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Pigmentation and Complexion What to do Expect your complexion to change before your pigmentation does. Weeks for one and a couple of months for the other, and that order is normal rather than a sign that something has gone wrong. Give pigmentation two to three months before you decide whether it is working, because judging it at week four will tell you very little. Tell me about your sleep, your cycle, your stress levels and anything going on with your digestion. These are no

What facial acupuncture actually is Most people picture a few needles in the face and skin that looks better afterwards. What we are doing is a little wider than that. Chinese medicine has never treated the face as a separate piece of skin. Your complexion, how well your skin holds moisture and light, how firm or slack the muscles sit, how full the contours look, all of it reflects what is happening inside. Whether your body is producing and circulating enough nourishment, wh

Most people arrive with the same two quiet questions. Is this going to hurt, and is it safe. The short answers are that acupuncture is very safe in trained hands, and that most people find it far gentler than they expected. Here is what actually happens. The needles Acupuncture needles are hair-fine. They are nothing like the needles used for injections or blood tests, which are hollow and a great deal thicker. Every needle is sterile and single-use. It comes out of a sealed

The first thing you notice is the warmth arriving. Not the flat heat of a wheat bag sitting on your skin, but something that sinks in and keeps going, settling somewhere underneath the muscle. After a minute there's a soft tingling that spreads outward. Sometimes the warmth seems to travel, following a line up the leg or across the shoulder, turning up somewhere you weren't expecting it. If you've carried tight, aching muscles for years, the sensation is hard to describe as a

How an acupuncturist thinks about pain, and what we are trying to change with a few thin needles. You may have heard some strange-sounding acupuncture stories. A needle in the hand for a back that has just seized up. A needle in the foot for a headache, ringing ears, or nights spent staring at the ceiling. From where we sit, these are familiar conversations. Ordinary Tuesday work. They can sound strange because of an assumption many of us carry without noticing: if something

"It's worst first thing in the morning. I need a few minutes before I can stand up straight. If I sit at my desk too long, getting out of the chair is a whole production. Last month I picked up a box the wrong way and felt a sharp catch that stopped me cold. I've had the scan. They told me nothing serious is wrong. I've taken the anti-inflammatories. I've had massage, and some of it helped for a while. But here I am, two years later, still planning my day around my back." Bei