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Viewing entries tagged with 'Acupuncture'

On the 100th Anniversary of Bay To Breakers: A TCM View on Running

Hae Min on 15 May 2011 | 1043 Comments | Tags: health, medicine, running, barefoot running, fitness, massage, sports injuries, health advice, TCM, chinese medicine, acupuncture

I am not a runner now, but before I started training in martial arts, I ran for over ten years almost daily. I started in high school when my friends started doing it to get into shape. I hated it at first. My lungs hurt, my stomach hurt, my face would get really hot, my body seemed to be saying "yuck!" but I kept at it because I was convinced that running was something that fit people did. I started out jogging really slowly and going for 15 minutes at a time. Eventually I worked up to 20 minutes and so on, until I could easily run 45 minutes to an hour. That seemed like the optimal time for me. I never ran with the track team. It almost didn't even occur to me to go fast or to run for time. I just liked the motion of it, trying to get my body into a better rhythm and connect with the ground in the smoothest foot exchange possible. I was also taking dance classes at the time, so I was hyper-aware of posture, stretching, and the importance of not heel-striking as I ran. Eventually I was hooked. I ran every day, sometimes twice a day, rain or shine, wind or hail. I usually ran first thing in the morning, but sometimes I was foolish enough to run in the midday sun. It felt exhilarating. 

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NY Times Article on Referred Pain

Hae Min on 17 September 2008 | 22619 Comments | Tags: Pain, Research, Acupuncture, Referred Pain

In the West, acupuncture  is famous for pain relief (which is only one of the many things it is extremely effective in treating). Often biomedical doctors (MD's) don't understand why it works but that it does, and will refer their patients to an acupuncturist. When it comes to pain, the medicines and treatments available through biomedicine often do not treat the root cause, only the current symptoms. Here is an interesting article explaining referred pain from a biomedical perspective and why acupuncture is effective in treating it.

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