Unwellness Gap

I was honored to be interviewed by Acupuncturist, Michael Max, on his Qiological podcast show recently.

Michael is a student of acupuncture and Chinese medicine for going on 20 years now. Begining as a curiosity as to how a few needles could not only resolve a stubborn health condition he had since childhood but also improve digestion, quality of sleep and mood.

This led him first to acupuncture school, and then Asia where I worked my way through the gate of Chinese language so I could study w…

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a tool that could quickly diagnose the root cause of our patient's health problems?

It's not like babies or young children can tell us what's wrong or where the problem is. To make a diagnosis, we're largely relying on our skills in asking the right questions and interpreting what the parents are observing.

Sometimes the tongue will provide clues about the imbalance, but most of the time it doesn't. The pulse is useful, but only for kids ages 8 and up. In my op…

Knowing a child's five element type can be almost magical. 

The other day I was working with a 5-year-old new patient, Billy, and his very exhausted and frustrated mother. Billy's dominant element is Wood and his influential element is Metal. 

If you're not familiar with 5-Element typing, let me tell you that kids with a Wood-Metal make-up are intense! You've got the demanding, high energy, do-it-myself Wood qualities combined with the need for rhythm, routine, fairness of Metal.

When out of …

Parents will come to you incredibly frustrated with the one-size-fits-all approach of biomedicine. Children in the Unwellness Gap™ are often prescribed medications to manage symptoms but rarely do these medications affect a cure. 

If there's no pill that can help, then the parents are told that their child may outgrow it! Eventually. Hopefully.

Left to figure out how to help their child on their own, most parents find this daunting.

As acupuncturists, we uniquely positioned to help children t…

I know it won't surprise you that the one-size-fits-all approach of Western medicine falls short for many kids.

Millions of children fall into the Unwellness Gap(TM) because they’re not totally sick, but they’re not totally well, either. They suffer from frequent illnesses and inflammatory conditions like allergies, asthma, eczema, constipation, stomachaches, sleep problems, anxiety, and hyperactivity. Their problems often warrant repeated visits to doctors and specialists in search of a way to…