Nicholas

TCMStudy Newsletter

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Previous Posts
May 6, 2026

Four Gates: The History and Uses of LV-3 + LI-4

Everyone knows the point combination Four Gates: LV-3 (Taichong) + LI-4 (Hegu). Whether it's for menstruation issues or just general stress, this is one of...
Aug 13, 2025

TCM Herbs for Diabetes?

With the rise in popularity of Ozempic, a lot of people have been asking about Chinese herbs for diabetes. (Apparently berberine, an active ingredient in...
Aug 6, 2025

Seasonal Allergies in TCM

Lately I've been waking up feeling like I lost a fight with a bee. Swollen, itchy eyes, fuzzy head, runny nose—the whole miserable package. And...
May 14, 2025

Reviving Consciousness

In this article we're talking about unconsciousness. (Remember in Points class when we would talk about how REN-1could revive someone from drowning? Who do you...
May 7, 2025

Acupuncture Prohibitions

In school, we usually learn there are certain situations when a patient should not be needled, or we should at least be cautious and not...
Apr 30, 2025

Beautiful Beards in TCM

Earlier this week I was trying to track down the quote, "The Yangming channel is full of qi and blood." (A footnote in Deadman says...
Apr 23, 2025

Why South is Up

In modern times and in the west, we tend to draw our maps with North at the top of the page. (This means that East...
Mar 12, 2025

The Superior Practitioner

When it comes to TCM and preventative medicine, you may have heard things like, "The superior practitioner treats disease before it sprouts," or begins treatment...
Mar 5, 2025

Forbidden Points During Pregnancy

Traditionally, there are several acupuncture points that are contraindicated during pregnancy. Of course, points on the lower abdomen and sacral area should not be used....
Feb 12, 2025

Opening the 8 Extraordinary Vessels

Have you heard the phrase, "Women are always right; men are left behind?" It's something people use in school to remember how to open the...
Jan 8, 2025

Lamb as a Warming Food

I hope you aren't snowed in too bad! A few weeks ago we talked about Zhang Zhongjing using dumplings filled with lamb to treat frostbitten...
Jan 1, 2025

Treating Hangover with TCM

It's a new year! I hope you didn't drink too much champagne during your New Year's Eve celebration. Let's talk about some remedies for drunkenness...
Dec 25, 2024

The Three Spirits of Christmas

All this year you may have thought that Santa Claus has been watching to see if you've been naughty or nice, but here's a creepy...
Dec 18, 2024

Dumplings in Chinese Medicine

It's getting cold outside, so make sure you keep your ears warm! Here's a story about jiǎo zi (Chinese dumplings) and how they're related to...
Dec 11, 2024

BL-43: The point for chronic, untreatable diseases...

This week I thought I'd share an interesting story about BL-43 (gāo huāng shū) and how it was used to treat chronic (or even incurable)...
Nov 27, 2024

The Chain and Lock Technique

This week I thought it would be fun to talk about an interesting point selection technique called the chain and lock method. This is a...
Nov 13, 2024

Do you know the point combination Four Flowers?

You've probably heard of the point combination Four Gates (LV-3 + LI-4), but have you heard of a point combination called Four Flowers(BL-17 + BL-19)?...
Nov 7, 2024

UB-40 vs. UB-60 for Back Pain

If your patient presents with back pain, when should you use UB-40 and when should you use UB-60? Lately I've been working on expanding the...
Oct 30, 2024

Fainting Patients

As I was doing some research for the Daily Acupuncture Facts course, I came across some points that are used for fainting. So I thought...
Oct 23, 2024

Is it a boy or a girl? The pulse and sex...

An interesting question came up this week: How do you use the pulse to determine the sex of a fetus during pregnancy? I feel like...
May 23, 2024

Congee Supply List

Want to take the 30 day congee challenge? Here are some supplies to help you get started! Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links....
Apr 24, 2024

The Deviated Pulse

Have you ever felt a deviated pulse? This is an anatomical variation in the pulse where the artery is not in the usual position. Instead...
Apr 3, 2024

Finger Techniques for Pulse Diagnosis

For the last several weeks I've been locking myself in a closet to work on a pulse diagnosis course. So far I'm just writing scripts...
Jan 31, 2024

Why Pulse Diagnosis is so difficult...

When I was a clinic supervisor, I would usually start by asking students what skills they wanted to work on. The number one answer was...
Jan 17, 2024

Warming Lamb Stew Recipe

And because we're TCM practitioners, we like to live in harmony with the seasons, just like Qi Bo said we should. So for cold weather,...
Jan 12, 2024

How to be a Productive Acupuncture Student

It’s “new year, new you,” so many people are making resolutions. And it’s also the start of a new semester, so you might be making...
Nov 10, 2023

Study for Long Term Memory

Do you ever feel like you spend a lot of time studying, but it just doesn't stick? Or have you done really well on a...
Nov 1, 2023

You Are Not a Visual Learner

Have you ever heard someone describe themselves as a "visual learner" or an "auditory learner"? Or do you have your own learning style that you...
Oct 25, 2023

Lung Channel Point Names

I've been spending a lot of time working on a Lung channel video, and it's just about done! It's going to be long (~40 minutes),...
Sep 27, 2023

The Fall Season in Chinese Medicine

It's officially autumn! It's time to start drinking pumpkin spice lattes and waking up together with the chickens! 🐓 According to the Nei Jing, the...
Sep 13, 2023

What is an Acupuncture Point?

What is an acupuncture point? Like, when we go to locate a point, what exactly are we feeling for? And should we be needling our...
Sep 6, 2023

Pumpkin Spice TCM

It's still pretty warm outside, but it seems like pumpkin-spice latte season is already upon us! Did you know that many of these spices are...
Jul 11, 2023

Artificial Intelligence in TCM

It seems like the hot topic recently is Artificial Intelligence. It turns out SkyNet is real, the robots are taking our jerbs, and soon we'll...
Jul 5, 2023

How to Treat Everyone (and not go broke)

In last week's newsletter, we talked about some of the advantages of raising your prices and charging more for your acupuncture treatments. But many people...
Jun 28, 2023

Do You Charge Enough for Acupuncture Treatments?

A few years ago, I did a project at Pacific Symposium where I went around and asked people: What's the number one piece of advice...
Jun 22, 2023

Five-Flavor Muffins

Students always really liked my Herb classes, but that's mostly just because I bribed them by bringing in food. So in the Intro to Herbs...
Jun 14, 2023

Dealing with Inappropriate Patients

How do you handle patients that are being inappropriate in the treatment room? Unfortunately, this is something that many of us will have to deal...
Jun 7, 2023

Are You a Mechanic or a Gardener?

When people ask, "What is Chinese medicine?" or "How does it work?" this is one of the analogies I use: Western medicine is like being...
May 31, 2023

Killer Acupuncture Points?

Can acupuncture points be fatal? I mean, of course if you needle too deeply into an organ, then that would be bad... But are there...
May 24, 2023

How to Study and Memorize Effectively

One of the biggest pieces of advice I give new students is: you have to learn how to study. When you begin TCM school there's...
May 17, 2023

How to Deal with Impatient Patients

Have you dealt with patients who want quicker results? ​(Even when their complaint has been there for years...) Or patients who are convinced that more...
May 10, 2023

How to Handle Complex Patterns

So how do you deal with a complex patient where it seems like everything is wrong? It's like they have Spleen qi deficiency plus Liver...