The analogy of the three-legged race is less about a race and more about team-work.
Because one of the fundamental aspects of an acupuncture appointment is the nursing advice your acupuncturist will give you. This advice will be based on Chinese Medicine principles and will be specifically tailored to your requirements, seasons, signs and symptoms.
This nursing advice will allow you:
to carry on your treatment between appointments,
give you a sense of ownership and active participation of your health and wellbeing
it will speed up treatment and healing
The practice of healing using natural foods has been used for 1,375 years, since it was noted in Recipes Worth a Thousand Gold when cardamom was noted to "cure heartburn and stomach, stop vomiting, and get rid of bad breath".
It is in fact now known that the active ingredients in cardamom oil contain antioxidant, anti-ulcer and hepatic (relates to the Liver) effects.
In acupuncture the organs are represented by specific flavours. Therefore, for example, bitter flavours will be useful for Heart conditions (the Heart and Fire element being specific to the energetics of the organ according to Traditional Chinese Medicine). Or indeed, the converse can be true.
If you experience cravings for certain types of flavours (sweet flavours for me) we might consider an imbalance in that element.
Similary we will look at your Chinese medicine patterns and consider whether the temperature of your food will need to change. If you predominantly feel cold, then we would suggest having warming foods and removing raw foods such as salads and smoothies from your diet. This would definitely be true depending on the season you are in.
It would be impossible to give tailored and individual advice for each person on this page, however I have included below some general guidelines that you can follow. These are based on Chinese nutrition therapy guidelines.
However if you did choose to work with me then this would be a big and important part of your treatment.
We would be a team, working together on your health. Below would be an example of the guidance I would give you including guidelines and recipes.
As always if you have any questions at all, please get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.
Love your fave acupuncturist
Ax