Acupuncture Points for Good Summertime Health

Did you know that energy circulation can be increased by rubbing acupuncture points with your finger? All you need is 30-60 seconds. 

Here are 3 acupuncture points you can gently massage to help you stay healthy this summer:

·         Small intestine 17- This is the indentation below the ear lobe and behind the jawbone. This can relieve hives, improve skin’s luster, and balance the thyroid, as well as relieve facial spasms, itching ears, swollen throat, and nausea.

·         Small intestine 15 -This can alleviate asthma, coughing, back pain, chills, and fever.

·         Heart 3-  Between the elbow crease and the inside of the humorous bone, stimulation of this point can alleviate poor memory, depression, anxiety, red eyes, arm tremors, and elbow pain.

 Interested in learning more about acupuncture? Visit www.debifarley.com

Summer is Ruled by Fire

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there is a healing methodology related to the seasons and the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.  

Summer is ruled by the Fire element and is associated with the heart, small intestine and tongue.  It is also a period of maximum activity or greatest yang, which means that there’s increased heat, extroversion, and moving outward in nature and in our lives.

According to TCM, the Heart houses the Shen, which is the mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit.  While these activities are attributed to the brain in Western medicine, we tend to intuitively know that the Heart is also an organ of feeling or spirituality.  In fact much of our language refers to the heart as an organ of feeling.  Phrases such as someone “knowing things in your heart” or having a “broken heart” are speaking to an emotional organ rather than simply a muscle that pumps blood.  Of course, the heart does move blood throughout your entire body, but in TCM that function is secondary to its job of housing the Shen.  So, your heart can be said to impact your physical health, mind and spiritual growth and awareness.

During the summer season, be aware of how Fire is affecting you.  An imbalance may be evident in you physically, emotionally and/or spiritually.

Emotionally, if you have an imbalance, you may find that you’re either lacking joy (depression), or experiencing an excess of joy (maniac condition).

Physically, you may be experiencing palpitations, profuse sweating, hypertension, agitation, insomnia or sores on the mouth and tongue. 

It’s important to think about protecting your heart in multiple levels or layers.  Maintaining a peaceful and balanced Heart helps ensure the health of your entire being.

A Simple TCM Heart Exercise:  Smiling from Your Heart

This ancient exercise is one of the most powerful things you can do for the health of your Heart: Stand or sit facing a mirror. Now smile at yourself—really smile at yourself—directly from your heart. That's it! How simple and yet how difficult this practice is for most people. Judgmental thoughts often enter our mind and prevent us from experiencing healing. True smiling from the heart, not just a fake smile, actually has a profound physiological effect.  Once you've mastered this exercise, then try smiling at others from your heart.

Nourish your heart and small intestine by balancing your sun exposure with shade, drinking plenty of water, and eating light, cooling foods.


©2012 Debi Farley | www.debifarley.com  


Debi Farley is a licensed acupuncturist, naturopath and owner of the Acupuncture Clinic of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia. To create optimal mind/body wellness, you need specialized information, expertise and experienced teachers. Debi works with and helps individuals achieve optimal health through her private practice and educational workshops.

Improving Athletic Performance with Acupuncture

Athletes are often searching for ways to improve performance and gain a competitive edge. By following the principles of Oriental medicine, an acupuncture treatment can put you in the best possible position to give you just that.

Acupuncture can strengthen your body function, improve the flow of blood to specific areas of the body and helps to restore the internal harmony that takes place when you hear about athletes "getting in the zone." You need all of your body systems working harmoniously together and at a very high level. I'm reading more and more about professional sports teams and top athletes who regularly have an acupuncturist on staff. In fact, some of the best Olympic athletes are incorporating acupuncture into their wellness programs. China's 7 foot 6 inch basketball center, Yao Ming, used acupuncture and Oriental medicine to help him recover after undergoing surgery on his ankle in April, 2007

In what other ways can acupuncture help?

Acupuncture is also effective in alleviating pain, promoting healing and decreasing inflammation, swelling, and spasms. Because of its broad range of applications, acupuncture can be used during any of the phases of injury. Acupuncture focuses not only on treating the injury but also on treating the underlying conditions that may make someone more susceptible to injuries.

Some Commonly Treated Sports Injuries:

·         Muscle Pull

·         Neck Pain

·         Shoulder Impingement

·         Tennis Elbow

·         Lower Back Strain

·         Groin Pull

·         Hamstring Strain

·         Runner's Knee

·         Shin Splints

·         Ankle Sprain

·         Achilles Tendonitis

·         Arch Pain

Sports injuries are most often caused by trauma (from a fall or blow) or overuse/misuse of certain muscles and the neighboring structures.   If you have a preexisting or new sports injury that’s preventing your training or recreational goals, acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help.  Don’t let sports injuries keep you from enjoying life!

For more information, visit www.debifarley.com or call 804.288.3927.

©Debi Farley 2012, Debi Farley is a licensed acupuncturist, naturopath and owner of the Acupuncture Clinic of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia. To create optimal mind/body wellness, you need specialized information, expertise and experienced teachers. Debi works with and helps individuals achieve optimal health through her private practice and educational workshops.

Remedies for Autoimmune Disorders

The immune system normally protects the body from infections and disease.  But when an autoimmune disease develops, the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys its own tissues and organs.

Autoimmune diseases predominantly affect women, frequently during their childbearing years. These diseases often tend to be hereditary, and certain environmental factors may also contribute to a weakened immune system.  There are natural anti-inflammatory remedies that offer an alternative to conventional treatments.  Not only can they soothe the over-active and misguided immune system, but natural anti-inflammatories often also help to restore the body’s self-healing abilities.  Consider adding the following into your diet to support immune function and reduce inflammation:

1. Bioflavinoids, a class of plant chemicals, has been found to greatly reduce inflammation and improve autoimmune disorder- related symptoms.

