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Author: indigoacupuncture@megamad.work

Your Body’s #1 Secret

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I want to tell you a secret. It’s a well-guarded secret. An important secret. And it can change your life.

Before I reveal the secret, let me ask…

Do you suffer from daily headaches? Migraines? Other pain that just won’t go away?

Have you ever thought about what pain is?

Is there a message in that pain?

The answer is YES, there is a strong message hidden in that headache or migraine or stiff neck or backache or whatever is causing YOU pain.

Pain is a messenger. Pain is the only way your physical body can communicate directly with your mind. Pain is your body’s way to yell “STOP! PAY ATTENTION! LISTEN TO ME!”

The big secret is… Pain exists so your body can heal itself. Your body is engineered to heal itself. You can see it in action everytime you get a papercut!

So, are you receptive to your body’s calls for attention? Or is your pain buried under medications designed to keep it quiet and hidden?

If you’re ready to hear your body’s message and banish your daily headaches, migraines or other chronic pain, contact us to schedule a consultation at 512-686-0777 or book online by clicking the blue button below.

3 Surprising Side-Effects of Acupuncture

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One of the questions I often hear is, “Does acupuncture have side-effects?”

The honest answer is “Yes!” 

Here are three surprising side-effects of acupuncture…Better sleep: Acupuncture balances your body’s nervous system to attune with circadian rhythms and promotes falling into deep and restorative sleep cycles.Better sex: Acupuncture increases libido by balancing hormones (male and female), boosting blood flow to the genitals, and relaxing the mind with a flood of feel-good neurotransmitters including dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, and serotonin.Better relationships: Acupuncture relieves stress which allows for easy-going relationships with your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. It literally shifts the brain into a baseline state of relaxation so the daily annoyances, interruptions, and stresses of dealing with other people will bounce right off of you while you transform your mindset into cultivating healthy relationships at work, school, and (most importantly) home.
Are you ready to try acupuncture for your biggest health challenge and experience these beneficial side-effects?

Parents: How To Know When To Ask For Help With Anxiety

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As a parent, you’ve probably felt pangs of anxiety from time to time. It’s natural to feel anxious occasionally about your child. For example, when you’re about to board a 6 hour flight with a lap child or when it’s your child’s first day of school. However, when anxiety becomes a daily occurrence you need to take action for yourself and your family.

When anxiety spirals out the normal and into the excessive, even the best parents can feel like they’re not enough… not doing enough, not present in enough, not prepared enough, not patient enough, not loving enough… the list goes on and on. If left untreated, anxiety felt by parents can spillover and foster anxiety in their child(ren). A study in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2013) found “parent anxiety confers poorer treatment outcomes for childhood anxiety disorders.” Psychologists created a term for this condition: parental anxiety.

Parental anxiety is a serious condition because it not only affects you, it affects your entire family.

What are the symptoms of parental anxiety? It can manifest as…

  • difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep
  • waking up too early (4am is a common time)
  • loss of patience
  • feeling like you’re going through the daily motions just enough to keep your head above water
  • feeling like a failure at work
  • feeling like a failure at parenting
  • feeling like a failure at housekeeping
  • feeling like your marriage (or relationship) is failing
  • rapid (racing) heartbeat
  • shortness of breath
  • digestive issues like heartburn, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, alternating diarrhea & constipation
  • constantly comparing yourself to others
  • excessive worry about the future
  • sense of a lack of control
  • frequent crying or over-sensitivity
  • frequent sighing
  • inability to concentrate (aka brain fog, mommy-brain)
  • repetitive thoughts about worst case scenarios,
  • reliving guilt over past events
  • low or no libido
  • wanting to run away
  • inability to plan future events
  • mood swings/snaps
  • exacerbated menstrual issues

Do you feel more than two of these symptoms on a daily basis? Has it impacted your ability to parent? If you answered yes, now is the time to take action before it spirals out of control.

If you are experiencing parental anxiety, there is a solution waiting for you! A series of acupuncture treatments and customized Chinese herbs can effectively alleviate anxiety and bring you back to your best self within weeks.  Schedule a consultation today to get relief from your anxiety!

Healing Food: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Written by indigoacupuncture@megamad.work on . Posted in Community, Recovery, Uncategorized, Wellness. No Comments on Healing Food: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

This is one of my family’s favorite soups. It’s easy to make and every bite is packed with protein, vitamins and minerals that are soothing to the digestive system. It’s the perfect soup to eat when recovering from an illness or surgery.

I serve it blended and creamy, not chunky. It’s a meal in itself or a filling side dish.

Butternut Squash Soup
1 large organic butternut squash (Costco has pre-packaged cubes)
1 sweet onion
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
Handful of baby carrots, sliced or ribboned
1 box of organic chicken bone broth
1 can of organic full-fat coconut milk
1/8th teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sea salt and pepper
Organic extra virgin olive oil.

Have all of your ingredients? Let’s do this!

