Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China for good reason. Each new year brings new energies and opportunities. The celebration begins the day after the first new moon between January 21 and February 20 each year and lasts until the following full moon. These 2 weeks is a time of welcoming and aligning with the new energies. This year, the Chinese New Year falls on Feb 1st and festivities continue through Feb 15th, 2022. Each year has a corresponding element and animal of the Chinese zodiac. 2022 is a water-tiger year that holds a lot of promise for an exciting, productive year.

This water-tiger year is in gear to be a faster-paced, more passionate year after a slower year of the Ox (2021) and a very challenging year of the Rat (2020). The tiger has been sleeping, awaiting his time for action. 2022 has great potential to be a year of change because of the energy of the tiger: brave, self-assured, and ready to pounce. Individually we might be inspired to embark on new adventures, such as travel or moving, or starting a new business. Collectively, there may be an energetic shaking off of stagnation brought on by the past couple of years of the pandemic. It will be a year of exploring new ideas, and not shying away from challenges. If energy is not allowed to flow (individually and/or collectively) there may be some restlessness or unpredictable behaviors. It is also important to balance the aggressive energy of the tiger with times of rest. Even tigers take cat naps. This is a water year, so the yin energy of the water can help to balance the fierce fiery nature of the tiger.

In terms of health for this year, keep that balance in mind. Get moving, embrace life, face challenges, and be brave but take time for relaxation, meditation, and proper sleep. The tiger is associated with the liver and gallbladder organs as well as the lung channel. We can give some extra support to these systems this year by:

• daily stretching (supporting the sinews governed by Liver/ Gallbladder)
• eating cooked dark leafy greens (nourishing liver blood)
• eating more white-colored foods (the associated lung color)
• and deep breathing exercises (energizing the lung organ/channel).

For extra luck this year:

• wear more red! The color red is said to help tigers ward off any bad luck or villainous spirits.
• add some tiger symbolism to your decor. Get a tiger figurine or some tiger art to add to your home or work environment to stir the motivational forces of this tiger year.

Chinese New Year food traditions are empowered with symbology. The idea is to signify prosperity and abundance with traditions such as cooking extra food to make sure there are leftovers and cooking coin-shaped cookies or dumplings representing pockets of money. Traditions can be considered ritualistic practices that help to infuse our lives with meaning and intention. And cooking is such a delicious opportunity to bring rituals into our celebrations.

Enjoy this dumpling recipe in celebration of the year of the Tiger. Just remember to fill them with not only the physical ingredients but your own intentions for a prosperous healthy new year!

Ingredients:

Dumpling wrappers (home-ade or store-bought)

Sesame oil

filling:

Cooked & chopped Chicken or Tofu (white color to support lungs)

Cooked & chopped dark leafy greens (support liver blood)

Pungent spices like fresh ginger and black pepper (open/move lung qi)

for dipping:

Soy sauce

Rice wine vinegar (helps to relieve liver stagnation)

Chopped green onions (benefit lung qi)

• Mix cooked/chopped chicken and greens in a bowl with fresh ginger and black pepper (and a little soy sauce if dry).
• Fill each dumpling wrapper with about a tablespoon of filling and seal it up by following whatever dumpling-making instructions you find fun and doable!
• Pan-fry by heating (about 2 tablespoons) of sesame oil in a medium-hot pan, and then place dumplings in to fry for a couple of minutes before adding a thin layer of water into the pan.
• Cover, reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook until water evaporates, then remove the cover and let fry until golden brown.
• Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, and green onions.

Happy New Year of the Water-Tiger!

Don’t forget to make acupuncture part of your new year’s celebration and get in for some treatments to fortify your own inner-tiger vitality and get the most out of 2022! Call today to schedule your Acupuncture appointment! Rawr!

Here at Master Lu’s Health Center, we take sports injuries serious here in the Salt Lake valley, we use Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine to help aide in the recovery of Sports injuries.

Sports injuries are an incredibly common reason patients first seek out treatment with Traditional Chinese Medicine. From a TCM perspective, there are numerous energetic imbalances that may have predisposed someone to a particular injury, or may now be affected by the injury. A trained practitioner will look at the location of the injury, the depth of the injury, and the pathology of the injury.

A sports injury anywhere on the body may have the following components:

Blood Stasis: Blood stasis is often caused by trauma to the local area, such as falling on the soccer field or getting hit with a hockey stick. Symptoms of blood stasis include sharp and stabbing pain that is worse with pressure, bruising and skin discoloration. When the stasis is severe it may affect sleep. Sports injuries such as bone breaks, contusions, fractures, tendon and ligament tears frequently have a blood stasis component.

Qi Stagnation: Qi stagnation can be caused by trauma but more frequently is caused by overuse, repetitive motion, poor posture or form while doing an exercise. Pain from a Qi stagnation injury tends to be dull, achy, throbbing and diffuse. Normally it is worse with pressure, but may be better with gentle movement. Common injuries that often involve Qi stagnation are tendonitis, muscle strains, chronically tight muscles and shin splints.

