chance of pregnancy Taking just an 81-mg dose of aspirin daily may increase a woman's chance of getting pregnant, particularly if they have miscarried previously, suggests new research.

The results of a new study show that over the counter anti-inflammatories significantly inhibit ovulation in women with mild musculoskeletal pain. Of the women receiving NSAIDs, only 6.3 percent (diclofenac), 25 percent (naproxen) and 27.3 percent (etoricoxib) ovulated, compared with 100 percent of the control group.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs inhibit ovulation after just 10 days The results of a new study show that diclofenac, naproxen and etoricoxib significantly inhibit ovulation in women with mild musculoskeletal pain. Of the women receiving NSAIDs, only 6.3 percent (diclofenac), 25 percent (naproxen) and 27.3 percent (etoricoxib) ovulated, compared with 100 percent of t…

There is some great information about back pain and posture in this story.

Lost Posture: Why Some Indigenous Cultures May Not Have Back Pain There are a few populations in the world where back pain hardly exists. One woman thinks she has figured out why, and she's sharing their secrets. Have Americans forgotten how to stand properly?

Taste is very important in Chinese medicine, and many herbs and foods recommended for heart issues are bitter. The correlation is so strong that classical Chinese medical texts suggest that the bitter taste "enters" the heart.

Studying the human body never ceases to be fascinating.

Researchers find bitter taste receptors on human hearts A team of University of Queensland researchers is investigating the surprising discovery that smell and taste receptors normally found in the nose and mouth can also be present on the human heart.

This is a great article describing the paradox of chronic pain

Real Delusions of an Unreal Disease: A History of Morgellons

"Researchers find that brain networks accessed by specific acupuncture points relate to specific medical disorders & suggest 'acupoint-brain-organ' pathway."

There is much more work to be done, but this is a very cool study.

MRI Reveals Acupuncture Modulates Brain Activity Acupuncture regulates the brain to improve human health according to research published in Autonomic Neuroscience.