Dry needling and trigger point therapy has been used for decades in Chinese Medicine and acupuncture but it’s become an increasingly popular drug-free way to treat musculoskeletal pain.
Just like in acupuncture we use thin, dry needles — “dry” in the sense that they don’t inject anything into the body — that are inserted through the skin into the muscle tissue. Our main focus is muscle and connective tissue and trying to restore mobility.

When muscles are overused or strained, they can develop knotted areas called myofascial trigger points that are irritable and cause pain.

An overused muscle undergoes an energy crisis where, because of prolonged or inappropriate contraction, the muscle fibers are no longer getting adequate blood supply.  If it’s not getting that normal blood supply, it’s not getting the oxygen and nutrients that will allow the muscle to go back to its normal resting state.

The tissue near the trigger point becomes more acidic, and the nerves are sensitized, which makes the area sore or painful.

Stimulating a trigger point with a needle helps draw normal blood supply back to flush out the area and release the tension.  When muscles are this tense, even the prick sensation can also fire off nerve fibers that stimulate the brain to release endorphins – the body’s own “homemade pain medication.”
To locate a patient’s trigger points, we palpate, searching for painful, knotty areas and perform orthopedic testing. 

Once a trigger point is located, the we insert a needle through the skin directly into it. At times we might need to move the needle around a bit to try to elicit what’s called a local twitch response, which is a quick spasm of the muscle. This reaction can actually be a good sign that the muscle is reacting.
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Some patients feel improvement and change in their pain and mobility almost immediately after a dry needling session. 

It’s important to continue to keep the affected muscles loose by continuing to move them within their new range of motion after treatment, he adds. There can be some soreness for 24 to 48 hours afterward.

Results after 5 sessions

Results after 6 sessions

Results after 4 sessions

The GI MAP stool test is a powerful tool we use to analyze your microbiome, digestive function and inflammation in the gut.  With this incredible stool analysis, we can gain a clear picture of what's going on in your gut and how to balance it.

​Dr. Jennifer Bezjak 

In addition to playing an important part in keeping plants and vegetables healthy, chlorophyll has reported health benefits in humans, too. It is considered a natural source of antioxidants.
There are many benefits to adding liquid Chlorophyll to your water (I do it inthe morning) and I’ll list them out for you:

• Stimulates the Immune System
• Detoxifies Your Blood and Helps Bring Oxygen to Red Blood Cells
• Cleanses the Intestines
• Improve Digestion
• Energizes the Body
• Reduces Inflammation
• It’s Alkalizing 
• Packed with Nutrients and Vitamins
• Improves Liver Detoxification
• Helps Protect Your Skin

I’ve been drinking Chlorophyll water on and off for a couple years now. I encourage you to try it out if it is something that interests you, its a small change you can make to your day that over time can have a lasting impact. 

Chlorophyll is not considered an essential nutrient, so there is no current recommendation on dosing from the FDA.  However, most practitioners recommend 100-200 mg a day.  The darker the green the higher the chlorophyll content. You'll find it in:

• Cereal Grasses – Wheatgrass and barley grass top the chart.  Heavily studied by Charles Schnabel during the 1930’s and 40’s wheatgrass can be listed as one of the healthiest, most bio-available foods for humans. A single ounce serving is said to provide the nutrients of 4 lbs of vegetables.
• Spinach – 1 cup of organic spinach contains about 27 mg of chlorophyll–and yes, studies have shown that eating spinach regularly does help tone and build muscles.
• Kale – One of winter’s hardiest greens.
• Parsley – Yes, you can eat the decorations on your plates.
• Nettles – Warming nettle tea – lovely way to get in the green. 
• Seaweed-
• Other green vegetables – Green bean, peas, asparagus, celery and fiddle ferns – oh, my. If it’s vegetable and green there will be chlorophyll. Add in to your diet leafy green herbs like cilantro and thyme. Don’t forget your flower greens like dandelion and violet greens.

You know that feeling when you buy a red car, you start seeing red cars everywhere.  After meeting this patient and diving deep into her case, I learned even more about the complexities of IC and other pelvic inflammatory disorders.  As that happened, more patients just like her began to contact the office and I began to see how common her story actually was.  I'm to report after 6 months of receiving acupuncture and dry needling alongside natural supplements, the difference in pain levels and her frequency of flare ups has decreased immensely. 