Heat: Both Qi stagnation and blood stagnation can generate heat, which is a TCM explanation for lots of kinds of inflammation. Any sports injury that presents as red, hot and swollen has a heat component to it.

Cold: Just as pathogenic heat can be a factor in sports injuries, so too can pathogenic cold. There is an idea in TCM that cold can “direct strike” an organ or energy system, leading to severe, acute, cramping pain. This often occurs after exposure to cold, such as running a race on a cold day, swimming in cold water or sitting in an ice bath after a workout. Cold can also be a factor in certain chronic areas of pain, particularly when bone is involved or when the injury is in a location that doesn’t get a lot of blood flow.

Blood deficiency: Any acute sports injury has a component of stagnation or stasis. However, there may be an underlying blood deficiency that allowed the tissues to be more susceptible to injury. The blood is said to nourish the tendons, so this is particularly true in tendon injuries such as tennis elbow or Achilles tendonitis. Blood deficiency may also be a result of a sports injury, such as a concussion, which means the body needs more resources to rebuild itself after the injury.

Thankfully, TCM has several ways of treating sports injuries and helping in the rehabilitation process:

Acupuncture: Acupuncture can help to increase blood flow to an area, reduce pain, inflammation and help tissues heal.

Chinese Herbal Medicine: TCM Herbal formulas can be applied topically in the form of liniments, plasters, poultices, creams and ointments. Certain herbal formulas are also appropriate to be taken internally to help with pain or associated symptoms during the recovery phase. Depending on the herbal formula, it may target pain, tension, inflammation, swelling, or circulation. Herbal formulas can be tailored to fit any of the diagnoses mentioned above. Clinically, we often use topical applications of herbs for soft tissue injuries such as tendonitis, muscle strains and sprains. Certain formulas are also appropriate for bone injuries such as fractures, breaks, and spurs.

Moxa: Burning moxa, or Moxibustion, can be a very effective therapy for many sports injuries. Moxa is burned over certain points or locations to reduce pain, increase range of motion, eliminate cold from the channels and reduce inflammation. Moxa is frequently used for injuries to the bone, injuries involving cold or any injury that heat seems to make feel better.

Cupping: Cupping is another technique from TCM that uses special sterilized cups to create suction over large muscle areas. This helps muscles to relax, pulls toxins out of the channels and helps to physically pull apart layers of fascia that get stuck together with injury.

If you have experienced a sports related injury, call or come in today so we can help you get back on your playing field.

There are several branches of Chinese medicine. One branch of Chinese medicine is acupuncture. Over the years acupuncture has become more and more popular. There is an increase of people finding that acupuncture is effective to treat many different health ailments. One area of acupuncture that many people don’t know about is cupping. Cupping is an adjunct therapy typically used by Chinese doctors in conjunction with acupuncture treatments.

What is cupping?

Cupping has been used for around 2,000 years. It has been utilized among Chinese physicians both in ancient and modern times. Some of the earliest records of cupping were written around the fourth century.

Cupping is a healing modality. It will allow the blood to circulate and remove toxins from your body. When the cup sucks onto your body it brings up the skin to help the blood flow and remove toxins.

There are several methods how cupping is done. Traditionally, ancient Chinese physicians had a hollow bamboo or horn in which they would put fire inside to create a vacuum so that the hollow horn or bamboo would be able to suck onto the patient’s body. Now in modern times many practitioners will use glass jars or cups. Some of the cups are even done with a suction valve so no fire is needed. However, most practitioners in China will still use the fire method with glass jars. The cups are typically placed on areas where the pain is or along the channels to allow the blood to circulate and the healing process to take place.

In our clinic at Master Lu’s Health Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, we use the fire method with glass jars. What we typically do is get a cotton ball with alcohol and hold the cotton ball with a hemostat. We will then light the cotton ball and use the fire to create a vacuum affect in the cup. Once we do that we will stick the cup on the patient’s body for a few minutes. In some cases we will also use some oil so we can move the cup along the patient’s body.

What are the uses of Cupping?

Cupping is indicated for many different types of diseases. If you are having low back pain, neck pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain cupping is an effective treatment. It will allow the blood to flow better and stimulate your body’s self-healing mechanisms.

Besides musculoskeletal health ailments, cupping can be done for those with gastrointestinal diseases, asthma, and arthritis. For example, we will use cupping for those with asthma. We will put cups on the chest and the Lung channel. The cups allow everything to open up and promote the blood circulation.

Depending on the health condition, cups are usually placed for 5-10 minutes. Some practitioners will do cupping for just a few minutes. The important thing to remember is that cupping is effective.

Conclusion

If you are having low back, neck, and shoulder pain. Cupping along with acupuncture will greatly enhance your treatment. It will improve your pain and relax your muscles. Cupping a wonderful adjunct with acupuncture treatments. If you want to learn more about how cupping will help you, please feel free to contact us anytime!