Pregnancy Acupuncture and Herbs: Help Prevent Gestational Diabetes

Help your body to prevent gestational diabetes. Acupuncture and herbs are incredibly customized ways to help your body be optimally healthy. This is especially important during pregnancy.

When you are pregnant your health impacts your future baby’s health. Supporting your body through this time is incredibly valuable to help support a child with a healthy life and to support you once you are in the intensive work of mothering.

In Chinese medicine the Spleen and Stomach, the organs most intertwined with metabolic health. With thousands of years of practice both needles of acupuncture and herbal medicine can support you.

Recent case studies in the clinic:

A patient in her second pregnancy was very near to a gestational diabetes diagnosis. Her blood glucose number was at the peak place before tipping into GD territory. She took this seriously and knew she had to pay close attention to her nutrition and movement. Additionally, she committed to weekly acupuncture. At home she used a glucometer to pay attention to how her sugars were after meals, if she needed an extra walk so should take it a the numbers would come down. Because she was using the biofeedback of the glucometer she saw that the day after acupuncture her numbers were always lower, her body was not on alert.

Another patient in her second pregnancy knew the drill. She got a gestational diabetes diagnosis in her first pregnancy, and was able to keep things at bay. We started our work together earlier in her first pregnancy, supporting the reduction of nausea throughout the first trimester. Then when the second trimester she told me she had GD in her first. We put her on a custom herbal formula to support her Spleen and Stomach. It also helped reduce the remaining cause and support her energy.

It is the greatest joy to support people to fell well AND test well. These diagnoses and conditions are not always preventable. In our medicine we are supporting your body towards its ability to heal optimally. No matter what the specific conditions we can alleviate symptomology and most often prevent things we don’t know are coming. It is always an incredible gift to prevent things we know there is risk for.

*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.*

Resources:

Lily Nichols everything - Real Food for Pregnancy

Acupuncture, a Poem

Among the personal objects inside a 2100-year-old Chinese tomb,

archaeologists found nine acupuncture needles,

four gold and five silver.

Long before knowing why,

ancient doctors knew that pain

must be fought with pain.

It’s quite simple: an array of needles pricking your arm

for a properly functioning heart and lungs.

Needles in the feet to ease insomnia and stress.

Needles between your eyes to fight infertility.

A little pain here,

and the effect is felt elsewhere

Once, a group of explorers set out to plant a flag on the South

      Pole,

a needle at the heel of the globe, in the middle of nowhere.

But before the mission was completed

a new world war had begun.

The impact of the needle was felt in the world’s brain,

in the lobe responsible for short-term memory.

When Russia used ideology as acupuncture—a needle over the

     Urals—

it impacted the pancreas and the control of blood sugar:

America paid tenfold for whiskey during Prohibition,

and at post offices, copies of Joyce’s

“immoral” Ulysses were stored for burning.

The universe functions as a single body. Stars form lines of

     needles

carefully pinned to a broad hairy back.

Their impact is felt in the digestive tract, each day

a new beginning. How can you begin a new day

not having fully absorbed yesterday’s protein?

I was a child when my first teacher

mispronounced my last name twice. That pricked me

      like a needle.

A small needle in the earlobe. And suddenly,

my vision cleared—

I saw poetry,

the perfect disguise.

---

"Acupuncture," by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Ani Gjika, from NEGATIVE SPACE, copyright ©2012, 2015 by Luljeta Lleshanaku. Translation copyright © 2018 by Ana Gjika. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

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Meet our team: Dr. Britt Peterson

Dr. Britt Peterson is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Doctor of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine. She specialized her doctorate in one of the most intricate and transitional parts of life: teen health. While teen health is often glossed over she has spent her time studying this group who could shift the trajectory of their relationships with their bodies and how to receive care in this potent age. As Britt has spent more time at the clinic, she has delved deeper into the teachings of our favorite wise woman, Raven Lang, providing deeper care to fertility, prenatal and postpartum patients. Britt is grounded, skilled and will take excellent care of you.

When she isn't practicing at Mitchell Family Acupuncture, she is teaching Pilates group classes and private sessions, riding her bike around town or exploring her surroundings. Britt is a lover of nature and beauty and brings so much to each treatment.

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What Britt is…

Watching: American Symphony, a deeply moving and inspiring story about love and resilience. A beautiful lesson about letting pain and hardship exist in the same space as joy and success. 

Listening: 28ish days later. Britt got me hooked on this podcast which interweaves great hormonal information on the cycle along with some fascinating historical storytelling. A must listen.

Reading: New Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way by Susan Weed. Menopause is a part of a woman's natural life cycle that could use more support. We have several patients in their mid-thirties to mid-fifties and beyond experiencing peri-menopausal symptoms with many questions and little answers from Western healthcare systems. This book is a great resource in preparation to embrace and even celebrate this chapter of life.

Keep up with Britt in the clinic by booking here on via her instagram

Come home to your body: Acupuncture for Spring

Each season tells a different story. We are here to remind you: you are one with nature. You can learn about this connection through ancient wisdom like the Tao Te Ching, or hear about it from your acupuncturist. But the most natural and accessible way to reconnect is simply to step outside. Breathe the Spring air, feel the soft earth beneath your feet, and allow yourself to be present. This sounds cliché but one of the truest ways to connect is to bring your presence.

Don't be fooled by spring's sunshine and blossoming flowers - Spring does the enormity of the work that we love the Summer season for. It thaws winter. Spring is about movement, inspiration, transformation. It helps us to ground into our generous hearts and create fluidity in our body. It reminds us that, if we rested and nourished ourselves through the Winter that the stillness was beneficial. That now is the time to move forward.

The physical body may express dissatisfaction this time of year with symptoms like

• stress - acupuncture can help calm the central nervous system and provide grounded relaxation

• irritability - smoothing the Liver helps to ease irritability and promote presence and satisfaction, more energy and vitality

• eye symptoms - clearing heat and promoting Liver health, eye symptoms can be alleviated with acupuncture and herbs

• slow digestion - this is a time of year to detox! Our Livers are so burdened that this time of year slow digestion reigns, come get support with acupuncture and herbs.

• menstrual symptoms - the Liver organ system is one of the primary guides of the menstrual cycle. Things can get whacky, come get regulated with acupuncture and herbs

• insomnia - the spirit of the Liver, the Hun is said to leave the body when we sleep to dream. In order to dream and sleep restfully we must have enough Liver blood and stores for this to work well. Acupuncture, herbs and nutrition help bring this system into balance.

• tight tendons and sinews - the Liver (and Gallbladder) are the primary organs of the Spring season and control the tendons and sinews. This often means they tighten up. Release, let go, soften by nourishing your body with acupuncture.

We recommend you come in for acupuncture treatment at minimum once per season. Acupuncture is one of the most beneficial ways to reconnect yourself to nature. You can plug into the cosmos and let your body heal with the energies available to you. The herbs that are flying off the shelves right now help to improve quality of sleep, reduce tension in your body and improved menstrual cycles. Schedule an appointment today and let us help your body blossom this spring!