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (I use a toaster oven)
  2. Place the squash cubes and carrots in a large bowl and toss to coat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with sea salt and pepper.
  3. Line baking dish or rimmed tray with parchment paper. Spread the squash and carrots evenly across the tray. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.
  4. Coat bottom of large soup pot with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and place on medium heat.
  5. Slice onion and add to soup pot. Saute onion until soft and season with salt and pepper.
  6. At medium heat, add garlic to onions and stir until the garlic is light brown.
  7. Dump in your tray of roasted squash and carrots.
  8. Add about 2 cups of the bone broth, stir everything, and bring to simmer (medium-high heat).
  9. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Add more broth if the vegetables are not coated.
  10. Remove pot from heat and blend the soup in the pot using an immersion blender or transfer the (Caution: Hot!) soup to a heavy-duty blender (Vitamix, Ninja, etc).
  11. Once blended and smooth, bring the soup pot back to simmering heat.
  12. Add a pinch of ground nutmeg (about 1/8th teaspoon) to the soup and stir it in.
  13. Slowly stir in coconut milk to your desired soup consistency. We like our soups to be more hearty, less watery, so I typically add about 1/4 cup of coconut milk or less.
  14. Turn off the heat, take a taste and season with more sea salt and pepper if needed.

That’s it! You’ve made a delicious, healthy soup that nourishes the Lungs, Kidneys, and Stomach! It keeps in the refrigerator for about 3 days in an airtight container.

Another tip: To make an easy one-pot dinner, add chunks of rotisserie chicken to the finished soup.

12 Ways Acupuncture Can Help During Pregnancy

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If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know there is a long list of things to avoid: paint fumes, ibuprofen, dirty kitty litter, sushi, tobacco, aspirin, caffeine, hot tubs, raw cookie dough, scuba diving….the list goes on and on.  So what can you do to cope with the stress, aches, and pains of growing another human? The answer is…

​Acupuncture!

The great news is that acupuncture is effective at treating ailments in every trimester of pregnancy. The most common pregnancy-related conditions seen in the clinic include:

  • Morning Sickness
  • Back, Rib and Hip Pain
  • Headaches
  • Sciatica
  • Neck and Shoulder Tension
  • Heartburn
  • Hemorrhoids
  • Colds & Coughs
  • Fatigue
  • Seasonal Allergies
  • Anxiety
  • Breech Presentation

When performed by a Licensed Acupuncturist (not a Physical Therapist or Chiropractor), acupuncture is a safe option for mamas-to-be to consider when looking for gentle, natural help with pain or illness.

To find an acupuncturist skilled in pregnancy support, there are 3 important questions to ask:

  • Does the Acupuncturist have experience with your specific condition?
  • Does the clinic have treatment tables with adjustable backs to allow for reclined treatments?
  • Does the clinic have pregnancy pillows to ensure proper positioning and comfort?

To schedule a consultation at Indigo Healing Acupuncture and learn more about how acupuncture can benefit your pregnancy, click the button below.

5 Conditions Acupuncture Excels at Treating

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Conventional medicine is great at some things, like emergency surgery. However, it often fails at treating more common problems, like frequent headaches or poor sleep.

Here are five common conditions that are poorly treated/managed by conventional medicine:

  1. Chronic Pain…Treated with over-the-counter pain relievers (aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, naproxen), opioids, physical therapy, surgery, tough-it-out mindset
  2. Insomnia…Treated with sleeping pills, anti-depressants
  3. Migraine Headaches…Treated with over-the-counter pain relievers (aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen), caffeine, beta-blockers, antidepressants, ergot, triptans, glucocorticoids, opioids
  4. Anxiety/Depression…Treated with  antidepressants, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers
  5. Vertigo (Dizziness)… Treated with diuretics, antihistamines, benzodiazepines, anti-nausea drugs

Acupuncture excels at treating these five conditions because it gets to the root of the problem. Conventional medicine only offers interventions (pharmaceutical or surgical) to relieve the symptoms of these condition, while acupuncture delivers long-term relief.

Often the quick-fix of drugs or surgery creates more health problems as the root cause of the condition is left untreated and/or undiagnosed. If you hear your doctor say the word “idiopathic” it means he/she does not know the cause of your condition. Not very comforting, right?

At your first acupuncture treatment, we’ll diagnose the root cause of your condition and get you on the road for long-term healing and relief. Acupuncture treatments not only prevent conditions from returning, it can prevent related conditions from arising.

The Unicorn of Acupuncture Treatments

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Every once in a while, one of my patients will receive what I call a Unicorn Treatment.

What is a Unicorn Treatment?

A Unicorn Treatment is a magical, mysterious acupuncture session that…
occurs once in patient’s lifetime (unless they themselves are a unicorn disguised as a human)
miraculously cures the patient’s chief complaint (in other words, the condition never reoccurs)

Maybe you’ve had a friend who’s personally experienced a Unicorn Treatment. For example, a friend trying to get pregnant without any luck for 19 months has acupuncture once and conceives right away.

