How often should you get acupuncture? We explore seasonal maintenance, active treatment, chronic care, and acupuncture as a deeper practice of cultivation. Learn how regular acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can support health over time.
In classical Chinese medicine, autumn begins weeks before the equinox. Learn how the qi nodes Lìqiū, Chǔshǔ and Báilù describe the seasonal shift, what it means for your health, and how we work with these changes through acupuncture and yangsheng.
Shen is routinely translated as “spirit” or “heart-mind,” but neither captures its meaning in classical Chinese medicine. Berkeley acupuncturist Anne Shelton Crute looks more closely at the Heart, shen, and what is lost when distinct Chinese medical concepts are collapsed into familiar Western categories.
A look at Summer Begins (Lixia), the seventh solar qi node in the classical East Asian calendar, and what early summer reveals about yangsheng, food, and the outward movement of life.
Tremella (snow fungus) is a traditional Chinese medicinal food used to nourish yin, generate fluids and moisten dryness, especially in the Lung and Stomach. At Ritual Health Acupuncture & Herbalism in Berkeley and the East Bay, we draw on acupuncture, herbal medicine and Chinese food therapy to understand each patient’s underlying pattern; here we look at Tremella’s traditional uses, seasonal relevance, modern research and simple preparation in the home kitchen.
Learn how to use Fu Ling (Poria), a traditional Chinese medicinal food, in everyday cooking. Anne Shelton Crute and Adam Okerblom of Ritual Health explain its traditional use for dampness, digestion, and fluid metabolism, with simple instructions for adding Fu Ling to rice, soups, beans, and other foods.
