The Family Tree Acupuncture Blog
Can Herbal Medicine Improve Your Health?
Unlocking the Healing Potential of Herbal Medicine Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Unlocking the Healing Potential of Herbal Medicine What is the History of Herbal Medicine? What are Some Common Herbal Medicines and Their Uses? The Safety and Efficacy of Herbal Medicines...
A Solution for Irritated Eyes
The eyes are the window to the soul, and if yours are dry, irritated, red, itchy or painful, you might find it hard to do some soul searching. Fear not! We have an easy and effective home remedy for you using one of our favorite Chinese herbs. Ju hua (pronounced "joo...
Moxibustion How-To
Moxibustion is a very warm and relaxing addition to an acupuncture treatment and is often used instead of acupuncture for those who are especially sensitive to needles. In fact, there are some properties to moxibustion that exceed the capabilities of acupuncture...
4-Ingredient Soup: A Traditional Cold Remedy
Questioning whether or not you’re getting sick? If you’ve been around someone who’s sick or you’re hearing about people who are, you might find yourself asking “are I or aren’t I?” at the slightest sensation in your throat. Some good news! We have a simple yet...
Meditation
Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace, and balance that benefits both your emotional well-being and your overall health. These benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may help you...
Immunity: Now Just a Button Click Away
Like us, you are certainly navigating some life changes in the midst of this choppy sea of uncertainty. As we’ve been listening to your struggles and stories of perseverance, there’s one phrase we’ve heard over and over again. “I can’t afford to get sick.” While...
How Many Treatments Will It Take?
I ran into a patient of mine at the grocery store who I hadn’t seen for treatment in a while. Her life circumstances had changed recently making it impossible for her to continue weekly treatments. Completely understandable. “Why not come less often?” I suggested. She...
Fertile Ground: Chinese Medicine’s Role in Making Babies
Let’s say you want to take a driving test so you can get your license. Let’s also say that the driver’s exam has a 40% pass rate. If you could double your odds of passing your driver's exam by investing in a series of driver's education courses, would you take the...
La Isla Del Encanto
It has been a little over a month since I returned from a week of acupuncture service in Puerto Rico as part of an effort organized by Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) , an organization that provides disaster relief, recovery and support for communities affected...
A Revelation about Meditation
Picture this: an inner city public school system plagued by behavioral issues, low attendance, poor academic performance and limited resources to deal with all of this. This same school system implements one simple technique into the school day and monitors the effect...
Don’t Forget To Eat Your Meds
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. — Hippocrates, father of medicine, 431 B.C. Jorge and I are at the tail end of our annual whole foods cleanse, and every year I repeat the same pattern. The week before our cleanse starts, I grieve all the birthday...
Loosening the grip of anxiety
A week or so ago, I found myself enveloped and ambushed by lists. Mind you, these were lists I had made myself. I had a grocery list in my back pocket, a home to-do list on my iPhone, a work to-do list taped to my desk, a gift list gaining strength in my purse...and...
People, Wake up! But First, Sleep.
As someone who is prone to motion sickness, I can’t help but make the following comparison: on a global, national, community and personal level, 2016 left me feeling dizzy and nauseated. As the Chinese New Year approaches, I’m ready to release that white-knuckled grip...
Your Tongue Doesn’t Lie
I could lie to your face and tell you that I’m the perfect picture of health. I could say that, because I’m a Chinese medicine practitioner, I take all the preventative measures needed to ensure a disease-free, balanced life. I could tell you that I didn’t sneak some...
5 Reasons Why Kids Love Getting Acupuncture
If you have kids, know any, want some or are one, you’ll want to hear this. Perhaps you think that kids and needles go together as well as ice cream and hot sauce. And if your only idea of a needle is the kind used to extract blood from your vein or inject...
A New Face
I have a piece of tape stuck between my eyebrows as I’m writing this. By the time you finish reading, I hope you will too. You know that expression, “it’s written all over your face”? Well it is. Every line, every wrinkle, every discoloration or scar tells the story...