Results like this lead to a common misconception that the Unicorn Treatment is a regular occurrence in the world of acupuncture. Upon hearing these stories, many people try acupuncture once, expecting a miraculous cure, only to feel disappointed when the condition returns a few days later.

This is totally normal.

The reality is most conditions, especially chronic ailments, take multiple acupuncture treatments to resolve. Patients usually feel better after the first treatment, but if they don’t receive another treatment within a few days, the pain or illness returns as if the acupuncture treatment never happened.

In my clinic, all treatment plans are customized to a patient’s needs. In most cases, I advise the patient that their condition will take X number of treatments within X number of days before they feel consistently better.

So, if you’ve tried acupuncture once, and you felt disappointed because it didn’t help you, I highly recommend trying it again (especially before resorting to an irreversible treatment like surgery). It’s likely that consistent treatments will give you relief of your symptoms. And if you haven’t tried acupuncture, maybe your first session will be a Unicorn Treatment, which will feel just as good as winning the lottery!

The Top 3 Things to Avoid After Acupuncture

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Congratulations! You’ve just had an amazing acupuncture treatment that has left you feeling completely relaxed and high on life.

You’re probably thinking, “Wow! I wish I always felt like this! How can I get this feeling to last?”

The truth is, despite how good it feels, only about 20% of acupuncture’s healing power happens while the needles are in. About 80% of the healing effect occurs in the 24 hours following the treatment.

To sustain the healing effect, you must avoid three things 24 hours after the needles come out:

1. Cold
Cold is the #1 arch enemy in Chinese Medicine:
cold air
cold drinks
cold shower
jumping in a cold lake
eating cold foods (ice-cream included)
sitting in front of a fan blowing cold air
drinking a cold smoothie or shake
using ice packs on your body

All of these cold things can all counteract the benefits of acupuncture by contracting the flow of qi and slowing down the healing process.

2. Alcohol and recreational drugs
After an acupuncture treatment, your body works hard to transfer the energetics of the needles into acute healing and homeostasis (balance). Alcohol is warming to the body, yet can significantly alter the 24 hour cycle of qi. Alcohol and recreational drugs disrupt the healing process (and in the case of getting drunk, can completely cancel out any treatment benefits).

Consuming alcohol or getting high after a treatment is effectively wasting your time and money.

3. Sex
Sex is considered an activity that promotes the free flow of qi. However, after an acupuncture treatment, sex can demand too much qi and inhibit healing. It is best to wait until the day after acupuncture to get your qi moving between the sheets.

So, now that you know what to avoid, what should you do during the 24 hours after an acupuncture treatment?

The best thing you can do is rest your body and relax your mind:
Sleep
Read a book
Listen to music
Make art
Write
Watch a movie or interesting tv
Spend time with friends

Allow the natural high to sink in for 24 hours while your body-mind-spirit take the time needed for healing.

Acupuncture for Long-Term Relief of Chronic Pain

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Let’s talk about Chronic Pain…
Have your aches/pains persisted 12 weeks or longer?
Do you suffer from osteoarthritis, headaches, migraines, fibromylagia, tendonitis, neuralgia, knee pain, back pain or other pain that just won’t go away?
Is pain preventing you from activities you love?
If you answered YES, acupuncture can help you return to your best life without drugs or surgery!

A recent study in the scientific journal Pain found, “90% of the benefit of acupuncture over usual care is retained at 12 months after the end of a course of treatment.” Indigo Healing Acupuncture offers customized treatment plans designed to provide you with long-term relief of chronic pain.

If you’re ready to live your best life and return to activities you love, schedule a consultation by calling 512-686-0777 or send an email to info@indigohealingacupuncture.com

What to Expect at Your Consultation Appointment

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Visiting a new doctor for the first time can be nerve-wracking. To ease anxiety and stress, we make it simple to get started on the path to healing.

At Indigo Healing Acupuncture, we offer consultation appointments to…

  • Meet Dr. Michelle Wendt, L.Ac., DACM or Megan McFarland, L.Ac. one-on-one
  • Ensure you feel comfortable in the clinic space
  • Discuss your condition(s) and review your medical history

Discuss a customized holistic treatment plan, which may include…

  • Acupuncture
  • Laser Acupuncture
  • Auriculotherapy
  • Moxibustion
  • BioMat Therapy
  • Ozone Therapy
  • PEMF Therapy
  • Traditional Fire Cupping
  • Gua Sha
  • Chinese Herbs
  • Therapeutic Massage
  • Supplements
  • Nutrition
  • Exercise

Before the end of your consultation, we’ll agree upon the frequency, duration, and cost of your treatments and answer questions you have about your customized treatment plan.

Consultations generally take 20-30 minutes. You’ll be asked at the conclusion of the consultation if you would like to start the treatment plan right away. You also have the option to schedule your first treatment at a later date.

​To schedule a consultation, contact the clinic at 512-686-0777.