​The bladder is the organ in the human body that stores urine.  When the bladder is full, it signals your brain that it’s time to urinate by communicating through the pelvic nerves. This is what creates the urge to urinate. With interstitial cystitis, there is something confusing the urinary bladder system.  The person feels the need to urinate more often and with smaller volumes of urine than most people.

The signs and symptoms of interstitial cystitis vary from person to person. If you have interstitial cystitis, your symptoms may also vary over time, periodically flaring in response to common triggers, such as menstruation, sitting for a long time, stress, exercise and sexual activity.
Interstitial cystitis signs and symptoms may include:

• Pain in your pelvis or perineum (chronic or acute)
• A persistent, urgent need to urinate
• Frequent urination, often of small amounts, throughout the day and night (sometimes up to 60 times a day)
• Pain or discomfort while the bladder fills and relief after urinating.
• Pain during sexual intercourse.

This sounds similar to a urinary tract infection but there is usually no infection. However, symptoms may worsen if a person with interstitial cystitis gets a urinary tract infection.

The exact cause of interstitial cystitis isn’t known, but it’s likely that many factors contribute. For instance, people with interstitial cystitis may also have a defect in the protective lining (epithelium) of the bladder. A leak in the epithelium may allow toxic substances in urine to irritate your bladder wall. Other possible but unproven contributing factors include an autoimmune reaction, heredity, infection or allergy.

These factors are associated with a higher risk of interstitial cystitis:

• Up to 90% of people with IC are women.  Symptoms in men look like interstitial cystitis, but they are usually associated with an inflammation of the prostate gland (prostatitis).
• Skin and hair color. Having fair skin and red hair has been associated with a greater risk of interstitial cystitis.
• Most people with interstitial cystitis are diagnosed during their 30s or older.
• Existing chronic pain disorder. Interstitial cystitis may be associated with other chronic pain disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome or fibromyalgia.

Interstitial cystitis can result in a number of complications, including:

• Reduced bladder capacity. Interstitial cystitis can cause stiffening of the bladder wall, which allows your bladder to hold less urine.
• Lower quality of life. Frequent urination and pain may interfere with social activities, work and other activities of daily life.
• Sexual intimacy problems. Frequent urination and pain may strain your personal relationships, and sexual intimacy may suffer.
• Emotional troubles. The chronic pain and interrupted sleep associated with interstitial cystitis may cause emotional stress and can lead to depression.

While there is no real cure for IC in conventional medicine, it symptoms tend to temporarily subside after a period of time.  Conventional treatment is mostly to ease the symptoms and can include physical therapy, NSAIDs, anti-depressants, and certain pharmaceutical products that coat the bladder epithelium to help with inflammation.  Surgery is usually not an option.

​According to Chinese medicine, not all people who develop IC get the condition from the same root causes.  Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine work by correcting imbalances in the body and reset the body to bring it back to health. I like to think of this as hitting the reset button. For the treatment of Interstitial Cystitis, acupuncture can reduce the pain, frequency and discomfort of urination, along with the stress that can come with it.
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Common imbalances for Interstitial Cystitis include qi weakness, qi stagnation (lack of circulation of qi), and heat. It is not uncommon for people to suffer from more than one of these imbalances and it is important to locate which imbalance is particular to your situation so as to better guide the course of treatment. This is why it is important during the initial visit, to take an in-depth history of your symptoms to get a clear picture of what you are experiencing.

Imbalances will correlate with specific symptoms. For example, people with qi weakness, or lack of energy, are often tired and have digestive problems. Those with qi weakness may experience frequent urination, urination at night, and a feeling of fullness in the abdomen. Qi stagnation is a lack of circulation of the energy and can cause pain, bloating, and muscle spasms. Heat in the body can cause dryness, burning urination, abnormal sweating, stiff joints, and headaches.

Other relevant symptoms when designing a specific and effective course of treatment for IC are muscle tightness in the pelvis, back, abdomen, and legs. This is where Dry Needling can be so effective. Trigger points in the gluteus maximus and medius, adductor magnus, and illopsoas, are taken into account because they can produce pain in the pelvic floor. Another common symptom of IC is sacro-iliac joint dysfunction, which can also be an important factor in treatment.

In Chinese Medicine, the element associated with the spring is wood.  Wood is known for its strength and flexibility, and is linked with the color green. The wood element represents growth and vibrancy. Think of new plants pushing up through the earth and baby sprouts in the garden. The opposing energy to the wood element is strident and forceful. If this energy is unbalanced in humans, frustration and anger may arise. However, if the energy is channeled properly, it is associated with benevolence and helping others. The wood element is linked to the wind (notice how windy its been in SF lately!) - reflecting the movement and change of the spring and the ability to burst through and overcome obstacles.

