A little Sunday night inspiration to help calm COVID anxiety. Stay tuned for part 2 when we show acupuncture points and a yoga pose to calm COVID anxiety! Thank you to Danna Faulds for the inspiration!
Tag: glens falls ny
Large Instestine 4 – the Headache Point!
Today we are talking about Large Intestine 4, also known as the “headache” point. Check out how to accurately locate it and give yourself a little acupressure!
Gua Sha for Pain
Back in the spring, I demonstrated how to use gua sha to alleviate a cough or shortness of breath and to improve lung health. This tool also has the ability to alleviate muscle tightness!
In this video here, I have a patient who came in with ankle pain and lateral lower leg pain. The source turned out to be a trigger point in the Peroneal Longus muscle. Trigger point therapy can be very intense for some people, so gua sha is an excellent tool to use to loosen muscles up for those that are sensitive.
Gua sha smooths the fascia that encases the muscle allowing the muscle to expand and relax more easily and it pushes lactic acid out providing pain relief in the area. Gua sha also breaks up blood stagnation in that muscle promoting better blood flow to the area.
If you are highly sensitive to needles or trigger point therapy – that’s okay! Gua sha can be a great tool for you as it’s effective, but more comfortable.
Alyx Soesman, Acupuncturist
Tools We Use at Nirvana: Cupping
Most people are familiar with cupping because they have seen circular marks on the bodies of athletes who are receiving cupping as therapy to help their bodies perform (and heal from) peak athletic performance. In Chinese Medical practice we typically use cupping to “clear stagnation”. And most often, this stagnation manifests as pain.
When qi and blood does not flow smoothly through the body, the result is pain. Cupping can help to break up and bring that stagnation to the surface, where it can more easily leave the body for good. The marks, or bruising, is a great sign of therapeutic release.
I also use cupping for lung issues. I have a patient with asthma, difficulty breathing, and a pattern that we call “Phlegm in the Lungs”. Cupping is a great assistant to acupuncture and herbs because it can pull that stagnation (this time in the form of stubborn phlegm), up from the depths of the inner body toward the surface where it can more easily be removed. After a few treatments I have had patients tell me that they can more easily breathe and that they feel less congestion in their chest/lungs; one patient was even able to begin running again, which they had to stop due to the pain it caused on their lungs. Thank you to www.nicolemantilla.com
Acupuncture Nirvana 