By Jorga Houy, LAc, Emperor’s College Alumnus and Owner of LA Sports Acupuncture

“The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.”  – W.C. Fields

Sleep is one of the most important things in life, our ultimate “down time.” Many critical physiological functions occur when we sleep, including a great degree of our healing. For many of us, sleep is a like a dip into a relaxing pool for our consciousness, but can be a source of stress for many who don’t get enough of it.

From a Chinese medicine perspective, the quietude of sleep is the yin which balances the yang of our waking, active life. In our modern “go go” lifestyle, adequate sleep often gets sacrificed or compromised in favor of work or other activities, thus throwing off the essential yin/yang balance of our overall lifestyles. On occasion of National Sleep Awareness Week, I’d like to share 4 tips for better sleep: Read more

By Lisa Weber, CHC, Student in the Master’s Program at Emperor’s College

We are now three months into 2013, which begs the question – how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? Specifically, how are health goals going for the New Year?

The beginning of a new year is traditionally known as the time to set ambitious goals and resolutions such as lose 50 pounds, cook more healthy meals, or swear off sugar for the next twelve months. But then sometime after January 2^nd we lose steam, and those lofty promises are broken.

Lack of tools to keep us going

Lisa Weber, CHC

The truth is all of us have the genuine desire to keep our resolutions – lose the weight, find balance, get healthy, and stop relying on sugar or caffeine to get through the day. Often times it’s not the ambition we’re short of, it’s the lack of tools and support to keep us going.

And here’s another truth: you can’t have success without failure. Failure is where we learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s the growing pains that make us learn more about ourselves so that we can find more kindness and gentleness the next time around.

So wherever you are, let’s start fresh together and commit to being healthier so we can be happier around ourselves and our loved ones.

Here are my five tips for keeping your healthy New Year’s resolutions in 2013: Read more

By John Fang, DAOM, LAc

During the frequent get-togethers in the holiday season many people tend to overeat and drink more alcohol than usual. As a result from holiday overeating, patients in my practice are concerned with gastrointestinal disorders and overweight when it comes to their New Year resolutions. You may be curious how acupuncture and Oriental medicine takes care of the ailments caused by excessive eating and drinking.

Acupuncture is my first choice when it comes to treatments of an array of digestion problems such as constipation, diarrhea, stomachache, bloating, heartburn, and nausea to name a few. Needling certain points on the body or ear can modulate physiological changes and easily relieve these symptoms. In most cases, patients recover in a day or two. Read more

This blog post is part of our AOM Day Series on Qi. Other posts in this series are What is Qi? and Stick Out Your Tongue!.

National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day is observed annually on October 24. It is part of an effort designed to increase public awareness of the progress, promise, and benefits of acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

More and more people in the US receive acupuncture treatments as part of their regular health regimen. And new legislation, like the 2 bills signed by California Governor Jerry Brown in September, helps make acupuncture and Oriental medicine more available to patients by having insurance pay for these valuable therapies.

A survey by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) found that approximately one in ten adults had received acupuncture at least one time and 60% said they would readily consider acupuncture as a potential treatment option. Read more