While We’re Away
Sure, we've dipped into the mid-70s here in Daytona Beach, but Jorge, Phoebe and I are ditching our flip-flops in search of some scarf and hat weather. Beginning next week, we’ll be in Washington DC for a much needed vacation. The timing couldn't be better, because...
A Costly Mistake (and how to avoid it)
I remember my very first allergy attack. I was 11 years old and playing around with a potpourri ball in my bedroom, the kind that you stick in a dresser drawer to keep socks from smelling like….well, socks. I took a big whiff of that potpourri and then sneezed about...
Lend me your ear…no really
By Jorge Mejia AP, DOM How many times have we heard the phrase “it’s all connected…?” If you stopped to really ponder this notion it can be overwhelming to think about how physically we are made up of the same stuffs as stars and that the molecules we inhale and...
Leap and The Net Will Appear
Jorge and I are going through a huge transition right now. Never strangers to change in general, this isn’t our first foray into uncharted waters. However, this feels massive. As fellow creatures of habit, I’m quite sure you can relate to this. Here’s what I know...
Ok Honey, Listen Up!
A few months ago, I was happily distracted by the natural soaps offered by a vendor at an outdoor festival in Ocala when my daughter came running up to me in alarm. “Come see the bees flying around that woman’s head!” Oh my. Sure enough, a local beekeeper was calmly...
No needles? No problem
I was in a theater, on a boat (whu-what!), somewhere between Florida and Nassau when I was hit by a wave of nausea. The lights in the theater were dimming, my daughter was on my lap and I was seated smack-dab in the center of a very long row. In other words, my escape...
Let. It. Go.
We're face-to-face with a new year, and guess what? I don't care about my weight. I don't care about your weight. I'm not even particularly interested in talking about whole foods and exercise, despite how much I'm sure we all could use more of these things right now....
Lessons Learned From My Lousy Immunity
For years I was ashamed to call myself a healthcare practitioner. Frankly, my immunity was the pits. One year, I hacked phlegmy fluids from the deep, ravenous echos of my poor lungs from mid-January through late-April. Since childhood, I’ve learned to live with, power...
Calling All Fish Heads!
Family Tree Acupuncture is offering 20% OFF their entire line of Nordic Naturals fish oils through the end of August. Like you, I'm sure, I have sat through many a discourse from my parents and grandparents on the injustices of growing up in a bygone era. Something...
Day 13: Priorities, Not Perfection
As we head into the last two days of our 14-day green smoothie experiment, I’ve been contemplating our reasons for doing this. Of course, there are the obvious benefits, which we presented to you in the weeks prior to starting this experiment in hopes of inspiring you...
Day 11: Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia
It's not just for pets anymore. When we first started testing green smoothies recipes a few months ago, we came across chia seeds as an ingredient over and over again. As tiny as they are, these little guys pack a serious nutritional punch. Here's what you can get out...
Day 7: Making Nice
When we first started courting you for this this 14-day green smoothie experiment, we talked about the importance of nourishing your digestive qi throughout this process. In Chinese medicine, the spleen and stomach are the primary organs involved in the proper...
A Word On Spirulina
Day one of our 14-day spring smoothie experiment starts tomorrow. Are you ready? Here's another great recipe to help get you started. I tried to capture the vibrant blue-green color of this smoothie (thanks very much, spirulina), but the picture really doesn't do it...
Hot Topic
Hot damn! And top of the morning to ya! Before you brush your teeth, before you prop your eyelids open with toothpicks, and before you push the button on your automatic coffee maker, do this one thing: drink a hot morning tonic. Why? Every morning is a new opportunity...
Kraut
Have you ever ventured to make something that you're used to buying on a regular basis? Let's say it's soap. Or hummus. Or salad dressing. For me, this week, it was sauerkraut (aka fermented cabbage). Boy was I scared to make sauerkraut. My recent post, Miso Hungry,...
Miso Hungry
If you are not already aware, we are embarking on a two-week whole foods cleanse. Fortunately, we are not alone. In fact, we are 15 strong. Now that the “prep week” is upon us, I’m so grateful for the participation and support of our patients. I’m at the point where,...