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Acupuncture

Heat vs Ice? Here’s What Your Acupuncturist Really Thinks

One of the most common questions we hear in clinic is:

“Should I use heat or ice for this?”

In Western medicine, ice is usually the go-to for injuries. It reduces inflammation, numbs pain, and feels good on a swollen ankle or freshly pulled muscle. But from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, we tend to lean the other way.

Let’s break it down.

Ice Might Calm It… But It Can Also Slow Healing

Yes, ice works as a short-term fix—it constricts blood vessels, reduces swelling, and dulls discomfort. But in Chinese medicine, that constriction can actually interfere with the body’s natural healing response.

When you get injured, your body sends blood, fluids, and white blood cells to the area. That inflammation you’re feeling? It’s your system doing its job. Ice may relieve some of the discomfort, but it also slows circulation and can prevent those helpful immune and repair cells from doing their work.

Heat Moves Qi. And Healing Needs Movement

In TCM, pain is often caused by stagnation—where energy (Qi) or blood gets stuck. Heat helps relax, dilate, and move, which supports circulation and allows healing to happen more efficiently. Whether you’re dealing with muscle tension, chronic joint pain, or stress-related tightness, heat helps open things up and get things flowing again.

That’s why we recommend heat over ice in most cases, especially for:

  • Chronic pain (neck, back, joints, etc.)
  • Muscle tightness or knots
  • Acute flares of old injuries
  • Pinched nerves
  • Cold, stiff conditions that worsen in damp or cold weather

When Is Ice Appropriate?

We’re not totally anti-ice. There are just a few situations where it makes sense:

  • Within the first 24–48 hours of a new, acute injury (think: a fall, sprain, or trauma with visible swelling).
  • When you absolutely have to keep going (like finishing a game, performance, or long hike with an injury—use it for comfort, then switch to heat after).
  • Insect bites or stings where numbing the spot can help reduce irritation.

Even in those cases, we recommend using ice briefly and only if needed—not as a long-term solution.

Bottom Line? Warm It Up.

In Chinese medicine, healing happens through warmth, movement, and circulation—not freezing things into stillness.

So if you’re dealing with pain, tension, or an old injury that just won’t budge, try ditching the ice pack and reaching for the heating pad instead.Your body—and your Qi—will thank you.

Need help figuring out what your body actually needs to heal? Call us at (218) 724-3400 — Heidi is happy to guide you!

Acupuncture Complementing Cancer Treatment

Acupuncture has many healing properties. Acupuncture and other forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine are known to be great complementary forms of treatment for those fighting cancer. Forms of TCM, such as acupuncture, are even used by hospitals and other health practitioners to work alongside chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy and radiation can exhaust and break down a patient’s body, so the rejuvenative properties of acupuncture and TCM are welcomed by the recipient.

Check out these reasons acupuncture is a great complementary treatment for cancer patients:

  • Can help manage acute and chronic types of pain
  • Acupuncture can increase your white blood cell count, which is important for fighting cancer cells
  • Bolsters immune health
  • Assists with managing debilitating side effects, such as vomiting, depression, weight loss and physical and mental fatigue.
  • Acupuncture is a safe treatment and can be used for all ages.
  • Specific methods have been created to fight cancer
  • Acupuncture has been an effective form of pain management for thousands of years

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Breast Cancer


According to the Worldwide Breast Cancer Association, breast cancer affected nearly 1.5 million women and men in 2010. And unfortunately, that number hasn’t decreased by much since then. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, worldwide. The United States and the United Kingdom have the highest incidence rates globally, primarily due to excessive exposure to toxic chemicals and improper health habits. Because of this, regular screening is highly recommended. But what should you do if you already have or have had breast cancer? Consider incorporating Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture into your healthcare routine.

Using sterile, hair-thin needles and placing them into specific pressure points on the skin, a licensed acupuncturist can tremendously affect the way a person’s body deals with cancer cells or the sometimes harsh medical treatments you may be undergoing to fight the disease. Acupuncture stimulates the nervous and immune systems to release natural painkillers and infection fighters. Studies have shown acupuncture can help relieve fatigue, control hot flashes, decrease nausea and vomiting and decrease pain levels.

Acupuncture is just one facet of TCM.

There are other practices, such as tai chi or qi gong that can help keep you healthy or increase your immunity while fighting a disease. Research confirms that being too sedate and inactive can actually contribute to the body becoming diseased. Everybody has cancer cells in their bodies. But these cells only proliferate when given the right set of conditions. By incorporating things like qi gong or tai chi, you can still get the exercise your body needs, which helps increase long-term immunity, thus warding off disease.

For those who are already suffering from breast cancer, Traditional Chinese Medicine can indeed help. If surgery has been performed to remove the tumor(s), acupuncture along the scar lines can stimulate blood flow, relieve pain and increase mobility that may have otherwise been impeded due to skin tightness. Acupuncture treatments can increase collagen in the skin and this helps relieve added tension along the scar lines. This can also allow for cancer patients to undergo more aggressive physical therapy that will help them heal faster and return to a normal life.

Most cancer patients who opt for chemotherapy and radiation also become severely immunocompromised, making it harder for them to recover and more susceptible to other infections. Utilizing acupuncture during and after cancer treatments can be very beneficial and stimulate the body’s immune system. However, receiving acupuncture treatments as preventive care, just like eating healthy foods, can help keep the body free from disease to begin with. And once the cancer is in remission, continuing with regular acupuncture treatments will increase the immune system’s ability to remain strong.

