
The Dragon Rises Wellness Blog
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Things We’d Love to Spend More Time Talking About in Clinic Episode One: Dampness
Some people naturally have a "damp" constitution, meaning their bodies are more prone to retaining moisture, especially if they have weak digestion or tend to eat cold, raw foods. Others may be more prone to heat as well, where stress, spicy foods, or alcohol…
Grief, the Lung, and the Leader
When we think of grief, most often there is an aversion to the emotion, as it is (correctly) associated with periods of mourning: death, dispossession, loneliness and sudden, difficult changes. It is important to remember, however, that grief is the body's way of letting the waves of pain these moments bring up wash over and through us, so that we can come to terms with the world as it is, in spite of how we would like it to be.
Welcome to the Month of the Pig!
Pigs represent the start of Winter in the lunar calendar, and at the same time they are also the final animal in the Zodiac cycle. Pigs are therefore symbols of both beginnings and endings, and this duality is meaningful: the energy of the Pig relates to…
Yin-Yang Theory
This is a way to conceive of polarities not as oppositional– like light and darkness in a battle for supremacy–but rather as complementary. Light and dark complete one another and co-exist within each other. In the world at large, we see how...
A Case of the Miraculous Sinews: Part 1
I was speaking to one of my oldest patients today in the clinic while performing a sinew channel treatment. She had come in for relief from her inguinal pain that began as a result of the impact of her seatbelt on her pelvis during a car accident...
Moxibustion: What is it and how does it work?
So what is moxibustion, how does it work, and why has it historically been given equal importance to needling, while remaining mostly unknown to the general public in the West? At the heart of east Asian medicine and philosophy is the theory of "Yin-Yang", signifying that all things which appear opposite are in fact working together in dynamic relationship…
What are the Basic Parameters of the Pulse in Shen-Hammer Pulse Diagnosis?
One of the ways that we orient ourselves to understanding (and teaching) the pulse is through what are called the Basic Parameters: those most fundamental aspects of sensation by which any pulse quality can be categorized and interpreted.
The Basic Parameters of the pulse are:…
What are gold acupuncture needles used for?
Here at Dragon Rises, we do not utilize a gold needle for a particular acupuncture point per se, but rather for an entire class of acupuncture channels. This class of channels is called the Eight Extraordinary Channels. They assist us in working on aspects of our body’s physiology that came to be during our early childhood — or the first cycle of 7-8 years of life.