Remember that in every season food is medicine.
Eating fresh and in season produce at your local farmers market is ideal, with an emphasis on leafy greens, lettuces, sprouts, and live vital foods. These foods are associated with freshening, cleansing, and building the body. Eating more green foods increases the intake of chlorophyll into our systems and our blood. This is extremely beneficial in oxygenating and purifying our blood which reduces systemic inflammation. This can be accomplished by taking a supplement or simply by eating more green foods. 
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So let's celebrate this beautiful spring by embracing the wood element and its values! Here are some ideas for the transition:

• *Let Go! Leave behind resentment or frustrations and make a plan to start anew.
• *Make some noise! Anger is the emotion of the unbalanced wood element; when channeled properly, it can be a force for change and transformation.
• *Grow! Plant some seeds or starts to feel connected to nature's cycles. 
• *Choose! Make a plan and begin it. The wood element has strong creative energy so paths chosen at this time are more likely to manifest.
• *Cleanse! Make some dietary changes to support your liver and gallbladder, the wood element's organs. Add more leafy greens and drink more liquids to detoxify. 
• *Heal! Acupuncture treatments are a great way of moving stagnation both physically and emotionally. 

​It also means that partially broken down food isn't making it to your large intestine where they are feeding up dysbiotic (bad) bacteria.  If you are having gut issues, a good quality enzyme is really important, and you probably need it. The enzyme I like the best also has a few probiotics, which help acidify your large intestine. Take with every meal. 

The second product that I really like, and in a perfect world I would start all my patients on for a month before treatment is curcumin. It is a potent anti inflammatory- in the gut or otherwise. In Chinese Medicine we use curcumin for pain, abdominal pain, menstrual pain, and shoulder pain. Our product from Designs for Health is bioavailable and really effective. 

I think we can all agree we are ready to say goodbye to the shit show that was 2020. Goodbye sneaky rat, hello the hard working, dependable ox energy. The ox is a strong-willed animal and it is believed it values family and teamwork.  This is exactly the energy we need to rebuild and repair after a chaotic 2020.  The Ox gets things done but is also stubborn, slow and might be the best at communicating.  This means we'll all have to reach deep inside and find the patience and focus we need to persevere and get through the year. 

But you, dear reader, may not be playing with the same deck of cards they have. 

• Your ability to metabolize fats may not be the same as that ripped keto person. 
• You may be harboring infections in your gut that cause your cortisol to elevate at night and disrupt your sleep. 
• Maybe you feel terrible after you exercise and don't get that "elevated" feeling so many people speak of. 

As for "detox" programs- I can say that 70% of my patients are not in a physical position to handle any sort of "detox". A properly designed liver detox program will upregulate the functioning of both phase 1 and phase 2 liver pathways and is always the last step in any wellness program. Done too soon, on a body that is harboring latent infection, inflammation, high cortisol, poor sleep and it will make you feel worse, not better. 

We practice the Kalish Method of functional medicine. We test your Adrenal, GI, and Detox systems, and make a plan based on your personal circumstances. We correct the problems in the order that they occurred. We check to be sure that your endocrine system is balanced before we jump into a GI program, so that your body can maintain a balanced state on its own. We take the seemingly random chaos of symptoms and organize them into logical physiologic systems and address the problems systematically.  

Questions?  Book a complimentary consult with us, we're here t help!

​We know it is important that we be transparent about our choices. We realize that many people have concerns about the vaccine, so we want you to know how we made our decisions.

We, too, had concerns but we did our research and talked with each other and other health care providers. We weighed our concerns, our research, the enormous toll the pandemic is taking, and our commitment as healthcare practitioners to do no harm. We concluded that getting vaccinated as soon as we’re eligible is the right decision for us.  Here we are a few weeks later, feeling lucky to have gotten it. 
Jennifer and Elanita both received the Moderna vaccine and agree that the first dose was much easier to handle than the second dose.  While we experienced nausea, chills, mild fever, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, and fatigue about 12 hours after the second dose, symptoms had mostly resolved after 36-48 hours and we don't have one ounce of regret. We understood that our symptoms we're really side effects per say but an immune response which is what we wanted.