2. Flavenoids, catechins, and theaflavins found in both green and black tea are beneficial to autoimmune disease.

3. Apples contain the flavanoid quercetin that can decrease inflammation and reduce allergic reactions and. Quercetin also occurs in berries, red grapes, red onions, and black tea.

4. Carotenoids, plant pigments that include beta-carotene, are naturally found in apricots, carrots, butternut squash, and collard greens, pumpkin, sweet potato, spinach, and kale.

5. Ginger-Studies have shown that ginger reduces inflammation and helps patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

6. Omega-3: Omega-3 essential fatty acids counteract chemicals that cause inflammation. Natural sources include salmon and flaxseed oil.

7. Fiber: A healthy and active colon is healthy for your immune system. Increase the fiber in your diet for maximum autoimmune health.

To learn more about natural treatment therapies, including Chinese medicine and stress-reducing recommendations, make an appointment by calling 804.288.3927.

Natural Treatment Options for Migraines

June is National Migraine Awareness Month - -

One of the first things I recommend to patients suffering from migraines, is to keep a migraine diary for several months to help identify triggers.   Track what you eat, when you eat,  exercise, stress levels, sleep, and symptoms.  Often, common food culprits such as chocolate and food additives are triggering imbalances which then lead to painful symptoms.  Hormonal fluctuations, weather, and stress are also common sources. 

To correct imbalances, acupuncture can be very effective.  


One of the largest studies looking at migraine prevention through acupuncture was published in the March 2006 edition of The Lancet Neurology. In this study, patients who had two to six migraine headaches per month were randomly assigned to one of three groups:

 •Traditional acupuncture.

•Sham (fake) acupuncture. In sham acupuncture, needles are inserted into areas of the skin at which no traditional acupuncture points exist.

•Preventive migraine medications (beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, or seizure medications).

Patients in the acupuncture groups received 10 sessions of acupuncture treatment in 6 weeks. Those who took medicines continued them throughout the length of the study. The primary outcome was the difference in migraine days between 4 weeks before the study and 23 to 26 weeks after the study began. Forty-seven percent of participants in the traditional acupuncture group experienced a reduction of migraine days by 50 percent or more.

In addition to acupuncture, there are traditional chinese herbal remedies that may also help.  It is important to work with a practitioner such as Debi that is well versed in not only acupuncture, herbs, and nutrition but she may also recommend certain testing to find the root cause of your migraines.  

Name That Green!

When it's said that "variety is the spice of life," greens are no exception! 

Plants “allow” humans and animals to eat ALL of their fruits, but only PART of their leaves, because plants need to have leaves for their own use - which is manufacturing chlorophyll. Yet, plants depend on moving creatures for pollination, fertilizing the soil, and helping eat the ripe fruit. For this reason, plants accumulate a lot of highly nutritious elements in their leaves, but mix these nourishing ingredients with either bitterness or very small amounts of alkaloids (poisons) - which is why animals are forced to rotate their menu. They eat a small amount of one thing, then move on to other plants. The body is only capable of detoxifying small amounts of a great many things, but it is much more difficult for the human system to get rid of a large amount of one type of poison. This is why it’s so important for us to learn to rotate the greens in our diet.

Simply eating “lots of salads” is not truly benefiting you if you’re using the same greens over and over.  

It's important to alternate our variety of greens as much as possible. My hope is that our farmers will actually grow a larger variety of green leafy vegetables to increase our green intake. Many of the greens available in grocery stores are mostly bred from the dandelion and mustard families. Despite their names and appearances, cultivated greens have similar nutritional content. To truly meet our nutritional needs, it’s important we include greens from a number of totally different plant families into our daily diets. 

So, the next time you’re making a salad, consider adding a combination of 4 or 5 greens.  Consider adding a few of these:

Greens:   Arugula (rocket), Asparagus, Beet greens (tops), Bok choy, Celery, Chard, Collard greens, Escarole, Fresee lettuce, Goji leaves (wolfberry), Kale (3 types), Mache, Mitsuna, Mustard greens, Lettuce (all types red and green), Radicchio, Radish tops, Spinach, Romaine lettuce green and red leaf, Turnip greens, Wheatgrass

Herbs:  Basil, Cilantro, Lemon Balm, Mint, Parsley, Peppermint leaves, Spearmint

Ready to experiment a litte more the next time your shopping?  I hope so! If you have a great recipe you'd like me to share, send me an email! news@debifarley.com 

“Summertime Veggies Make Amazing Juices and Smoothies

Summertime is my favorite time of year to make smoothies and juices.  

Why? The abundance of fresh produce!  I know, but it takes so much time and effort to create the juices – why not just eat more fresh produce?  Because it’s virtually impossible to benefit from the same amount of nutrients you gain from drinking a delicious, tall glass of veggies.  Think about it.  Would you really eat the same amount of kale or spinach in one meal as you would if you drank 8 ounces?

Here’s a super tasty recipe that speeds up the metabolism and could easily become one of your favorite summertime treats:

Makes 1 quart.

1 English cucumber

1/2 head of celery

2 limes peeled

1/2 jalapeño pepper with seeds removed

1granny smith apple

Handful of cilantro

Beet greens from one bunch of beets

Run through the juicer and enjoy!

If you live in the Richmond Virginia area - check out our event calendar for upcoming classes on Juicefeasting, Green Smoothies and more!  On June 28th is "INTRO TO JUICEFEASTING" @ 5:30 pm EST. Check it out - www.debifarley.com