Breast cancer is no laughing matter and it can be a death sentence. But it doesn’t have to be. While mammography is the standard form of early detection, thermography is a much safer option and it is gaining ground. Thermography is a tool that monitors breast health, assesses breast cancer risk and does not expose the patient to radiation. These are all things that mammography cannot do. Along with the use of early detection, regular acupuncture treatments can greatly increase the chances of never hearing those words from your doctor, “You have breast cancer.” So what are you waiting for?

Give us a call today at (218) 724-3400 to start your preventive care!

Menopause & Acupuncture: Easing the Transition

Menopause, for some women, is a welcome transition to the post-reproductive phase of one’s life. However, it has gotten a bad rap due to the symptoms many women experience while their bodies adjust to the changes. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, it is the inability of the body to adjust it’s energies gracefully to this new phase that causes symptoms, not the menopause itself. A gradual transition over time in a healthy individual will be less likely to induce the struggles commonly associated with menopause such as hot flashes, weight gain, dryness, sleep problems and mood swings. (Irregular periods, while inconvenient, are not necessarily considered a problem in this view, but par for the course of change leading up to true menopause).

Menopause is medically defined as the absence of a period for 1 year. Up until that point, the changes are considered peri-menopause: a slowing down of the reproductive faculties of the body. The struggles mentioned above can begin during peri-menopause, as early as a women’s 40’s and can last into her late 50s. During this time, the ovaries start making less estrogen and progesterone (the hormones that regulate menstruation). These hormonal changes are the reason for the hot flashes that tend to be the main complaint of women approaching menopause. The hot flashes in turn can disrupt sleep, leading to further imbalances and mood swings. The hormones also affect the metabolism, which can lead to weight gain and body changes. Vaginal dryness is also related to the declining hormones.

In simplistic terms, these hormonal changes can be seen in TCM as a decline in yin, leading to a yin-yang imbalance. Yin refers to the cooling, calming, moisturizing influences of the body, and when deficient can lead to heat, dryness and nervousness or irritability. Acupuncture (and TCM lifestyle guidance) can help to re-calibrate the yin-yang balance to ease this transition.

A year-long NCCIH-funded study  involved 209 peri-menopausal & menopausal women age 45–60 who had at least four hot flashes per day. Researchers found that acupuncture significantly reduced symptoms of hot flashes, anxiety, sleep issues and memory loss by as much as 36.7 %. The improvements persisted at least 6 months after treatment.

Another study compared menopausal symptoms of 70 women, after half of them had 6 weeks of regular acupuncture. In the acupuncture group there were clinically significant improvements in occurrence of hot flashes, night sweats, and other physical and emotional symptoms.

And even for women who are abruptly pushed into menopause, such as after a hysterectomy or ovariectomy, whose symptoms tend to be more severe, acupuncture (along with ear-acupuncture!) has been shown to reduce their (generally more intense) hot flashes as well.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is the western medical approach to menopause for severe symptoms brought on by hormonal changes, but comes with serious risks and is not for everyone. Acupuncture has the power to rebalance the body’s energies when life transitions challenge our stability and is a great alternative or complementary therapy for any woman entering this new phase of life.

The shift into menopause can be much smoother with a little assistance from your local acupuncturist, but don’t wait until symptoms are severe. Call today to bring more balance into your personal journey!

6  Ways to Help Alleviate Addiction

Meditation

Mindfulness is an important practice for overcoming addiction. Taking the time to become aware of our body and mind and self-reflect is important in the process of recovery. Meditation, whether or not it’s just five minutes a day of deep breathing in a quiet place, can help keep the mind at ease and decrease negative thoughts that could trigger relapse. Meditation is an easy way to regulate mood and lower stress.

Yoga

Yoga incorporates poses with deep breathing and meditation. Not only is this practice good for the body but the mind as well. Yoga promotes well being through poses that are intended to decrease stress and anxiety. Yoga of Recovery offers retreats and classes integrated into a 12-step recovery program. Retreats are done all over the world.  

Acupuncture

Acupuncture treatment has been proven to help addiction. Acupuncture can help reduce stress, anxiety and depression and increase the release of endorphins, which can help fight addiction. Treatment has been shown helpful for alcohol, opium, heroin, cocaine and tobacco dependency.

Gardening Therapy

Gardening therapy can be used for many reasons to promote mental well being. Gardening can prove to be a relaxing activity that gives a sense of purpose. Research has shown that gardening can lower irritation, improve self-esteem, lower anxiety and depression and improve concentration.

Exercise

Exercise is a must when it comes to recovering from an addiction. Not only is physical activity great for the body but for mental health as well. Exercise releases endorphins to fight cravings as well as lowers anxiety and depression. Adding in just 20 minutes of some sort of activity whether it is running, swimming or walking can help boost your mood and help you on the path to recovery. 


Animal therapy

Having a pet has been proven beneficial in many ways for mental health. Studies suggest that those with an animal companion have lower stress, anxiety, depression and lower blood pressure. Animal therapy such as riding horses has also been proven effective and helps recovering addicts focus on caring for someone else.


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